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George Takei Fears NSA Spying Will Lead to Something Much Worse
New York Magazine ^ | 6/11/2013 | Jamie Sharpe

Posted on 06/11/2013 11:02:21 AM PDT by nickcarraway

George Takei is hardly the only American concerned about the NSA's massive surveillance programs. But unlike most people, his fears are rooted in the memory of the government persecution he suffered firsthand in a Japanese internment camp.

"Due process is a pillar of our American justice system," the Star Trek star told Daily Intelligencer last night at the Eighth Annual Stella by Starlight Benefit Gala. "We were rounded up simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. And we were put in prison camps with barbed wire and machine guns pointed at us. It was a horrific violation of our Constitution."

Because of that experience, Takei is particularly wary of the government's powers being abused. "We know where this can go," he said. "We have to be ever vigilant against overstepping of the fundamental ideals of our democracy."

Takei understands that President Obama "is a person who has to deal with a lot of issues." But on the NSA spying programs, he says, "I don't agree."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: bhonsa; georgetakei; nsa; policestate; prism; russia; scottbrunton; stephencolbert; takei
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To: LS

That said, the bunch currently in charge makes FDR look like Barry Goldwater.


You got that right. And the current crowd would make Hitler or Stalin look like Boy Scouts if they’re allowed to. Obama and his minions are as evil as they get.


41 posted on 06/11/2013 11:40:56 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it. Their minds have been stolen.)
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To: chrisinoc; familyop

Given your personal experience would you agree that only those with associations with Japanese officials were placed in Internment camps? I somehow thought entire families were.


42 posted on 06/11/2013 11:41:54 AM PDT by ladyjane (For the first time in my life I am not proud of my country.)
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To: nickcarraway

A little off topic, but I have been seeing some strange divisions on this subject. It does not break down on liberal conservative lines.

There are liberals (and self proclaimed) conservatives supporting Obama on spying on American citizens and there are liberals and conservative opposing it.

I am wondering if Hell has frozen over since I am on the same side as Michael Moore on this.


43 posted on 06/11/2013 11:41:59 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (California does not have a money problem, it has a spending problem.)
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To: Ken H

That’s how they were able to identify them. I’m not saying it was right, but I’m not exactly saying it was wrong either. There were actual Japanese spies and sabateurs at the time, so instead of waiting for them to strike, the government used a broad-axe approach and just rounded them all up. What people today don’t realize, for the most part, is that there was an actual danger of losing to the Japanese. For a long time we were losing every battle, and the Japanese at the time were not exactly benevolent conquerers. So maybe that justifies a little over reaction. They were certainly treated better than they treated our prisoners.


44 posted on 06/11/2013 11:42:53 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The only thing the Left has learned from the failures of socialism is not to call it that)
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Comment #45 Removed by Moderator

Comment #46 Removed by Moderator

To: F15Eagle

47 posted on 06/11/2013 11:49:42 AM PDT by Slyfox (Without the Right to Life, all other rights are meaningless.)
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To: CIB-173RDABN

I am wondering if Hell has frozen over since I am on the same side as Michael Moore on this.


Me, too - not on MMs side - what side is he on? - but Megyn Kelly isn’t on my side, the co-founder of Home Depot is, but I also believe this is a CIA hit on poshitus, so I can’t be grouped correctly.


48 posted on 06/11/2013 11:50:34 AM PDT by txhurl (RNC 'voter suppression': attempting to limit each voter to ONE vote!)
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To: Jim from C-Town

So what?
He posts some really funny stuff and his cameos on Big Bang Theory are hysterical.


49 posted on 06/11/2013 11:52:03 AM PDT by svcw (If you are dead when your heart stops, why aren't you alive when it starts.)
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To: nickcarraway

The internment camps will not be for anyone of any specific ethnicity, except that whites will be “over-represented”.

This crowd would like nothing more than to go full on holocaust on white Christians in this country.


50 posted on 06/11/2013 11:53:02 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: ladyjane

Entire families ...


51 posted on 06/11/2013 11:53:34 AM PDT by svcw (If you are dead when your heart stops, why aren't you alive when it starts.)
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To: ladyjane

Americans of Japanese ancestry and Japanese legal aliens living on the US West Coast and Alaska had to leave their areas or be interned. If you lived outside those areas you were not likely to be interned (like my aunt).

