No matter what your feelings are about Dvorak, this article he wrote is a must-read

[G+_Stephen Styffe]

No matter what your feelings are about Dvorak, this article he wrote is a must-read. The fact of the matter is that, as John simply puts it, we the American people are the adversaries to the NSA. So if we want more transparency from our government, then we need to get rid of these officials from our government. #NSA   #PRISM   #transparency  

http://anewdomain.net/2013/09/06/john-c-dvorak-nsa-spying-americans-now-enemy/

[G+_Mike Trieu (MegasChara)]

"Everyone knew there was one. People just needed confirmation." So people can "know" things without evidence. Okay then.

[G+_Jeff Stevens]

One word (in this case, "other") which could easily be a mistake of grammar (there have been enough of those in the Snowden leaks) does not tell me of the institutional attitude of a forty thousand person organization.

 

Yes it's too big. Yes we need to rein it in. Yes we need to vote out the politicians who make the unconstitutional to be legal. But I don't think the NSA regards every American citizen as an adversary.

[G+_Jeff Stevens]

Ken, the point is that we live in a republic, in which we invest our leaders with the authority to make decisions on our behalf. They are not and should not be beholden to our will, because that can change with the wind. Leadership is not following the crowd, but saying "This is where we should go. I'm going. Follow me!"

 

Now obviously they are accountable to us and if they go in a direction we seriously disapprove of, we can vote them out. At least in theory. In reality the Democratic Party will nominate Feinstein for th Senate next time because she's the best chance to get a Democrat elected, which is ultimately most important to them. And she will be elected because the Tea Party will nominate a conservonut and Feinstein will look sane by comparison.

 

And inevitably our leaders DO know more than we do because they have access to intelligence that we don't. I find that problematic because we cannot hold our politicians accountable unless we have all the information, but how do you give citizens that info without giving it to Islamic terrorists, Chinese communists, and the plutocracy that is Russia? I don't know the answer but I don't like it either.

 

I don't know if we should bomb Syria or not. I really don't.