As more information becomes known about Edward Snowden and the NSA information he leaked to the Guardian, the national conversation on domestic surveillance has reached a fever pitch. Despite the recent "hair on fire" exclamations from the Right and Left alike, we should remember: the U.S. has been enacting some form of domestic surveillance as early as 1919, it was not until the Patriot Act of 2001 that the issue has been a point of concern for average Americans. Now as a country when we feel uncomfortable with our idea of privacy being eroded we are ready to blame someone for allowing things to get so severe.
I would argue that while Obama has a role in this, and the American Congress has a role in this, and the American Media has a role in this, I also believe that there's some blame on the American people. The discussion about the Patriot Act has been happening for years and while some were upset -- they marched on Washington and yelled about this being wrong -- the majority of folks were not. If there's an issue now, part of this is that the American people have to take some blame for this.
Also on today's #TWiBRadio, we talked about a toy gun buy-back program, Chad Johnson's courtroom shenanigans, and what happens when local conspiracy theorist and paper-wave, Alex Jones travels across the pond to show the BBC how we do crazy in the ol' US of A.
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And this morning on #amTWiB, L.Joy, Imani, and the rest of the #TheMorningCrew delve in the predatory nature of college loan debt, four black actors take home Tony awards, and the rise of Black unemployment -- it's now at 13.5%.
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