In the past few weeks we’ve had a non-stop barrage of Snowden coverage – the man who has been labeled a patriot and a traitor.
The question is: does revealing the malicious intent of your own government make you a traitor… or a hero?
The truth is for you to decide – but it sure is being manipulated – and fast.
The NSA did admit the reason they hold records of everyone is so they can easily build a case against them if they need to. And considering the average American commits 3 felonies per day, it would be easy to lock you up if you cause too much trouble, or rub some government agent the wrong way.
Just think how self-incriminating you can be when you don’t know that every innocent text message, e-mail, and phone call you have ever had has been recorded.
Imagine sitting in court defending yourself when the district attorney shows up and brings 10 years worth of evidence painting you as a career criminal when all you’ve ever done is get up, go to work, pay your bills, and watch some American Idol at night.
I’ve never been a fan of bullies so I apologize if this article is…
A Little Skewed
After all – even IF you consider the man a traitor, does he really deserve the “justice” the U.S. government wants to deliver? At BEST he will be tortured and thrown in jail for life.
I have to admit, I cheered when the U.S. started pressuring Ecuador to refuse asylum to Mr. Snowden and they essentially said “go to hell.”
It started when a U.S. official said he would “use his leverage over trade issues to cut preferential treatment of Ecuadoran goods at the US market, should Ecuador grant political asylum to Snowden.”
Their response?
“Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests.”
“Ecuador is willing to allocate $23 million annually (equivalent to the sum gained from the benefits) to fund human rights training in the U.S.”
Awesome.
But even if someone was standing up to the empire, were they the…
Only Ones Willing?
I had read about President Obama’s historic visit to Germany where he was to speak about peace and freedom – and supposedly answer some hard questions about why his country was spying on everyone in the world.
To be honest, I watched the speech for all of ten minutes and had heard enough. Ten minutes of my life wasted on learning what his wife and kids were eating for lunch. Serious matters in Europe.
In the past few days, though, many countries in the E.U. (and their leaders) are learning they were specifically targeted for the massive spying program – that seems to have pissed them off.
The question now is: what will they do about it?
Will they take some drastic action or perform like the majority of Americans and just…
Sit On Their Couch!
In my recent travels I’ve been asked several times, why aren’t Americans rioting in the streets? Why aren’t they rising up against their government?
Good question. And I would answer it – but I’d rather watch Family Guy.
I say that with only a little tongue-in-cheek, because in reality – that’s the truth for many Americans. The sentiment is “I have nothing to hide, so why worry?”
Doesn’t it bother you that you’re being treated like a criminal even though you’ve done nothing wrong?
Doesn’t it bother you that your most intimate moments you share only with your family and loved ones can be used against you in public?
At what point is this behavior unacceptable? Where is the line? Will you only be upset when it directly disrupts your television program or your McDonald’s run?
I know some would tell me, “Well, my bills are paid and I have cold beer in the fridge so life is pretty good.”
Sure, it could be worse. But am I the only person around here who sees the pot is slowly starting to boil and all of the frogs are going to be cooked alive? …or do I deserve a tinfoil hat?
It seems the people of the world are waking up much faster than the Americans but regardless it will be interesting to see what happens.
For now, the President just says “Pay no attention to that man we cannot capture.”
I’m sure the average American will listen… but I hope for our own sake, you and I pay close attention to what’s going on.
Until next time,
Have a fantastic day and live well!
My partner and I stumbled over here different web addresss and thought I may as
well checxk things out. I like what I see sso i am just following you.
Look forward to going over your web page again.
Hi Kelly,
In case you did not know, our governments have been spying on us for a long time. Have you ever heard of ECHELON ? Check on Wicki.
In fact, your CIA devised a program that can filter conversations so to check for specific words.What words would interest the intelligence people ? I’m going to do my George Carlin imitation (may he rest in peace) and parody one of his best gigs, “the 7 dirty words” on tv. What could be these words today ? Bin Laden ? Probably not; after all, the guy’s dead ! Al Quaida ? Now that’s more like it ! What else ? Explosives ? Too easy. Terrorist; who would be dumb enough to write that ! C4 ? Is it alphabet reading or counting ? Could it be playing Battleship ? Guns and/or ammunition ? Oh boy, I’m going to have trouble with the NRA… Death to America ! I’m sure someone is selling bumper stickers like that on Times Square…
So, if I don’t meet the Mounties or officers of the Canadian Intelligence and Security Service (aka CISS) tomorrow morning, I will be able to write to you again soon.
I only published this article, I didn’t write it. Steve Hilgart actually wrote this piece. I don’t think the shock is as much toward the fact that the US government is spying on us… it’s the extent to which it has been doing so and for how long. I think Germany and Brussels knew that we were spying on them in some way… but I also think they were genuinely shocked to hear specifics and subsequently the extent to which the US had dug into their information.
I would say that I even thought profound levels of spying on our own allies was rather stupid… at least if it’s tethered to the guise of “national security”. It makes perfect sense from an economic standpoint, but either way, espionage is the name of the game.
Get real ” the average citizens commits THREE FELONIES a day. Or a thousand plus per year. Bubba, you are all fucked up.
DDW
http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/19/were-all-felons-now
It’s not the messenger who’s all fucked up… Ever wonder why they are collecting all this “meta data” on us? Because we are already guilty of something and probably don’t even know it… until we’re in the back of the paddy wagon with are hands cuffed still shouting, “What am I being charged with?!”
There are people being arrested for resisting arrest… with no charge to resist arrest to!
If you don’t think we’re committing 3 felonies a day, then why do we have the highest incarceration rate in the world not only in raw number but per 1,000??? One in six are for victimless “crimes”!
Time for you to look into how this game is rigged. The numbers don’t lie. It’s not the messenger who’s fucked up.
It seems to me most people that get arrested either have drugs in possetion, or a bad smell in cars from it. And or maybe a substance was seen thrown out of window. Other things like strong smell of liquor on person or in car. So if a test was given, it would show up. Some other things like a pot pipe on person, even if walking. Then there is property damage if in crash of some kind. Like the one that just happened in front of my place breaking a telephone pole and damage to my property knocking down heavy rails with glass all over my lawn again. But this is not even reported in the police computer. As i investigated because i wanted to know what insurence they had. Not even a telephone was hooked up to my home or computer. As the pole was replaced in the middle of the night. Sometimes the system sucks, as to all the hundreds of accidents in this town going on constantly without being reported.
Don’t really know who you are, but everything that you emailed me is jibberish. Worse then some politition telling the public this and that. If you want to tell me to get fucked, then your just a dick head that is trying to cover something up.
If they canceled the super bowl people would be rioting in the streets. I used to wonder why the gov subsidized major sports. It is to keep us amused. Muse = to think and an A before it makes it the opposite. When I ran for congress I was shocked to find out how few people knew who represented them in congress. Many could spew off complete histories of sports players. People doing the important job of moving a ball around. You have an extra tinfoil hat? I guess I need one too.
All we actually hear is that he blew the wissel as to listening on conversations as to what the government thought was essentual. Since then, it sounds as though the government says he is telling some of our other secrets. Still i don’t hear any proof of that. So why are they making such a big thing out of this when they are not even sure of anything else ? You don’t condem a person for what we know.
We’ll probably never know the whole truth. Thanks for reading :-)
Also it seems i’ve heard on TV about the government doing this same thing on our computers, of which was said a few months ago. So it seems more people can get access to these facts. What would be so different as to telephones ?