As more information slowly drips out from the NSA, I'm becoming more and more torn about my personal feelings on the matter. The selectively slow release of information by Greenwald, Snowden, and other journalists is of course deliberately designed, and it should be commended. As it's been pointed out here numerous times, leak out some info., give the government officials enough rope to hang themselves as they attempt to weasel out a few excuses, only to slam their collective 'nads in the door with new information leaked that exposes their lies.
And by the way, let's stop beating around the fucking bush (well, at least some here) - it's not just the NSA who's full of shit. This Administration is fucking lying, period. And that includes our president. When he tries to tell us with a straight face that there is no domestic spying program, I seriously choked on my coffee at that time. I knew it was bullshit, and as more information drips out, it's clearly and painfully being demonstrated.
Now we can parse this Administration's words as the pundits, journalists, and bloggers are attempting to do. We get to hear more breaking down the fucking word "is" is about 10 thousand times or so. It's fun. And really pathetic. And we can discuss more about the probability of the POTUS having plausible deniability, which is really fun too. And hey, there may be some elements of truth in him having that.
But I can't help but think something that's playing in my head over and over - how would I feel if a Republican was in office and this shit came out? Well I know exactly how I would feel because I felt it when that turdbrain of a man before Obama ran our country into the ground - I was pissed. And I wanted him to go down because of it. But I guess I'm hoping others are asking the same question and wondering if they would really be conducting themselves any differently here? Wouldn't there be a bit more anger and calls for impeachment? In no way am I calling for Obama's impeachment, but I sure as hell felt like that when I found out what Bush was doing, and it's only been expanded since then. How many times would words end with the suffix "-gate" around here? Because the general feeling I get when reading the main pages and rec diaries is we really don't want to pin the blame on the POTUS as much as we should, as if the NSA is a stand alone entity without any connection to the Executive.
Again, maybe there's an element of truth about that. I have my sincere doubts, given what's already been revealed, but there's a small bit of hope I hold on to here. But I know how I felt about Bush and Cheney when this shit was revealed 8 years ago. So why should I be feeling any different now that a Democratic president is in the Executive? Am I too big of a "purist" to not ignore this any further? How much more information must be leaked in order for me to feel justified in my "purist" sentiments?
11:44 AM PT: Rec list: Many thanks. I appreciate you reading and sharing your own feelings on the matter.