The ACLU’s Glaring Hypocrisy on Privacy Issues
The American Civil Liberties Union prides itself on defending privacy rights as a pet cause. However, as with most ACLU causes, but for double standards they haven’t any standards at all.
There are numerous examples, and most show the ACLU only defends privacy when it is convenient for their agenda. They dove in headfirst to defend “innocent Americans” against the NSA tapping overseas phone conversations with suspected terror connections. However, when it came to fundraising, all concerns for privacy went out the window. In 2006, the ACLU created a massive database of its own members’ financial information.
There are many examples of the ACLU’s hypocrisy regarding personal privacy. For instance, they notoriously defend the privacy rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. But when it comes to American citizens doing their duty of interrogating jihadists, they hired researchers to take illegal photos of CIA operatives’ “private affairs” to identify them to detainees. Not only did this violate American citizens’ rights, it also put them in danger as the ACLU managed to free some of these prisoners of war.
The White House is quietly working on laws to gain access to the content held on a person’s private hard drive. The Obama administration is tight-lipped on the details, but no alarms are going off at the ACLU.
Even more chilling is the White House’s attempt to collect information on their political adversaries. In early August, they set up a system asking the public to snitch on their fellow citizens by sending an email to White House staffers informing them of other Americans that oppose Obama’s health care plan. One can easily imagine the outcry we would have heard if such an intrusive program had been implemented during the Bush administration.
The ACLU remained silent again.
We wondered if the ACLU was disturbed by this obvious invasion of citizen privacy, so we wrote them a letter:
Will the ACLU now stand up for this program, which is directly against the meaning of the free speech and protest portions of the First Amendment, which is to be able to criticize the government without fear of reprisal?
We received an automated response asking for a donation.
Perhaps the ACLU should investigate why the Obamanation is HIDING so many documents and information about his life too. We need the ‘WON’ to PROVE he is transparent and open as he promised himself to be. Some hope I know but the more often its pointed out the more likely the Obamanuts will open their eyes and see they have been duped by a LIAR.
The ACLU is an anarchistic organization with a self serving record of civil liberties “protection”. They are anti firearm rights even though individuals exercising 2nd Amendment rights have been recognized as a protected class by the Supereme Court. They believe in defending NAMBLA and the predatory behavior of it’s members as they pursue sexual relations with minor boys.
That’s all you need to know about this “civil liberties” defender.
A “selective belief” in Civil Liberties is no belief at all.
The ACLU defends the rights of the people, not the rights of government functionaries. There is nothing selective about the support for civil liberties offered by the ACLU.
Detainees who have had their rights denied need the ACLU to help defend their rights under the constitution. Government agents already have the power of the government behind them – there is no need for the ACLU to defend them, because they are authorized agents of the state, and are not being prevented from exercising their civil liberties.
The ACLU is currently working on collecting information on the torture and illegal detention of persons under CIA and other programs. The persistent efforts of the ACLU have helped to make clear the depth and extent of illegal activity perpetrated by the previous administration, and may well lead to prosecution of administration apologists who issued legal opinions to authorize plainly unconstitutional activities.
Peace,
DS
The ACLU defends the rights of the people, not the rights of government functionaries. There is nothing selective about the support for civil liberties offered by the ACLU.
Detainees who have had their rights denied need the ACLU to help defend their rights under the constitution. Government agents already have the power of the government behind them – there is no need for the ACLU to defend them, because they are authorized agents of the state, and are not being prevented from exercising their civil liberties.
The ACLU is currently working on collecting information on the torture and illegal detention of persons under CIA and other programs. The persistent efforts of the ACLU have helped to make clear the depth and extent of illegal activity perpetrated by the previous administration, and may well lead to prosecution of administration apologists who issued legal opinions to authorize plainly unconstitutional activities.
Peace,
DS
Isn’t this common knowledge? The ACLU only speaks up for worthy issues such as homosexual pediphiles, access to porn on public libraries and anything anti-christian. The article isnt very revealing… what would be more interesting is to know what kind of lunatics would support such an organization with a donation.
the ACLU is a criminal organiisation like the democrat party and the whitehouse.
this group and others are part of the marxist/left/liberal fabric that is suffocating the USA
3. Ed Wallis:
“A “selective belief” in Civil Liberties is no belief at all.”
