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On PRISM, partisanship and propaganda (incredible article)
Guardian ^

Posted on 06/14/2013 8:45:37 PM PDT by chessplayer

I haven't been able to write this week here because I've been participating in the debate over the fallout from last week's NSA stories, and because we are very busy working on and writing the next series of stories that will begin appearing very shortly. I did, though, want to note a few points, and particularly highlight what Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez said after Congress on Wednesday was given a classified briefing by NSA officials on the agency's previously secret surveillance activities:

"What we learned in there is significantly more than what is out in the media today. . . . I can't speak to what we learned in there, and I don't know if there are other leaks, if there's more information somewhere, if somebody else is going to step up, but I will tell you that I believe it's the tip of the iceberg . . . . I think it's just broader than most people even realize, and I think that's, in one way, what astounded most of us, too."

The most vocal media critics of our NSA reporting, and the most vehement defenders of NSA surveillance, have been, by far, Democratic (especially Obama-loyal) pundits. As I've written many times, one of the most significant aspects of the Obama legacy has been the transformation of Democrats from pretend-opponents of the Bush War on Terror and National Security State into their biggest proponents: exactly what the CIA presciently and excitedly predicted in 2008 would happen with Obama's election.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benghazi; bigbrother; fascism; fastandfurious; genocide; impeachnow; irs; navyseals; orca; prism; propaganda; romneycampaign; surveillancestate; threatmatrix
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To: diamond6; maggief; penelopesire; thouworm; MestaMachine; SE Mom

Keeper. Follow to post


21 posted on 06/14/2013 9:47:58 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then!)
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To: chessplayer

The nature and identity of Greenwald’s critics is educational in two ways. One, it shows Obama’s supporters ready for authoritarian rule. Two, a lot of so called Republicans, particularly the leadership, are ready to go along. Brooks, in the NYT said:

” for society to function well, there have to be basic levels of trust and cooperation, a respect for institutions and deference to common procedures.”


22 posted on 06/14/2013 9:52:52 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: chessplayer

okay if folks are saying what’s been reported so far is the “tip of the icebeg”......any thoughts as to what else NSA is doing?


23 posted on 06/14/2013 9:59:12 PM PDT by Girlene
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To: truth_seeker

BS, Obama and his regime are the traitors, Snowden is a hero.


24 posted on 06/14/2013 10:03:25 PM PDT by faucetman ( Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: sand88
If the NSA is scooping everything then that is extremely ominous. Only evil can come from control of so much information.

Agree. It's a ticking time bomb. If at some future point the government decides to damage an individual--say an opponent of the regime--it only needs to paw the database until it finds the appropriate dirt to smear them with. Bad, bad news. It's akin to the trend of criminalizing everything. Sooner or later, they can get you on one pretext or another. You don't even need to lock people up, instead you just destroy their ability to make a living, as was frequently done in the Eastern Bloc and China.
25 posted on 06/14/2013 10:07:39 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Every penny given to film and TV media companies goes right into enemy coffers. Starve them out!)
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To: Sam Gamgee; Alaska Wolf; montanajoe

PING


26 posted on 06/14/2013 10:09:29 PM PDT by USS Johnston (Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be bought at the price of chains & slavery? - Patrick Henry)
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To: diamond6
Thanks to Snowden, we now know that the U.S. government has been spying on us to a degree that most people would have never even dared to imagine. Up until now, the general public has known very little about the U.S. government spy grid that knows almost everything about us.

Bears repeating...

Yet there are pro-Big Brother, anti-Constitutionalists in our midst NOT blaming 0dinga, Holder, Big Sis, and the rest of the Commie-Fascists who spit on the 4th Amendment, but a Whistleblower who exposed their illegal violation of our rights.

27 posted on 06/14/2013 10:15:36 PM PDT by USS Johnston (Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be bought at the price of chains & slavery? - Patrick Henry)
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To: diamond6

It occurs to me that folks who are astonished at the scope of the NSA snooping don’t really believe in God. They just didn’t think it could be done. LOL. On both counts. LOL.


28 posted on 06/15/2013 1:00:10 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: justa-hairyape
The people running our country are dumb beyond dumb.

And they're evil to the Nth degree.

29 posted on 06/15/2013 1:02:00 AM PDT by Bullish (Psalm 46)
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To: sand88
It is very ominous to have so much data in the hands of such people -- they lust for absolute power....

Yes and Obama lusts for another goal.... He is dead set on having REVENGE! That makes this out of control regime all the more dangerous.

