Until the citizens accept that Congress is responsible, this issue is going nowhere.
Blaming the NSA is no different than blaming the gun.
Whenever a progressive retires under duress or is voted out....you could say they are a victim of “Breitbart Syndrome”
Blaming the NSA is no different than blaming the gun.
Not true. The NSA is made of individuals. Every single one of them is responsible to uphold the Constitution.
Perhaps - but it is another bureaucratic entity that has gotten so big and convoluted that it is part of the problem. Too big for proper oversight and everything is SECRET which means that even questioning them can be problematic.
We are getting a little look at what that "gun" can do. In the hands of the wrong people, the "gun" can help one violate the Constitution and do major damage to individuals.
In these times, we can have a Paula Deen held accountable by a statement she made 20 years ago. Yet, we have Zer0 who has not been held accountable for the murder of four Americans at Benghazi. It tells you there is no certainty for accountability. Even with assurance of oversight, do we trust this "gun" in the hands of a government who has voided that assurance with a history of lies and infringement of our constitutional rights. The administration headed by Zer0 has not given us any assurance that it has the integrity to follow the rule of law.
Here is what I think that "gun" can do:
Let's say that all phone conversations are digitally stored until voice recognition software can put them into text. The storage of text takes little storage space and allows for huge amounts of text to be stored. They say that storage space is growing exponentially. With the phone tree architecture that Snowden described, you can organize the text according to rings of influence. You then have quite a powerful system.
Lets say you have a political campaign and want to ID those who would be your grass roots. With software, you can worm through a few years worth of text and find those friendly to your campaign. It would be as easy as doing a Google search. Then, because you have access to all the phone numbers, you could robocall your grassroots for support. Phones would get texts saying dial this number and donate. You see the power such a "gun" would have in the hands of an unethical person like Zer0 in power?
Let's say you want to take out a political opponent by finding something embarrassing about them. That would be easy. You have the text of all their phone conversations. God help them if they dialed for a sex escort or asked where they could score some crack. You see the power such a "gun" would have to take out the opposition?
In the hands of the thugs we see working in the Zer0 Syndicate, the "gun" could take out political enemies as easy as it did Paula Deen. And, there would be zero political accountability for doing it.