I agree, and so do the people reading your emails and tapping your phone and scouring your library records and monitoring your internet use.
Hypocrisy? Yes. ACLU? Not so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKV_JswtO58
Do not FEED the TROLLS
by engaging and responding you give them a creedance they do not deserve. they are part of the marxist fabric that is bent on pushing the liberal aganeda on others. Their arguments are dishonest.
here is a short video clip …it highlights how marxism has been using education to spread their ideology in north america
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTmbcyeZ9ic&feature=related
it is all in this short clip ..why trolls, or most democrats keep using the same arguments regardless of what they are shown.
How do these people stay active? Are we paying their salaries? I know there is a conservative equivilent (privately funded, of course) but I rarely hear of them.
David S believes that “government functionaries” are not “people.” They are. They are American citizens with constitutional rights.
Detainees are NOT American citizens and have NO constitutional rights granted to protect. Perhaps they have international rights of some vague kind, most of which they have forfeited by not abiding by the guidelines required to have those rights protected. They don’t follow the Geneva Conventions then they are not protected by it.
Peace, Jay
I have long held that the ACLU has a narrow focus of “civil liberties”. I will believe that the ACLU stands for civil liberties when they litigate for the rights of law-abiding firearms owners, instead of maligning the Boy Scouts of America.
13. Arroyo:
” I will believe that the ACLU stands for civil liberties when they litigate for the rights of law-abiding firearms owners, instead of maligning the Boy Scouts of America.”
How about when they stand up for Sean Hannity?
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158
First, you idiot. The ACLU doesn’t work for you, nor are they required to jump at their own shadow just because you do. If the ACLU was as hungry for money as you make them seem, they’d be all over the White House email issue that you people have literally created out of thin air. The problem is, its fictional.
As for this:
The White House is quietly working on laws to gain access to the content held on a person’s private hard drive. The Obama administration is tight-lipped on the details, but no alarms are going off at the ACLU.
http://nicedoggie.net/index.php/archives/2494
Here is your source for this:
The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content held on a person’s hard drive.
President Obama’s administration is keeping unusually tight-lipped on the details, which is raising concerns among computer users and liberty activists.
The only piece of journalism I’ve ever seen worse this, is this very article.
What startles me is that all of these made up paranoid fantasies would be rather mild if they were true, but we know by the government’s own admission that it broke the law by spying on its own “innocent citizens”. Yeah, the government put that in quotes too, which is why the ACLU protected your right to not be spied on just because you were caling Aunt Helga in Zurich.
God, your like children.
Nice to see the trolls defending the organization founded by a Communist to (somewhat) covertly promote Communism in America.
Just sayin’….
The biggest problem with your creation of a White House appeasing ACLU, is the fact that Obama’s biggest headache before the Health Care Issue this year was brought on by an ACLU lawsuit, the torture photos. Despite the fact that the Obama administration was ordered by the court to release those photos, Obama has yet to. The ACLU has never let up. Your a disgrace.
Nice to see the trolls defending the organization founded by a Communist to (somewhat) covertly promote Communism in America.
And America was founded by slave holders. You know that, right?
The ACLU is also silent on one of the biggest violations of privacy: the income tax. If government wanted to collect information on our reading habits, would the ACLU reamin silent? What is it about MONEY that renders the ACLU indifferent to such gross intrusions into our personal privacy?
MOHO….. First one to call names is the “idiot” Thank you Moho for your quick action…… The United States was founded by some incredibly courageous people who put their lives and fortunes and integrity on the line. Not one of them faltered, slavery was legal then and you know it, you neglect to mention many of them also freed their slaves. And slavery came in all colors back then, some blacks actually owned white slaves. Talk about trolls, only one troll here and we all know who that is…….. Communism enslaves body, mind, and soul, ACLU cares only for it’s narrow agenda, any thinking intelligent person can easily see that. Try being a white Christian male heterosexual and ask the ACLU for help in a legal matter as I did once and they will actually show you the door saying “we are not interested in cases that we can’t use to set a legal precedent.”
