So much easier to vilify a person than to defend what the programs and laws they have in place
XXXXXXX has been called "a traitor, high school dropout, loser, slacker, and a man with messianic aspirations."
So to sum it up, most of the people who have access to professional microphones are targeting him with labels that would make any human being feel like a skinny, acne covered High School freshman with lice.
Rather than answer the questions surrounding what the government believes it is justifiable to do:
Keeps a record of every cell phone call made.
Keeps a record of all emails sent.
Takes pictures of all the letters mailed in the US.
Uses drones for domestic surveillance.
Reserves the right to detain people (including Americans) indefinitely without trial.
Can search homes without telling people they were there.
Can still carry out renditions.
Can get copies of all of your records (from the library, bank or credit card company) without a warrant.
So to sum things up, if you become a person of interest, the government can quickly find out everyone you have ever talked to and written to; everything you have ever read and bought; and everywhere you have ever been.
If you are overseas, they reserve the right to bring you back against your will and possibly hold you forever without trial.
As
Eugene Robinson points out even when the Director of National Security is caught lying to congress
As we’ve learned from Edward XXXXXXX, a former analyst for an NSA contractor, Clapper’s answer was patently false. The agency collects metadata — essentially, a detailed log — of many and perhaps all of our domestic phone calls.
They desperately try to the conversation back to the whistleblower.
Eugene's final sentence sums up the contempt in which we are held
The biggest lie of all? That the American people don’t even deserve to be told what their laws mean, much less how those laws are being used.
Eugene Robinson apologises for sounding like a Paul Rand acolyte,
It pains me to sound like some Rand Paul acolyte. I promise I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat or scanning the leaden sky for black helicopters. I just wish our government would start treating us like adults — more important, like participants in a democracy — and stop lying. We can handle the truth.
We shouldn't even have to be defending ourselves with this type of commentary it should be the government answering the questions and defending the secret courts with their secret laws and zero oversight.
It is long past time to repeal with all their associated add-ons:
The Patriot Act
FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Both parties approved these unnecessary additions to our already robust legal system, and it is time to bring back a semblance of democracy into the way we want our security to be maintained.
If you want to live in a surveillance state, move to North Korea; they will satisfy your every desire in that department.