[Lazamataz]

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[Lazamataz]

Picture posted for Facebook-thumbnail selection.

[MHGinTN]

I have no doubt that the democrips will try to play the 'well those records are kept by companies, the NSA is just filing a duplicate' argument. The problem with that reasoning is that the NSA has no one who can stop them or sue them out of existence, or oppose their use of data or manufactured data, unless the Congress does something NOW.

If Verizon used someone's metadata to harm that person, in the pre-Obama America a court could find Verizon in violation of privacy and an enormous punitive damages suit confirmed, putting the company into bankruptcy for criminal behavior.

Unless Congress finds what the NSA has done and the regime has exploited to be criminal behavior, it will become the established means of any future oppression by tyrannical regimes.

[Alamo-Girl]

There is an underreported aspect to the story of the NSA intercepts: Text messages and electronic text communications are kept in their entirity. This means that if you have sent a password or a credit card via electronic media of nearly any flavor, it now sits in the data centers of the National Security Agency. Furthermore, the ability and the opportunity to abuse this information against political opponents is huge, and this administration has already demonstrated a great propensity to target its political opposition with any tool at their disposal (c.f., the targetting of 'Tea Party' and "Patriotic" 501-c political action organizations).

Truly, the IRS scandal is what magnifies the NSA scandal - a powerful branch of the government has already been used against political foes.