Sure, you have nothing to hide. That's what people say... Rush Limbaugh, that fat anal cyst infected bag of bile and pus has been a big supporter of Bush's illegal spying...but can't handle it when it comes out that he has been using penis pills? Says he won't travel because someone is "out to get him?" The danger is not in the spying, the danger is in data collection, and future administrations who have that personal sensitive data, that can later be used for political purposes that don't serve national security, but rather serve a selfish personal end. Everybody, everybody has secrets, and when the government has those secrets, you never know who might get access to them and use them against us... The founders didn't trust the nature of and power of government to be anything but transparent and balanced between the various powers, as they knew human nature very well.
"If a consensus of the majority is all it takes to determine what is right, then having and controlling information becomes extraordinarily important"--Masamune Shirow
It starts with data collection and ends with National ID cards and implanted RFID chips in every citizen..... but then again.. you know what..... I really don't mind having an RFID chip implanted in my arm because...."I have nothing to hide"..... :eek:
But it's <i>for the children!</i> From the Washington Post: "In March, the House passed the <b>Children's</b> Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act. Under the broad-ranging bill, DNA profiles provided voluntarily, for example, in a dragnet, would for the first time become a permanent part of the national database. People arrested would lose the right to expunge their samples if they were exonerated or charges were dropped. And the government could take DNA from citizens not arrested but simply detained." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201648_pf.html
There has never been a time in human history when newly available technologiies did not find a reason to be utilized by the extant power structures to enhance their power bases. There never will be.
Orwell knew the answer. From 1984: 'You understand well enough ~how~ the party maintains itself in power. Now tell me ~why~ we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power? Go on, speak,' he added as Winston remained silent. [...] Nevertheless Winston did not speak for another moment or two. [...] 'You are ruling over us for our own good,' he said feebly. 'You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore - He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O'Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five. 'That was stupid, Winston, stupid!' he said. 'You should know better than to say a thing like that.' He pulled the lever back and continued: 'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. <b>The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.</b> What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. <b>The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?'</b>
For those with 'nothing to hide': If I were to scan through your life with a fine tooth comb, I would certainly find numerous misdemeanor offences, and probably a few felonies as well. There are so many 'victimless crime' laws, it's just impossible to live without breaking a few of them.
They hate us for our freedoms, right? Bush and the Pabsts of the world are actually protecting America by eliminating terrorists' reasons to hate us - one freedom at a time.