The thing I can’t understand is that we are subjected to unwarrented, illegal search at the airport and the abuse that the TSA gives while our government is sympathetic to people who are the scum of the earth and trying to kill us. These people have no rigts as they are not citizens of this country and no other country will claim them. Thus no laws apply.
Carlos. I don’t subscribe to your point of view. I think you idiots proliferated for so long exactly because no one would call you out for what you were. Eight years of media accepting moronic explanations, excuses and conspiracy theories as the “other half” of a debate, rather than exposing them for the child-like musings of politicians, seeking to manipulate the bigoted and simple-minded. The New York Times had it right yesterday in their editorial–
Mr. Frank could have been more civil. …But it was certainly refreshing to hear him try to jolly or shame his audience into a serious debate, asking, “Which one of you wants to yell next?”
If only similar backbone were shown by politicians like Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican principal in the Senate’s Gang of Six health care negotiations. Instead of helping to educate his constituents or move the debate ahead, he provided more red meat for fulminators, erroneously insisting that the rival House health care bill features “a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.”
You fungal growths have been fermenting in the shadows of our public sphere for too long. I, for one, consider it my patriotic duty to call you idiots out for it.
Looks to me like the ACLU is finally exposing what it really is and has been all along. A covert communist organization.
@5
“The ACLU defends the rights of the people”
ROFLMAO
So, what makes you keep going back to drink the wee wee?
Regarding your request to the ACLU: don’t hold your breath waiting for a response. The ACLU has a refined appreciation of American civil rights; basically, American are not allowed to practice self defense unless unarmed, and for the ACLU the second amendment doesn’t exist, except insofar as to redundantly authorize the state to arm select citizens. Thus, the ACLU has never taken California to court for discriminating against (denying) citizens who are not celebrities or VIPs concealed weapons permits, but the ACLU will file suit in a heart beat, if, for example, a cross or other religious symbol should be sited on city or state property. The ACLU will file suit on any obstacle to the right to abortion on the innocent–a right, unlike the second amendment, discovered and constructed after almost two centuries of looking for it by judges–and in the meantime the ACLU will make sure a speedy trial and execution of the guilty is impossible by promoting the obstacle of endless due process. It’s quite obvious that the ACLU is on the side of the culprit rather than the victim.
The ACLU defends the rights of terrorist, child molesters, and commies like MOHO.
Since the ACLU was founded by a devout Communist wanting to use his organization to undermine the liberty of the United States, the ACLU is performing its job of trying to subvert America.
MOHO… You have never met me, know nothing about me or what I think or stand for and believe in, you no nothing about my education or life experience, yet you make all sorts of false statements as if they are fact, and yet you have the uneducated audacity to call others idiots. I feel sorry for you, obviously you just like to see in print the sounds the voices in your head make.
“The ACLU doesn’t work for you”
DUH! Please don’t remind this American of such a fact. Being white in America these days thanks to liberal groups such the ACLU almost makes one feel guilty for not being able to have selected the race of one’s parents prior to being conceived. Then I remember the agenda of these groups and the guilt goes away and the worry for America sets in.
If you’re a Christian of any color forget about the ACLU for they become the Against Christian Living Union (Merry Christmas in advance). White or Hispanic firefighters that try to advance in the workplace should only take required test if they swear to not apply themselves. Do so and the ACLU will be disappointed as they were with the Supreme Court case that overturned the ruling that denied these firemen their promotions.
The ACLU is an oxymoron. They don’t represent all Americans equally thus denying those Americans of civil liberties that they claim to defend. In my opinion the ACLU is nothing more than a legal arm to the left that’s ever so happy to threaten law suits if you don’t bend to their will.
Tax dollars truly wasted a majority of the time. Tort reform is an evil word to the left in their hypocrisy of caring for the well-being of Americans.
The ACLU is not so much a group of lawyers, but an extortion group that misuses the law.