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Government Quotes

“Nobody - myself included - believes that we could ever achieve total information awareness. But the government needs to set goals and long-range objectives. Total information awareness is a good goal.”

Needs Believe Long Government Goal Achieve Awareness Information Objectives Range Setting Goals Good Goal

Author:John Poindexter

“What person here illegally (and in his right mind), will go to the government, announce being here illegally (e.g. plead guilty), provide all sorts of information as to where that person lives etc. to get a work permit only to be a target for deportation in two years?”

Years Mind Persons Two Government Information Guilty Etc Two Years Target Permit Deportation

Author:Greta Van Susteren

“The government must give proper weight to both keeping America safe from terrorists and protecting Americans' privacy. But when Americans lack the most basic information about our domestic surveillance programs, they have no way of knowing whether we're getting that balance right. This lack of transparency is a big problem.”

Way Giving Problem Bigs Government America Knowing Information Balance Safe Program Weight Terrorist Privacy Transparency Surveillance Big Problems

Author:Al Franken

“The institutions that we've built up over the years to protect our individual privacy rights from the government don't apply to the private sector. The Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to corporations. The Freedom of Information Act doesn't apply to Silicon Valley. And you can't impeach Google if it breaks its 'Don't be evil' campaign pledge.”

“There's the idea that people should be able to control how the information that they're giving to websites is used and monetized in a more clear and powerful way. That's something that probably will need government action.”

People Way Needs Giving Should Ideas Government Able Action Used Powerful Clear Information Website

Author:Eli Pariser

“From computers to information technology to airplanes, it has been America's unique blend of republican government and free-market capitalism that has allowed us to surpass all other nations in history.”

Has Beens Government America Nations Technology Information Republican Computer Unique Capitalism Airplane Free Market Information Technology Republican Government Free Market Capitalism

Author:George Nethercutt

“Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name. If there's a criticism to be made today, it's that the press isn't doing enough to put the pressure on the government to provide information.”

Ifs Knows Made Enough Government Today Names Media Information Duty Criticism Pressure Presses

Author:Walter Cronkite

“Several generations of high school students have grown up ignoring and disbelieving everything they've heard from government and police about drugs, including information that was factual and valid, because they discovered for themselves that most of what has been taught to them was simply not true.”

Has Beens Government School Generations Heard Information Students Taught Drug High School Police Including Factual High School Students

Author:Ann Shulgin

“May it not be asked of every intelligent friend to the liberties of his country, whether the power exercised in such an act as this ought not to produce great and universal alarm? Whether a rigid execution of such an act, in time past, would not have repressed that information and communication among the people which is indispensable to the just exercise of their electoral rights? And whether such an act, if made perpetual, and enforced with rigor, would not, in time to come, either destroy our free system of government, or prepare a convulsion that might prove equally fatal to it?”

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press. A free press ensures the flow of information to the public, and let me say, during a time when the role of government in our lives and in our enterprises seems to grow every day--both at home and abroad - ensuring the vitality of a free and independent press is more important than ever.”

“Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four.”

Children Seems Government Four Information Like You Drug Terrorist Allowing Scare Apocalypse Dealer Drug Dealers Horsemen Four Horsemen Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

Author:Bruce Schneier

“Money, first and foremost, is a medium of communication, conveying the information we call 'price'. Government control of the money supply is censorship, a violation of the First Amendment. Inflation is a lie.”

Firsts Government Lying Information Communication Mediums Censorship Amendments Inflation Violation First Amendment Conveying

Author:L. Neil Smith

“Authoritarian governments are now trying to ensure that the increasingly free flow of ideas and information through cyberspace fuels their economies without threatening their political power.”

Trying Ideas Government Political Economy Information Flow Fuel Threatening Political Power Cyberspace Authoritarian Government

Author:Ian Bremmer

“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear.”

“In government and out, there are vast realms of the bureaucracy dedicated to seeking more information, in perpetuity if need be, in order to avoid taking action.”

Ifs Needs Government Action Order Information Seeking Realms Dedicated Bureaucracy Taking Action

Author:Meg Greenfield

“If any individual who objects to government policy can take it in their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will never be able to keep our people safe or conduct foreign policy.”

People Ifs Hands Government Able Individual Information Policy Objects Safe Foreign Policy Nsa Government Policy Classified Information

Author:Barack Obama

“Our intelligence agencies will continue to gather information about the intentions of governments - as opposed to ordinary citizens - around the world, in the same way that the intelligence services of every other nation does. We will not apologize simply because our services may be more effective.”

World Way May Doe Government Nations Information Citizens Ordinary Intention Around The World Agency Apologizing Nsa Intelligence Agencies Ordinary Citizens Intelligence Services

Author:Barack Obama

“Policy is formed by preconceptions, by long implanted biases. When information is relayed to policy-makers, they respond in terms of what is already inside their heads and consequently make policy less to fit the facts than to fit the notions and intentions formed out of the mental baggage that has accumulated in their minds since childhood.”

Mind Long Facts Government Term Childhood Information Policy Fit Intention Notion Makers Baggage Preconceptions Policy Makers

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“... war reporting is still essentially the same - someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can't get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you. The real difficulty is having enough faith in humanity to believe that enough people, be they government, military or the man on the street, will care when your file reaches the printed page, the website or the TV screen.”