Godwin v2.001 
Right. ObL is the new Hitler, and this current issue isn’t about the US states behaviour and relationship with the rest of the world.
Good question: “Will the government now work even harder to protect us from finding stuff out”?
I would think so in the terms of who they hire … Snowden had red flags all over him, high school drop out, short term in the Army tried out for Special Forces and failed, has medical problems with seizures (unless he made that up).
He served in Swizterland to Japan and finally made it to Hawaii … at any point in that time he could been aproached by a foreign power to work for them.
I’m not saying that Snowden is a double agent, but it is possible we don’t know all of the story yet.
I say his real motive was to get away with it, proven by his actions.
Not real good on the “sneak away before anybody catches on” part.
“And I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling… oh wait, that was me.”
His public admission to being the source is clear proof he was trying to get away with it?
Hell yes, he’s probably communist (1950s-80s), or a mooslim (2000s), or one of those new guys who ‘don’t love America’/ is ‘afraid of freedom’/etc.
I thought we were onto crypto-anarchists now, with their whole “information must be free” malarkey. That’d be nice, as we’re coming up for the centenary of the last time anarchists were the bogeymen du jour.
I see Snowden relies on this quote from Benjamin Franklin:
-started wars of opportunity (Libya/Iraq)
-enacted financial regulatory reform (Sarbanes Oxley/ Dodd Frank)
-expanded federal role in education (No Child…/Race To…)
-expanded federal role in health care (Medicare part D/ ACA)
-expanded debt enormously
-endorsed by lapdog media at nearly every junction
It’s hip to be Square: Tiananmen, Tahrir, Taksim … Times?
But American Gladiators marathon is on TV so, maybe some other time …
How come “The worst Senator in the World” and the son of the “biggest racist in the World” can make so much sense?
Sen. Paul Appears on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper- 6/12/2013 - YouTube!
Any way we do it, its incredibly difficult. Not enough oversight, the temptation to play fast and loose gets stronger. Too much oversight is too many people knowing too much. People who might get drunk, people who might trust the wrong persons, people who would blab for reasons of injustices real or imagined.
I’m in my later youth, and cannot remember a time when this sort of shit wasn’t happening. When it was happening, exposed as happening, and you still couldn’t get people to believe it was happening. J. Edgar Hoover trying to blackmail MLK into suicide. Iran-Contra. Investigations and harassment of anti-war organizations.
We must have secret sleuths? I’m afraid we must. Do we need strict oversight. Certainly. Is there a clear and reliable balance between those absolute necessities? It may well be that muddling through is the best we can hope for, which is to say, we will fuck it up. sometimes.
I think a good start would be re-enforcing the previous doctrine of insisting that the CIA and any military intelligence is strictly focused outward. No surveillance or intelligence gathering within our borders on our own citizens. That will be a serious impediment, I recognize that and think its worth it. Beyond that I have no suggestions.
doctrine? WTF are you talking about - law is the only answer, law protecting the public from mass surveillance.
It’s really not hard, have a look ‘outside your borders’.
Copied from my Facebook:
"So I am supposed to fear a government that cannot even keep their most important classified information secret? That allows access to that information to the lowest bidder?
The director of the CIA had his own email hacked. The NSA cannot keep its number one priority a secret - again. (This is what - the third or fourth time a national surveillance network has been exposed?) We took 10 years to hunt down the worst terrorist in our history (after recruiting him to work for us in the '80s, and after five plus years of escalating attacks against American institutions, but they were all in brown or black countries, so who gave a fuck really?)
I do agree though. Edward Snowden is un-American. A true American would have downloaded that data and sold it to the highest bidder - some Chinese marketing firm, most likely. Data that probably included a lot more business emails about trade negotiations, market strategies and product development that about what political activists in the most apathetic democracy in the world are up to."
I would like to know how forcing companies to hand over information to the government in secret is going to help our national competitiveness, which seems to be only form of ‘national security’ that matters. If I was a European (or any non-American) firm, I would ensure my data is never routed through the US again, and think twice about using any US firm for IT services.
Between this and the Monsanto wheat screw up, I am waiting for either economic boycotts or sanctions against US. I agree. We are the rogue nation now.
Lastly, I would not have such a problem if this data was actually being used effectively, but I see no sign that it has been (nor any of the previous data gathering initiatives). The largest threat to the American public is violence from drug cartels and their street gangs, not Al Qaeda or any other political group. If we were using this data to bring indictments against the cartels, I would still have serious reservations about its constitutionality, but at least it would be doing some good. (If it has been used in this way, I would love some cites.)
One process that should make anybody sit up and take notice of their own government is the no-fly list. There doesn’t appear to be a grievance process for people who for unknown reasons find themselves on it.
I have a suggestion. Real oversight. We can’t get our own government agencies to respond to Congress when asked for information. Our representatives should be able to expedite the FOIA process.
Actually the largest threat to the public of pretty much any 1st world nation is obesity. However it’s harder for government departments to scare up a multibillion dollar budget with the catchphrase of “The war on pizza, chips and sugary drinks”, so they stick to more dramatic candidates.
If you want to “win” the war on drugs, you do it the same way they won the war on liquor in the 30’s.
Ok, I’ll give you the obesity threat, but that is pretty much self-inflicted at the individual level.
And I agree the only way to win the war is to end prohibition (at least on marijuana). But gangs like MS 13 or the 18th Street Mafia terrorize more communities in the US on a daily basis than Islamic extremists ever have.
In my experience, the majority of residents of the communities hardest hit by drug and gang violence are there since they cannot afford anything better. When gangs moved in starting in the 60’s, those who could afford to leave, did.
I would love to see the NSA budget redirected towards urban redevelopment and infrastructure repairs.
I have noticed a certain correlation between the rise in spending on ‘defense’ and ‘intelligence’, along with the gutting of social services and education budgets, and the rise in urban decay and violence. So worried about outside threats that have no real chance of destroying our country, while letting it rot away from the inside out. (Does any other country have as many abandoned properties as the US, percentage wise? I am sure we are number one in absolute terms.)
There’d be more people protesting that than what NSA is doing now.