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In the particular case of Anthony Weiner, it is known that conservative activists created fake profiles of young women to try to seduce Weiner (premeditated revenge porn). We don't know if the actual leaks came from such sources. But whether it's just plain revenge porn or premeditated revenge porn it's far worse than sexting and the people who leaked Weiner's photos are horrible people.

I think that cat is already out of the bag.

Would you be surprised to learn that Australia is monitoring internet activity in other countries? I bet you $10 they do.

It would piss me off to learn that the NSA was reading our hot daily sexts, but does that potential for abuse mean they shouldn't be able to check out what Kim Jong Un is doing in NK, or check up on unstable regions with nuclear capabilities?

What do you think?

"I believe wiretaps are an important tool for law enforcement/counter terrorism..."

This is not Counter Terrorism, this is simply terrorism. Do I have to remind you of how COINTELPRO was used over 4 administrations to intimidate and assassinate those who fought for social justice?

"Contrary to media hysteria, Obama can't listen in on your phone calls or read your sexts without a court order."

A court order doesn't stop them, they don't listen to the courts. They use them to cover their ass but if they think my friends are organizing to protest they can read all about it in our emails and take steps to have the FBI Focus a crackdown on us. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy

Now on to your direct questions.
"Do you all think that surveillance should be a legal tool in criminal investigations?"

Yes, but the government has never been interested in counter terrorism being called or assessed as a criminal act. When we started the War in Afghanistan it was to get Osama Bin Laden and we ordered them to give him up. They asked rightly for the evidence against him. We decided that it didn't matter, let's fucking kill as many people as possible and destabilize the region to get this guy, risking the deaths of up to 4 million people and increasing the threat of terror. The worst part is WE KNEW we were increasing the threat of terror, we did it anyway.

This is just one example there are countless others, even a worse one by Obama himself, it's a travesty. So no this isn't about Criminal Investigation, we have NEVER been interested in that.

"If yes, what changes do we make to current policy without rendering surveillance toothless?"

We address legitimate grievances with the nations and peoples we are wronging, and fall in line with international law. We increase terrorism on ourselves by our actions.

I've got tons more but this is getting long. The point is I'm not going to give this government anything. I'm not willing to, they've proven that they cannot have any sort of power whatsoever.

You specifically need to read up on some things because apparently you woke up today and believed you were dealing with rational people who are just trying to protect us. You're not, these guys don't work for us, they hate us.

@enoch @Fletch @Yogi

I've done a complete turn around on this issue for sure. After doing some reading, I believe this to be much ado about nothing. I know I'm taking an extremely unpopular position here, siding against the left, the right, the media and videosift, essentially siding up with Obama and David Simon. Taking an unpopular position has never stopped me before. /vanity

I believe wiretaps are an important tool for law enforcement/counter terrorism, but only if there are proper checks and balances in place to make sure that these searches are constitutionally 'reasonable' and not a means of abuse.

Contrary to media hysteria, Obama can't listen in on your phone calls or read your sexts without a court order. That warrant has been the go to check and balance for decades, I don't see why it shouldn't be sufficient today.

BUT IT'S ALL DONE IN SECRECY. Yeah, that's kind of the point of a wiretap.

BUT WHAT IF THIS POWER IS ABUSED? Then we need to reassess checks, balances, oversight, etc...

My questiosn to you:

Do you all think that surveillance should be a legal tool in criminal investigations?

If yes, what changes do we make to current policy without rendering surveillance toothless?

I'm open to any arguments you want to pose or any reading material you want to share. Am I missing something here? Change my mind.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Jimmy Kimmel Live, texting, sexting, naked' to 'Jimmy Kimmel Live, Pedestrian Question, texting, sexting, naked, photo' - edited by calvados

Finally, a little perspective. I feel like CNN was really just trying to emphasize that this isn't some bullshit punishment. These kids got their asses handed to them. They're fucked. I think this was in direct response to the understandable concerns that they wouldn't be.

This brings up a bigger question, which is "why don't more of these cases end this way?" My argument would be because the legal consequence of sexually related crime is too severe. It often has the effect of making the judge or jury uncomfortable levying that punishment in light of the specific facts of the case, and thus acquit the rapists to avoid destroying their life completely. It even probably dissuades many victims from levying accusations in the first place. If there were more graded punishments as there are in many other developed nations, we might find charges and convictions more common.

The registered sex offender thing is just one example. I remember that one case of a girl getting charged with distributing child pornography for sexting her boyfriend. Now she has to tell her neighbors she's a sex offender. It's all about politics, not justice.

Swing on it.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Anthony Weiner, Twitter, Sext, Rachel Maddow, Republicans, Democrats, Cenk, Uygur' to 'Anthony Weiner, Twitter, Sext, Rachel Maddow, Republicans, Democrats, Cenk Uygur' - edited by xxovercastxx

Even I feel bad for Weiner, but only cause he couldn't get no play from a "former" pr0n star. Each time he sent a salacious 'sext' she "steered the conversation" back. Back to WHAT? Farm subsidies?

I think we've found our target audience...

>> ^quantumushroom:

I'd rather have 100 Weiners sexting about than suffer listening to that despicable idiot crone (and crony capitalist).

I'd rather have 100 Weiners sexting about than suffer listening to that despicable idiot crone (and crony capitalist).

lantern53,

I agree with you to some degree up to a point. He could have forwarded it to Weiner to let Weiner handle it as he would have liked to handle it. The family values thing to do would have probably been to discuss it with Ensign and encourage him to resign and focus on his family.

But here's where it falls apart for Santorum - he seems perfectly fine with calling for Weiner to resign publicly when it's a Democratic Senator. Seems to make a point of making sure he gets on the record for them. When it's a Republican? Not so much. That's hypocrisy. And let's be clear about this, too. Weiner sexted some people, that's all we know. Ensign had an actual affair with his wife's best friend. And he calls for Weiner to resign?! Santorum needs to mind his own business.

Personally, my thoughts are I don't care what Congressmen do in their own time so long as its legal and doesn't impact their ability to do their jobs well. I don't understand why anyone is calling for Congressmen to resign strictly due to affairs. It's ridiculous. Bill Clinton should have been impeached because he lied about his affair under oath. That I agree with. Ensign should have resigned because of the ethics violation related to the affair. That I agree with. Weiner sent some dirty pictures to porn stars? Who cares. Is he doing his job well and ethically? That's all I care about. He'll pay for the sexting in his relationship with his wife.

Isn't it possible that Santorum sent the email with the purpose of "is this true?"

what was the message sent with the email?

Weiner, on the other hand, lied for over a week about his sexting with porn stars and college students

the R senator came right out and resigned

Maddow seems as obnoxious as Weiner

Is there someplace we can go to show support for Weiner? I sent him an email saying don't resign, I promise to send you a donation for your relection campaign, but I doubt he'll see it.

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
In reply to this comment by bareboards2:
*promote @Duncan, you are absolutely right.

Thanks hon! Only just grasped the reason you promoted, what a muppet thing to do! It does crack me up the irony of Weiner's weiner being his downfall, though I really don't think it should be. Humans sitting in judgement of humans, is it ever just, haha