Considering that they've never once denied a request, it's not a review system it's a rubber stamp. Doesn't count.
Fuck the courts. I have zero trust for this country's legal system, whether it's passing judgement on behaviour from citizens or gov't entities.
It's a collection of thousands of smaller evil entities, all working for their own ends which almost always end up screwing over the citizens they are sworn to "serve".
Evil? Depends how you define it. Their own ends? Yeah, specifically "get reelected" and "make as much cash as possible, legally or otherwise." That first thing is really about job security. The second is just greed. I'm sure there's more than a bit of power tripping, too. Unfortunately, their job means they aren't supposed to care about any of those things.
1) Does this leak tell me anything I didn't already suspect? No. I'm 99.999999% sure there's far, far more going down.
2) If B. Rock hadn't made such a big deal about his administration's "transparency," I might let this go. But the country jumped down Bush the Greater's throat when he did his, "No new taxes," thing.
3) The White House has had a holier-than-thou prickish type attitude about this. Same kind of attitude that pissed me off about the last administration.
4) I wish the dude released some information that was actually damaging or damning. That and the fact he got caught are really my only disappointments.
Edited By Malcolm on 1370965036
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Right, I think there's an issue of Barack's transparency and claims, but really, I have no fundamental issue with what I've heard so far that's actually been FACTS about the program.
The program, regardless of how compliant it is with law, was still a secret, and violating our secrets should be punishable.
My general definition would be extreme and willful inconsideration of the needs and desires of fellow humans to serve ones own ends (exceptions being made for "I must feed my family and if that means I take your food to do so then so be it" type situations. When there is not enough food nor shelter, you can't really have good or evil just the fight to survive). A Congressperson wallowing in personal greed at the expense of the citizenry certainly qualifies as extreme evil in my book.
Edited By TPRJones on 1370966191
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
...regardless of how compliant it is with law, was still a secret, and violating our secrets should be punishable.
What I'm about to say completely disregards the law, but I disagree a bit. If you could show me that he's an agent working for some kind of foreign state, I'd be on board with some real punishment. If he's just a domestic malcontent, I'm willing to chalk it up to an act of federal disobedience, slap him on the wrist, and call it a day. No jail, not worth pursuing extradition. I'm not a fan of the gov't keeping secrets from its citizens, mainly because it invites the gov't to cover up its incompetence in the name of "security" or "privacy." Excepting states of open warfare on the scale of WWII, the gov't has no fucking privacy from its citizens, not the other way around.
FISA court is bullshit says former NSA analyst. Seeing as how that's where PRISM goes to get its warrants, I'm more than a bit concerned. Furthermore, this is something that was made possible by the gigantic piece of shit that is the Patriot Act. And fuck everything that came from that legislation.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
My general definition would be extreme and willful inconsideration of the needs and desires of fellow humans to serve ones own ends (exceptions being made for "I must feed my family and if that means I take your food to do so then so be it" type situations. When there is not enough food nor shelter, you can't really have good or evil just the fight to survive). A Congressperson wallowing in personal greed at the expense of the citizenry certainly qualifies as extreme evil in my book.
"Willful inconsideration" means you have to be aware you're stomping on someone. Most people who ride roughshod over others genuinely believe they're in the right and doing good. Any discomfort they're causing now will be alleviated by the good that will undoubtedly follow at some undetermined point in the future.
Edited By Malcolm on 1370966285
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm wrote:"Willful inconsideration" means you have to be aware you're stomping on someone. Most people who ride roughshod over others genuinely believe they're in the right and doing good.
The test, then, would be that if they are made aware of the consequences of their actions do they show remorse and change their ways. If not, then evil, if so, then they were merely ignorant or inventive.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
The test, then, would be that if they are made aware of the consequences of their actions do they show remorse and change their ways. If not, then evil, if so, then they were merely ignorant or inventive.
Sometimes, it's more trouble than it's worth to change someone's way of thinking.
Edited By Malcolm on 1370966732
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
"That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are.
"We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary."
3 guesses who said it.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Goddamnit, now I'm agreeing with the EU, in principle.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm wrote:Goddamnit, now I'm agreeing with the EU, in principle.
Then you are clearly wrong :p
Even a blind, retarded, senile, quadriplegic squirrel finds a nut every now and again.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Where there are government secrets there can be no Democracy.
I disagree with that as a black and white statement, however I do think that we should know 95% of what the government knows.
And we should know the last 5% as soon as circumstances allow it.
If Europeans don't think they're already being spied on, they're idiots. London is Big Brother central.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
The phone records program, disclosed last week by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, collects customer “metadata,” including the phone numbers dialed and the length of calls — and, senators said, location data, which intelligence analysts use to detect patterns and personal connections. The administration said that the program does not monitor the content of calls and that it has been reviewed by the courts and Congress.
A separate Internet surveillance program, known as PRISM, allows the NSA to collect videos, photos, e-mails, documents and connection logs for foreign users located overseas through nine leading Internet companies. The government obtains the data through orders approved by the secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That program was disclosed by The Washington Post and the Guardian.
If the American government gave British MI-6 (or whatever) total access to our wires, then Brits could legally record phone calls of Americans, which to them would be "foreigners overseas." And vice versa, NSA recording all the British shit. Then they could legally share info.
But nah, I have only positive, honest thoughts when I think of my government.
Also, "warrantless wiretaps" as a phrase became popular when Bush was President, and supposedly doing it. Too bad nobody checked for accuracy, then.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
A separate Internet surveillance program, known as PRISM, allows the NSA to collect videos, photos, e-mails, documents and connection logs for foreign users located overseas through nine leading Internet companies.
The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."