NSA, Idiots and Suchlike

I wonder if the irony ever hits the MTAHNS: In 2007, Senator Obama wanted to rein in the NSA.

Now, of course, the only reason that any of this is on the table is because a whistleblower ratted out the NSA to the world. So now President Obama, who would rather quietly try said whistleblower for treason against the known universe, is being prodded into doing the very same things that he said that he wanted to do. Of course, back then, he hadn't donned the precious that is presidential power. He thinks that we shouldn't be so worried about terrorism, but then he turns around and argues that the NSA needs the tyrannical powers that it has glommed onto in order to fight terrorism?

Then there is this bit of multi-layered bullshit from the MTAHNS:

Emphasizing that NSA leaker Edward Snowden isn't a patriot, President Obama said he had called for a review of surveillance operations well before Snowden leaked any information. The new reforms will call for additional transparency and create a task force of private citizens to review the NSA's surveillance programs.

First off, yes, Snowden is a patriot. He's a patriot to the Constitution. Second, MSNBC, Snowden is a whistleblower, not a mere leaker. He didn't ooze out a few minor secrets for personal gain, like most leakers (who are politicians or bureaucrats) do. He blew the lid off the fucking edifice of lies. And third, anyone who seriously thinks that we, as a nation, would be having this conversation without Snowden having blown his whistle is on some really good drugs and they need to stop using, and yes, I'm looking at you, NBC News, and almost every other news outlet in this country.

Meanwhile, the drumbeat of NSA fuckery marches on. Two years ago, President Smeagol and the Congress gave the NSA the power to conduct searches of the data of Americans without even bothering to seek a warrant from those toothless lions of the FISA Court. All we have to keep us from government minions tromping through our online data is the assurance that "we're good people and we'd never do anything like that, honest injun!"

Are you comforted by that?

The NSA has identified the real problem: Humans have consciences. Humans might have grown up drinking the Kool-Aid of liberty, freedom and civil rights and they naturally rebel at having to do what the NSA does to our citizens. So Emperor Alexander is going to do what he can to get rid of humans. Because algorithms don't have such pesky things as morals.

One op-ed contributor thinks that we should trust in corporations to protect us from the government, which is beyond laughable. Because what would happen is that the NSA would then just buy it from them and, if they had to set up a fake company to do it, they'd do that in a heartbeat.

You've probably heard that Lavabit chose to go out of business rather than be transformed into government informers. They made this point:

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

No fucking shit. If you use a "cloud service" that has servers in the U.S., you might as well copy all of your shit in to the NSA or the FBI. The NSA's probably collecting it, anyway and if the FBI wants it, they'll just issue one of those sooper-seekrit National Security Letters, the data host will give them what they want and you'll never know about it.

One thing is clear: We cannot trust anyone in this Administration to fix this mess. If it hangs over past 2016, whoever the next president is won't fix it for the same reasons this one is resisting reining in the NSA. And so far, there have been enough bi-partisan pro-police state senators and congressmen to thwart reform. But those people, we can remove if we stick to our last on this issue.

Oh, and last but not least, was this bit of galling insincerity from Obama:

[President Obama said] that Snowden is welcome to a fair trial in the United States if he believes his actions were justified. "If in fact he believes that what he did was right, then like very American citizen, he can come here before the court with a lawyer and make his case."

Which is bullshit. Snowden probably wouldn't be allowed to plead justification, you can look to other trials to see that play out.

What Obama is really saying is that "we'll give the guilty bastard a fair trial before we hang him."

Which is an age-old American legal tradition.