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A comment on US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program. Parent comment

Re:US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies ... by haroldp on Thursday June 06, 2013 @08:01PM (#5836170)
It seems odd to claim both that:

- This government program is widely hated

- We have a functioning democracy

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Re:US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies ... by infrec on Thursday June 06, 2013 @08:45PM (#5836408)
The US is a republic.
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Re:US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies ... by adventured on Friday June 07, 2013 @01:14AM (#5837375)
Was a Republic. I think it could be argued that the US is no longer fully governed by the Constitution. The only debate, in my opinion, is when the Republic died. When Nixon killed the last part of the gold standard, unleashing perpetual war, and nearly unlimited funding for the military industrial complex (including the NSA / CIA / FBI) by printing / Federal Reserve financing? The 1930s when FDR massively expanded the reach of the Federal Government? 2001 under Bush? 1913 with the founding of the Federal Reserve?
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Re:US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies ... by philwelch on Friday June 07, 2013 @01:22AM (#5837395)
Yes; a democratic republic, to be precise.

Non-democratic republics include 18th-century USA, where only white male landowners could vote. Democratic non-republics include the UK, which is a monarchy. "Republicanism" and "democracy" are orthogonal concepts.

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