General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This is what hurts my brain a little bit. [View all]haele
(12,692 posts)Will, these "secrets" have been pretty open, and most of us agree that it's wrong no matter who does it. Some of us are even still working to get these projects gone.
My primary concern is that the only reason there's been a bro-ha-ha of a leak is that there's no "President Romney" and his administrative toadies to keep the Bush-era NSA policies untouched through Congress and a packed Judiciary. The Sequester and the budget games have been shining the spotlight on how much all programs cost; I seriously doubt Snowden - who had apparently been having qualms (and probably voiced them) since 2005 would have been encouraged to whistle-blow if his cohorts wouldn't have been worried that their gravy train was being looked at and started supporting him in speaking out.
There are a lot of idealists who don't understand or won't acknowledge the massive amounts of manipulation in the private sector that goes on to "get the contract, keep it funded and make sure there's a follow-on" - they only see the job they're doing, and not how that job came to be and is continuing. And the higher-ups in these contractor companies have a very good idea on what motivates the individuals they hire at critical or classified positions, especially someone who has been operating at that level in classified programs for close to ten years and had enough of a reputation to overcome just having a GED.
That this is a cynical ploy by people making shitloads of money off the NSA and other questionable areas of the Government that will keep the focus on the Administration and work to hamstring it rather than fixes for the policies.
The problem I see is not what has been going on, or that there was finally a sponsored whistle-blower, but the entrenchment of profiteering off the US Government that has been going on since Poppy Bush wedded his corporate buddies to the CIA to run drugs to pay for "intelligence" programs. And it makes me suspicious that there's a whistleblower now, when there have been movements in the various oversight committees to question the validity of expenditures, and the Executive Office has started making moves about getting Congress to modify or getting rid of some of the Bush-era National Security policies.
So, when do we stop pointing fingers and start looking at the real problem?
In the NSA/spying issue, the problem is the Private Sector/Public Sector revolving door and contractors doing work "for the government" on their own terms, making their own policies with no responsibility if something goes wrong - work that the Government should be directing policy and providing the workforce on.
The Fourth Amendment (and the First, and Tenth, and Fourteenth) will stand, so long as no one can make much of a profit off weakening it. The reason they are in trouble, is that there are a few people with lots of money making even more money making laws and changing the meaning of the Constitution for their benefit. And unfortunately, only those hypocrites in Congress can really make it less profitable to do so, because they hold the purse-strings.
Haele