Posted on 08/11/2013 6:30:03 PM PDT by chessplayer
Does President Barack Obama think we’re stupid?
That’s the only conclusion possible after watching Friday’s bravura performance in which the president announced a set of proposals meant to bring more transparency to the National Security Agency — and claimed he would have done it anyway, even if Edward Snowden had never decided to leak thousands of highly sensitive documents to The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald.
But even as he grudgingly admitted that the timing, at least, of his suggestions was a consequence of Snowden’s actions, the president declared, “I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot.” When you look at what has changed over the past two months, though, it’s hard not to wonder, “What could be more patriotic than what Snowden did?”
First, the results: More than a dozen bills have already been introduced to put a stop to the NSA’s mass phone record collection program and to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reinterpreted the Fourth Amendment in secret, creating a body of privacy law that the public has never read. A half-dozen new privacy lawsuits have been filed against the NSA. The Pentagon is undergoing an unprecedented secrecy audit. U.S. officials have been caught deceiving or lying to Congress. The list goes on.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Sheesh man, the system that some here are defending didn’t prevent terrorist attacks that happened since it’s been in place, Fort Hood and Boston!
Snowden is an ethically challenged useful idiot who did not use the resources available to him to make his concerns known to those who are responsible.
And, of course, the power hungry sob’s responsible would have listened to him, right?
Right after 9-11 there was something people said:
“If we change the way we live, THEN THE TERRORISTS WIN..!!”
They had a point, but it was repeated so often that it seemed almost vapid:
“Tropical shirt today..? Or maybe the toned-down one...?”
“TROPICAL shirt, bro..! Don’t change, man..! Tone it down and the TERRORISTS WIN, MAN..!”
Silly, but you catch my drive. AND YET:
Observe just how incredibly much people are asking us to change now, will you? Tell me:
WHICH of our founders would have approved of the intercept and storage of ALL of our electronic communication..?
Can’t you see that even if we permitted the intercept of just 1% of it that we would no longer be America..? Yet we are permitting FAR more than that.
If we want to remain a free country then we profit immeasurable more by staying out of unnecessary wars and preventing the immigration of dangerous people —that’s MUCH cheaper, more feasible and will not compromise our basic institutions.
No, he's a traitor. Courage? Running like a coward is courage? If he thinks he is right then stay and fight. Running to China and Russia....please. I'm glad he told the American people that they are being illegally spied on, but sharing all that intel to the enemy is inexcusable.
Have you served in the ME? ME Savages raise their kids to think of only one divine goal, kill Americans. They are serious, determined and yes as 911 proved successful. Snowden and his American enablers play right into Putins hands. It's disgusting to see Putin praised on Free Republic.
What available resources? The MSM? His congressman? Even if he would have taken his info directly to Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, Snowden would have found himself riding shotgun with Michael Hastings.
If he didn't do it, the government would still deny collecting/analyzing personal data of innocent American citizens. It would just be another crazy conspiracy theory. The ONLY reason this is being seriously discussed is Snowden. He won just by having the government admit it. We ALL won.
Am I the only one worrying about POSHITUS referring to Snowden in the past tense?
Peeping Tom your emails? Sir your military is actively killing jihadists who would be honored to slice your head off and shove it up your ass. This conservative hero worship of this POS traitor coward Snowden is embarrassing.
You are not the only one:
They asked Holder in open session, “Is it your view you have the legal authority to use a drone to —for EXAMPLE— kill an American suspected of terrorism in a CAFE in a major city inside of the USA...?
Holder did NOT say no immediately, with a shocked look on his face:
In fact he had to be asked FOUR different ways before he finally gave a straight answer, and only then did he say no.
So you KNOW he really thinks yes.
Yeah, I think they’d off him the minute Snowden set foot on CONUS, the Chicago way.
I think his dad is right to tell him to STAY AWAY.
People who still consider DC a plausible venue for a modern-day remake of, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” consider his flight to Russia as an act of cowardice.
I think it’s likely his decision to flee was based on OTHER very ugly things he probably knows about.
I have to agree. Snowden did what he had to do and what he should do.
The folks who want Snowden hanged are very ‘interesting’ in their freeping habits.
Ain't that the truth.
Snowden screwed over Obama and the socialist DemoRat surveillance police state, including the alphabet agencies and government employees that are loyal to Obama.
Let that sink in for a moment.
And as far as government employee loyalty to Obama, Chris Stevens can tell ya what that gets ya.
Naw, it's not patriot or traitor, Snowden simply did a service (possibly selfishly) for those restoring a Constitutionally limited Federal government.
BS—Putin & the Jihadists won. You think Snowden didn’t share our national secrets with our enemies? You fools applauding Snowden think Iran doesn’t have a copy of everything on those hard drives.
Maine Savage?
I though Putin was a Russian.
We fools don’t know and you the wise guru do, and will provide links to reliable sources to support your assertions.
That just means we didn't sacrifice enough freedom!
The system still works, I swear!
[/sarc]
I agree, it was a dispute between the anarcho-leftist and the facist-leftist.
Fight in a government that has already suspended Habeus Corpus and asserts the legal right/authority to conduct assassinations?
Yeah… you don't call someone jumping in front of a bus and expecting it to stop courageous
, you call them insane
.
Running to China and Russia....please. I'm glad he told the American people that they are being illegally spied on, but sharing all that intel to the enemy is inexcusable.
You really don't understand, do you? The government is treating us as the enemy.
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