[Jill]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

When we look at what the people need to know about what the government is up to, there are a number of different perspectives, and they certainly don't all have the same answer.

Surely anyone can understand that if a government has charged the military or some other agency to deal with a certain individual, it's not going to be helpful if everyone in the country knows what's going on, therefore the people find out after the fact and then wonder why they weren't consulted.

The purpose of having a democratically elected government is so that every person has the right to have a say in who represents their own personal views in government because we all understand that if every decision had to be made with the approval of every person, we'd never get anywhere.

So, you vote for your representative and trust that they're going to make the right decisions on your behalf. If you're not happy with it, you don't vote for them again.

If you don't vote, IMO, you shouldn't have a right to complain either way.

I primarily agree with this. We don't need to know everything there is to know about covert operations. There's a reason those operations are "covert" in the first place.

But when your government has lied the country into war, has committed acts of torture, has exposed the identity of a CIA agent to further their political agenda, among other unnecessary lies and deceptions, it should be no wonder that when those who are angered by that behavior from our government, learn of a "secret" group who are charged with sneaking into other countries and killing people at the sole bequest of the Vice-President (which is what was apparently known at the time), that we would characterize them as "assassins".

Under a different government that has no known history of lying us into a war, risking people's lives to cover their own political asses, or torturing prisoners, when we learn of a covert operation to take out the Most Wanted Man in the world, we're less likely to first presume the worst.

This is a concept that Mercenary doesn't seem to grasp. But the American public grasped it handily in 2008 and voted the Party of Lies & Torture out on their asses. As you correctly point out, that is our primary remedy under our current form of government.

I part ways slightly with you on the contention that if you don't vote you can't complain. My husband is a resident alien, and as such, he's not allowed to vote. But what our government does or doesn't do still affects him as much as it does you or me. The same could be said of teens who haven't reached voting age yet. I don't think they shouldn't be allowed to complain.

Originally Posted by Fair&Balanced

For the record, I dont think the Tea Party is a racist organization.

But simply that your videos of the Muslim Student Association are highly selective.

Religious organizations on college campuses attract a wide range of people, from those who want social connections to those who want to promote a radical agenda.

A Catholic student suggesting that doctors who perform legal abortions should be tried as murderers does not reflect the mission of a Newman Center or Catholic Students Association any more than selected extremists Muslims reflect the mission of the Muslim Students Association.

It should tell you something that you have to literally draw this man a picture in order to try to get him to understand what should have been clear with your first post. It tells me all I need to know, that even with this further illustration of your well-made point, his response is to cuss at you, too.