30 posted on 06/15/2013 1:12:48 AM PDT by Bullish (Psalm 46)
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To: chessplayer; annieokie; penelopesire; maggief; Protect the Bill of Rights; thouworm; SE Mom; ...
Treason is having a full on jihadi in the whitehouse. Treason is KNOWING there is a full on jihadi in the whitehouse and doing nothing about it. Treason is knowing there is a full on jihadi in the whitehouse and allowing him to use our military to further his jihadi goals in the name of human rights.

Anyone wanting on or off this ping list, please advise.


Benghazi Index

31 posted on 06/15/2013 1:42:29 AM PDT by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: USS Johnston
But just consider what she's saying: as a member of Congress, she had no idea how invasive and vast the NSA's surveillance activities are

Then she should resign because she is an ignoramus.

What is the NSA domestic spying program? In October 2001, President Bush issued a secret presidential order authorizing the NSA to conduct a range of surveillance activities inside of the United States without statutory authorization or court approval, including electronic surveillance of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications. This program of surveillance continues through today and works with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies.

In 2005, after the New York Times broke the story of the surveillance program, the President publicly admitted one portion of it—warrantless surveillance of Americans believed to be communicating with people connected with terrorism suspects—Senior Bush Administration officials later confirmed that the President’s authorization went beyond the surveillance of terrorists and conceded that the program did not comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The President, invoking a theory of limitless executive power to disregard the mandates of Congress, has reauthorized this warrantless surveillance more than thirty times, including after the Department of Justice found the program to violate criminal laws. President Obama has continued the program, but has given no public legal justification for it and, in some situations, appears to be strategically denying certain portions of it. For other portions, including the collection of telecommunications records, the Obama Administration says it can neither confirm nor deny its actions.

32 posted on 06/15/2013 2:11:15 AM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: chessplayer
Glenn Greenwald is an intellectually honest liberal.

That is as rare a breed as the mythical unicorn.

The late Christoper Hitchens is the only other unicorn that I can think of.

Hitchens had no more tolerance for the Clinton Crime family than those on the Whitewater Forum which would become this forum.

Lawrence O'Donnell and David Axelrod are lowest forms of life on this planet in that they stand for nothing other than whatever criminal behavior is necessary to maintain absolute power.

That said Karl Rove and Tricky Dicky Cheney are no better than Axelrod and O'Donnell.

The police state is all about arguing whether my boy Bush is a better Police Chief of the totalitarian state than your boy Obama.

Fast Eddie Snowden exposes the intellectually honest guys like Greenwald from the intellectually dishonest trash like O'Donnell, Axelrod, Rove, and Cheney who entirely agree on the police state and only disagree on who is a more righteous sheriff a clueless elitist snob like Bush or a clueless elitist snob like Barry.

33 posted on 06/15/2013 2:14:25 AM PDT by metafugitive
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To: chessplayer
Loretta Sanchez: "...it's the tip of the iceberg . . . . I think it's just broader than most people even realize..."

It's a scandalanche!

Frightening stuff.

34 posted on 06/15/2013 2:26:30 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: truth_seeker
Snowden is a traitor. He violated his security clearance, betrayed his nation’s Signal’s Intelligence methods and sources.

Your government has broken its most basic compact with you. They have betrayed you, and every other American. This man has revealed their treasonous malfeasance to you and the world.

By definition, that is not treason, but patriotism of the highest order.

35 posted on 06/15/2013 2:37:30 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier
This man has revealed their treasonous malfeasance to you and the world.

BULLSQUAT! Patriots don't slither off to China!

36 posted on 06/15/2013 2:40:18 AM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: Alaska Wolf
BULLSQUAT! Patriots don't slither off to China!

What would you have him do? Stand in the public square and wait for a sniper's head shot?

Self preservation is instinctive. The guy ran, like any normal human being would, knowing that assassins and jack booted thugs would be coming for him.

And they are.

37 posted on 06/15/2013 2:47:58 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier
What would you have him do?

I sure as hell would not slither off to China. Patriots aren't cowards and thieves.

<>i> The guy ran, like any normal human being would

No, what he did was premeditated and he ran like a gutless coward.

38 posted on 06/15/2013 2:52:44 AM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: Alaska Wolf
what he did was premeditated and he ran like a gutless coward.

Why are you being such a hard ass about this? Do you not appreciate that this man has forfeited his life for doing what he did?

He's a dead man walking now. He knew that he would be, when he decided to rat out the evil bastards who are doing this to us. Good Lord man, it took industrial grade guts to do what he did. That's not cowardice in any way, shape, or form.

39 posted on 06/15/2013 3:02:12 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier
Why are you being such a hard ass about this?

First off, Snowden is a thief and liar. He's a narcissist and gutless coward.

He's a dead man walking now.

Why? Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, two other useless scumbags, are still wasting oxygen, aren't they?

40 posted on 06/15/2013 3:07:23 AM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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