The Edward Snowden Debate:You don't have to like Edward Snowden.
"Sen. John Thune (R-SD) on MSNBC stated his opposition to Snowden's leaks and called for his prosecution.
Even though he is quite attractive. (At least women of twitter seem to think so.)
You don't even have to like what he's done
Call him a traitor, a spy. Whatever.
But when asked by Andrea Mitchell if he believes the sweeping nature of the surveillance, as detailed in the documents released by Snowden, is too broad and needs to be narrowed, (my italics) Thune responded...
"I think that's a really good question, Andrea."
How does the Senator answer?
" I think that's one that members of Congress are going to want to know the answer to. I suspect there's going to be a real push for additional Congressional oversight of some of these programs. Are we over-collecting? Have these programs been successful? Are members of Congress fully briefed? And, more importantly too, the American people? I think those are all very valid questions, many of which are going to be asked this week, and I think that, hopefully, we'll have an opportunity, through some additional oversight, to get members of Congress more fully briefed and to get some of these questions answered. ... I do believe we need to get the facts. ... That's a health debate to have."
You know what? That sounds like a good answer. In fact, it's exactly the answer I was hoping for. Only. There's something wrong with it. Isn't there?
WTF isn't the AMERICAN public informed about this already? Why on EARTH isn't COngress?
The Senator has given an admission of ignorance on a topic of some importance. That seems remarkable to me. All the while, the comments attempt to strike a moderate and concerned tone to the American Public. That seems like the definition of stonewalling to me. Thune has no interest in doing anything he's said.
We have secret programs. We have no oversight, we have no debate. We have....Project Shamrock.
But then again, do we? Here's a little bit of info from a congressional hearing that states the GOVT is not doing anything wrong. All we have to do (according to the blogger) is believe :
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Defends NSA Surveillance Programs
Then again:
How many years would have gone by without the revelations by Snowden about these programs? When will we see any true congressional oversight? i don't know the answer to these questions.
