A large majority of Americans - 56% actually - approve of NSA's surveillance programs, according to today's Pew Research poll. But in the self-important world of Edward J. Snowden, these millions of Americans don't count. Only he does.
Please. Can we not make a hero out of Snowden, the "whistleblower" who has blown up an inflated version of old news about government surveillance?
Snowden is no brave little guy. He's also not "just an ordinary guy", as he claims. He's a massively egotistical, horrendously uninformed little fan of Ayn Rand and Rand Paul. And he has just stolen far more than a government secret.
He has instead stolen our right to run our government as we see fit. We the People elected the Congress that enacted the laws of which Snowden complains. These surveillance laws were enacted by a bipartisan majority, a rare thing these days. They have been renewed repeatedly right up until now by a bipartisan majority. They are being applied by the fourth administration to do so, each of which was democratically elected except the first (Bush in 2000 was elected by one vote on the Supreme Court). The laws have been scrutinized by the general courts of the USA and by the special courts established in the laws. The full panoply of the US government has, therefore, been involved in creating, administering, and limiting these laws. And We the People created this government and voted in its leaders. It's OUR government running the show. We didn't elect Edward J. Snowden to even carry out the garbage.
Contrary to Snowden's claim, no Nixon-type wanna-be-dictator has been in charge of the government or the current surveillance. No coterie of FBI, military intelligence, NSA, CIA, etc. have been willy-nilly listening with no authorization to the private lives of American citizens. That happened in the Nixon era and at other times in the past century. That's real intrusion, but it's now against the law. And it's not happening now.
At present we simply have a connect-the-dots operation that is very good at catching terrorists before they kill us. It merely connects phone numbers, showing who is calling whom. If "Who" is a known bad guy, then maybe "Whom" is too. And since Who lives in Yemen and Whom lives in Indianapolis and could kill Americans, maybe we should get a warrant to polk into their actual conversations. This is standard criminal investigation procedure.
It's so effective a method of catching bad guys that Bin Laden stopped using phones, radios, and the like and relied solely on a courier. Also, ask the Mafioso in prison how effective this phone spotting is. But keep firmly in mind that NO ONE can listen to conversations of Mafia or terrorists or otherwise get upfront and personal with anybody without a court-issued warrant based on probable cause.
Snowden didn't finish high school. He didn't go to college. He's a computer guy who thinks he knows a lot more than he does. He doesn't know how our government works. He doesn't know how this current surveillance works. He doesn't know the current state of the law on surveillance. He doesn't know how evil stuff in the past produced the laws that now prohibit the very thing he thinks is going on. Sure, he may be a whiz-bang at computers, but being very, very good at cooking does not make one a good bowler. Somehow Snowden doesn't know that because he has apparently lived in an insulated world where he could confuse being handy with being wise. He thinks the cameraman is the director of the picture.
He's so ignorant and naive that he believes Hong Kong is a haven for free speech. Hey, Snowden, Hong Kong is part of China. The people of Hong Kong are always on about free speech because China's so down on it. And do you really want to put your trust in China, a serious enemy of the USA, when they may want you to tell them a whole lot more of your precious secrets?
Snowden would be pathetic if he weren't so offensive and dangerous. He's just stolen my right to have MY elected representatives make enormous decisions of life and death importance. He has arrogated to himself a terrible power.
A 29-year-old who has done little, knows little, has no education. He's just decided whether we should all be safe or not.
I have now seen everything.
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