For Americans: How would you react if president Bush would ask Yahoo to give IP of "bad" answerers about him?

Question

I mean for bringing them to trial.

I am from one European country where one very influential politician started similar efforts asking local forum site. His name related with different scandals during last years. I give the name of Bush only as example in my answer - because I saw also many critical and even rude things in different forums about him.

It is interesting for me info about similar cases in USA.
I read also an interesting opinion in a local forum that might be a precedent should be created for another politician of a powerful nation could start similar things without being first. Maybe we do not know simply about other firsts?

This question inspired by actions of this politician: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/13207

Example of "bad" info: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Zuokas

For scruffycat: it is a leader of liberal party in our case... :-(

Answer 1

How lame...only John Kerry would want to prosecute people for that the tyrant.

Answer 2

It's freedom of speech. All presidents, past and present, know they will be hated and ill-spoken of by all the folks who didn't vote for him. It's a given. No need to "spy" and try to figure out what others are saying. Come on! All you have to do is tune in to a liberal radio show and Bada Bing! There's all the negative stuff about Bush. While Clinton was pres, it was the same thing, only from the Conservative radio shows.
It's not a big deal and it's incredibly easy to figure out what folks think of you, if you're president.

Answer 3

This is the land of freedom and our my ancestor fought for the right of people to voice their opinion about other people, even politicans. If you have seen any programs "saturday night live" you would see that all the presidents have been made fun of and I voted for prez Bush. But I think its funny and laugh when they make fun of him on Saturday night live. We also fought for the freedom of religion. A lot of people do not understand that it means any one can come in and practice their religion aslong as it does not break any of the laws. Like muder, rape, child molestation, and things along that line. But there is a religious faction in the US under the disquise of freedom of religion who would have us all one religion and it being theirs or have us dead. That is not what our country was about and why it was founded and why we fought to get away from the oppression of Great Britain.

You can make fun of who ever you want and even say bad things about Jesus. People may not like it but it's your right in this country. No other country has been able to duplicate it no matter how hard they tried. Basically they can not because of the way people are brought up to believe. There are many contries where people are not allowed to become citizens or go in and buy land and go in and start businesses or even go in and extablish a Chritian church. Yet those people come to the US and expect to be able to do all those things without problem. I ran out of room to type. Thank you.

Answer 4

Bush?

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed
The weapons you are looking for are currently unavailable. The country might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons inspectors mandate.

Please try the following:

* Click the refresh.gif (82 bytes) Regime change button, or try again later.
* If you are George Bush and typed the country's name in the address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly. (IRAQ).
* To check your weapons inspector settings, click the UN menu, and then click Weapons Inspector Options. On the Security Council tab, click Consensus. The settings should match those provided by your government or NATO.
* If the Security Council has enabled it, The United States of America can examine your country and automatically discover Weapons of Mass Destruction.
If you would like to use the CIA to try and discover them,
click Detect Settings Detect weapons
* Some countries require 128 thousand troops to liberate them. Click the Panic menu and then click About US foreign policy to determine what regime they will install.
* If you are an Old European Country trying to protect your interests, make sure your options are left wide open as long as possible. Click the Tools menu, and then click on League of Nations. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Head in the Sand section and check settings for your exports to Iraq.
* Click the Bomb button if you are Donald Rumsfeld.


Cannot find weapons or CIA Error
Iraqi Explorer
Get the WMD 404 T-shirt.

Answer 5

That would be a highly illegal violation of freedom of speech laws,
not to mention a huge violation of the privacy act of 1912.



George W. Bush is a moran. He should be impeached and executed for high treason of the United States of America.

Hes too stupid to think, he paid his way through elementry, middle, high school. and college, if not he would be stuck in the first grade!

He was never elected either time. He LOST the popular vote TWICE!

Answer 6

It would be impossible for him to do anything other than sue for defamation of character unless he changed the constitution immensely in order to make it an offense to criticise him - otherwise he'd have to prove that he wasn't an idiot, contrary to what someone said.

Bush proving he isn't an idiot - that'd be worth seeing. More likely he'd demand that yahoo give the IPs to the CIA so they can "keep an eye" on them - in much the same way that they kept an eye on suspected communists in the red scare.

Answer 7

I guess it wouldn't be that surprising, he cheated to get into office, listen on people phones calls so NOTHING that man does would surprise me. Why do you think so many people can't feed their families, it's because he's getting back at the people that took a stand against dirty politics, and as a result that's why there is money for never ending wars and not money for job training programs and other necessities needed to be productive.

Answer 8

They are hiring contractors to monitor media for how media is reporting about Iraq(and handling of war). This is suppose to give real time data on new reports, are they negative or positive, are they critical of Bush admin... etc.

So they're actually doing something much more vast than just snooping around on web. I think NSA spying program already goes beyond what you're describing.

Answer 9

Well what i love of USA is that there is freedom to speck up, wich means if you dont like the way the president is doing hes job you just say it, the only think is that it not nesesary will change anithink.

Answer 10

I think you have the wrong president! It was Clinton who called the media and asked them to slant something his way or go easy on him. or not report something.
Who in the world is trying to rewrite history. I think everyone knows her , she wrote a book!
This movie everyone is all hyped up about, again it was Clinton that called the producers and wanted something changed.Not Bush!

Answer 11

I have never said anything about GWB that is not protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution! If they repeal it, I will emigrate to a more free country!