If you were thought to be a “leader” you were likely to have been interned right after Pearl Harbor. My grandfather (served one year as a school trustee) was put into solitary confinement for a year at Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota.

My parents did not like the camps (who would?) but they had one advantage: plenty of meat and sugar, a scarcity in WW2.


52 posted on 06/11/2013 11:54:48 AM PDT by chrisinoc
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To: nickcarraway

Interesting perspective on data gathering. No one can convince me the information being gleaned won’t be used on Obama’s political enemies. Portions of it... especially on political candidates.. will end up in the hands of the DNC.


53 posted on 06/11/2013 11:58:04 AM PDT by ScottinVA ( Liberal is to patriotism as Kermit Gosnell is to neonatal care.)
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To: nickcarraway; Ezekiel
George Takei Fears NSA Spying Will Lead to Something Much Worse

NSA meeting, What about Hong Kong?

54 posted on 06/11/2013 11:58:40 AM PDT by Jeremiah Jr (EL CHaY)
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To: CIB-173RDABN
A little off topic, but I have been seeing some strange divisions on this subject. It does not break down on liberal conservative lines.
There are liberals (and self proclaimed) conservatives supporting Obama on spying on American citizens and there are liberals and conservative opposing it.
I am wondering if Hell has frozen over since I am on the same side as Michael Moore on this.

It doesn't break down on 'liberal'/'conservative' lines because those two labels are so tainted, muddled, and ambiguous [mutually exclusive definitions of the words] that they have nearly lost all meaning. What you are seeing would be better described as a limited vs. unlimited government, or statism vs constitutionalism — unfortunately some [many?] have been brainwashed to equate a weak federal power with a weak [national-]defense; nothing could be further from the truth: our security should not [and logistically cannot] stem from government might, but must flow from the citizen. That is the reason for the 2nd Amendment:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
As you can see, security [of a free state] is founded/nourished/attained by its people having the free/unabridged ownership and usage of weapons. This is not to say that murder is a-ok as long as you use a weapon; but that such is properly viewed as murder and the circumstance of being armed or unarmed is utterly irrelevant to that fact, the same with robbery or commission of any other felony.
55 posted on 06/11/2013 12:00:22 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: nickcarraway

56 posted on 06/11/2013 12:00:53 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: Obadiah
In 1988, Ronald Reagan signed legislation that apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”.

FDR was horribly racist and antisemitic, not surprised.

57 posted on 06/11/2013 12:10:59 PM PDT by Paradox (Unexpected things coming for the next few years.)
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To: svcw

So nothing. Just like to put the entire Homosexual agenda into context.

there aren’t that many homosexuals, even in an open society like ours.

BTW. I like George, he is a funny guy and seems like a nice person. However, he is still a sexual degenerate whom I wouldn’t trust to care for my sons, pubescent or otherwise.


58 posted on 06/11/2013 12:11:23 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Puppage

I suggest you use imgur.com


59 posted on 06/11/2013 12:32:31 PM PDT by Gunslingr3
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To: chrisinoc
There were two types of camps often co-located. Internment camps were for Japanese citizens and persons of dual citizenship (Japanese-American) who refused to take an oath of loyalty to the United States. They were interned under the Rules of War and were expatriated to Japan at the end of the war. U.S. citizens of Japanese descent who were living in the exclusion zone (California, western Washington and Oregon and southern Arizona) were forcibly relocated to relocation centers or camps. The purpose of the mass relocation was to deny cover to Japanese saboteurs who would be smuggled by submarine to the Pacific coast and the Gulf of California. We had intercepted coded messages to that effect. There was no evidence of any collaboration by any U.S. citizen. The Supreme Court upheld the relocation as a legitimate wartime measure. Reparations were paid to living persons who personally suffered the loss of property and livelihood and temporary freedom.

George Takei and others continue to harp on the subject in order to assert some form of victim hood. The Japanese government is happy to promote the Japanese as historic victims of Western racists in order to cover up the atrocities they inflicted upon their Asian neighbors. Whereas Germany conducted a denazification program and admit their history, the Japanese to this day admit to doing no wrong. Their leaders continue to honor their war dead, including convicted and executed war criminals.

60 posted on 06/11/2013 12:39:56 PM PDT by Procyon (Decentralize, degovernmentalize, deregulate, demonopolize, decredentialize, disentitle.)
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