Cavuto: Government abusing its rights by taking away ours

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Cavuto: Government abusing its rights by taking away ours

Response to heated 'Cavuto on Business' debate

Let's just say heated.

And not exactly business as usual this past weekend.

Thousands of emails have been pouring in to ask what happened.

Today, I thought it time--

To answer them. And explain myself.

To you.

Welcome, everybody, I'm Neil Cavuto.

And one viewer called it, "Cavuto Unleashed."

Still another, "Chunky, without his chunky monkey."

All talking about behavior they thought out of character, and for some, over the top.

Cynthia e-mails:

"You're the host. Act like it."

Thomas in New York City:

"So anyone who disagrees with you, you just cut their mike?"

No, Thomas, only this guy's. And since this is the first time, it's hardly a pattern.

Paul via Yahoo! Agrees:

"It takes a lot to get you rattled. Today you were rattled, and frankly, I was glad to see it."

John G., Satellite Beach, Florida:

"The worst part is you paid Julian to frustrate you."

Kim e-mails:

"Good thing that Julian fellow was on a remote. I really thought you would have lunged for him if he were there in person."

K.M. in Palm Beach, Florida:

"What happened, Cavuto, someone stole your meds? Or worse, mixed them up on you?"

Heather in Mississippi:

"When the calmest anchor I know acts like this, I can only conclude he's bipolar. I'm a doctor, I can help."

Vitter e-mails:

"You were right to get annoyed. It's a wonder you haven't many times before, the way you put up with these liberal loons."

Elfie M., Clarksville, Tennessee:

"Yes, you are connecting the dots big time. There is a very calculated pattern which results in the total control of this country's population."

Tom in Wheaton, Illinois, just welcomes my temper:

"I always think that we should judge people by whether or not they would be fun at parties. I believe you would be fun at a party. Keep up the good work."

I'm not quite sure that's a compliment, Tom. But so it goes. And on it went.

Thousands of emails over a heated weekend show about a very hot issue:

All of these privacy invasions.

Invasions that my guest Julian Epstein insisted must be looked at individually.

I disagreed, and urged all to keep the politics out of it and see the pattern collectively.

As I said on this show and many times before, these stunning and sweeping assaults on our personal privacies should worry all Americans. Because this isn't left or right.

This is wrong.

And when key house Democrats, including New York's Jerry Nadler and Virginia's Bobby Scott, want hearings on these NSA invasions, it's clear they think something is wrong.

And when Democratic senators Mark Udall and Dick Durbin talk about government scrutiny that goes beyond the standard. It's clear they think something is very wrong.

All these invasions of our personal privacy under the guise of protecting us. Are just wrong. This is no longer about keeping us safe.

This is about keeping us safely under the government's eye. And it's clear the government is watching, all the time.

So I'm not here now, nor was I this weekend, to hear anyone trying to protect a president, any president. I wanted to focus on protecting people--all people.

Because these aren't isolated incidents, my friends.

Julian might warn about conflating scandals. I worry about the totality of these scandals.

As I told him, the incidents may differ, but the pattern is disturbingly the same. Government abusing its rights by taking away ours.

A Justice Department that spies on reporters.

An IRS that targets conservative groups. Then conservative donors.

A Health and Human Services Department that strong-arms companies into promoting a healthcare law.

The NSA ordering Verizon to surrender millions of phone records.

Then going after the likes of Google and apple and Ebay to get a hold of their e-mails. Our emails.

Forget about cluster, does Custer ring a bell?

These issues surround us, my friends, and to minimize their threat or sluff them off as individual political incidents, each bearing no resemblance to the other, makes a mockery of us all.

That's why I got angry. That's why i interrupted Julian, who is otherwise a friend, this is foolish.

And that's why, after repeated attempts to get him to shut up about making this a political discussion, I simply decided to cut his mike.

Some of you found that rude.

But I found subjecting you to the same old back and forth talking points on what are systemic assaults on our civil liberties, would be even ruder.

So, I did something I never do. I lost it.

But for good reason.

This isn't just a scandal, my friends. Or a series of scandals. Over even scandalous behavior.

I have no idea how high up this goes. Any of this goes. Only that it goes. And goes and goes. Part of a business as usual pattern of assaulting the liberties we've apparently taken for granted.

Realize what's going on here, and whether triggered by a patriot act initiated under a republican president, or one put on spying steroids by a democratic one... The results are frightening.

Rifling through our taxes, collecting our phone records, spying our e-mails, our associations, our friends, our families, our lives.

If that isn't worth getting hot and bothered, frankly i don't know what is.

This isn't about some fair and balanced debate on a story. Because there is no fair and balanced way to debate the core of our liberties.

Either we have them and enjoy them, or we do not.

And the next time someone reduces it to a left-right thing; you bet I'll cut in.

And if they refuse to step back, you bet--I will cut their mike.