Does that read 2006(66) ?

PSSST! Congress! It isn't working!

When you stop to think about the kind of bozos on that congressional bus, it's just as well that it's not working.

No sh¡t, Sherlock.

They should absolutely throw the book at this guy -- and at anyone who may have aided and abetted him, even if they're a "journalist" (just because you may be a member of the Fourth Estate, you don't get a free pass to suborn possible espionage). Obviously, I agree with Gary on this one -- nothing he leaked was proof of anything illegal or of any wrongdoing. (As a note -- even if those leaks did provide such evidence, he *still* should be prosecuted -- he broke the law either way. The latter case would merely provide mitigating circumstances at the sentencing).

Anyways, simy disagreeing with established US law doesn't give one license to break it ...

watch this brief video >>
Sen Al Franken not surprised by NSA surveillance.

He is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Privacy, Technology & the Law*. It's all been reviewed, it's legal, it's about connecting the dots.


* Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
Jurisdiction: (1) Oversight of laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information by the private sector, including online behavioral advertising, privacy within social networking websites and other online privacy issues; (2) Enforcement and implementation of commercial information privacy laws and policies; (3) Use of technology by the private sector to protect privacy, enhance transparency and encourage innovation; (4) Privacy standards for the collection, retention, use and dissemination of personally identifiable commercial information; and (5) Privacy implications of new or emerging technologies.

I don't doubt at all that the whole business was legal--unlike the initial trolling by the Bush administration, which by-passed the FISA courts entirely. The question, now as when the rules were rewritten to accommodate the Bush practices, is whether we want a country where this kind of thing happens.

To quote an absent forum member, "Toothpaste is out of the tube."

Digital technology is never going reverse itself and get less powerful and omnipresent. When the administration is able to be heard above all this hyperbole, people may actually understand that Obama has strengthened oversight. He made the claim just a few days ago as to challenge the press corp to review the history:

"So in summary, what you've got is two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, have been repeatedly authorized by Congress, bipartisan majorities have approved on them, Congress is continually briefed on how these are conducted. There are a whole range of safeguards involved, and federal judges are overseeing the entire program throughout. We're also setting up -- we've also set up an audit process, when I came into office, to make sure that we're, after the fact, making absolutely certain that all the safeguards are being properly observed. "

Some journo might want to check that out and report on it.

Technology, perhaps. But our government is supposed to be accountable to the people, and if the outrage is large enough, it *can* be made less omnipresent and powerful -- kind of like what happened to create this country in the first place ;-)

And, for better or worse, I believe the public by and large are disinclined to simply take the government's (read: Obama or any other president) word that "safeguards are being properly observed" -- especially regarding utterly opaque programs against which the average citizen has no course of redress should he even be allowed to know they exist ...

My .02: It sucks that this is happening — been happening, more to the point, in one form or another for quite some time. But objectively speaking, I can sort of accept the national security argument.

I look at the difference btwn the abuse of power, and the abuse of people. The clandestine nature of the program tilts toward the former. But until — and if ever — the latter becomes evident, I can live with. I can dislike it — and I do — but there are worse things. And in that context, I really prefer that Congress get behind the POTUS and start putting as much effort into jobs, education, equal rights, and the economy as has gone into Scandalmania.

'Nuff sed.