McCain, Schumer On Snowden: Russia Should Pay

[Purveyor]

Source: CNN

By Ashley Killough, CNN

(CNN) — Two high-profile senators on Sunday continued to admonish Russia for not handing over Edward Snowden, the leaker of National Security Agency secrets who’s hiding in Russia as he seeks asylum in Ecuador.

Republican Sen. John McCain said Snowden’s actions amounted to a “slap in the face to the United States” and called President Vladimir Putin “an old colonel KGB apparatchik” who “dreams of the restoration of the Russian Empire.”

“I think we pushed the reset back down to about 1955. And so we have to deal realistically with an autocratic ruler of Russia who continues to repress people,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“They thumb our nose at us no matter what the issue is, and we should deal realistically, not a return of the Cold War, but realistically with Vladimir Putin,” he also said.

Read more: http://wtvr.com/2013/06/30/mccain-schumer-on-snowden-russia-should-pay/

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Lindsay is going to be pissed...McCain has found a new friend!

[Ash_F]

1. Putin is a fundie who hates gays and loves the flat tax

McCain and him should be bros.

[Purveyor]

4. And THAT has what to do with the Snowden situation? oem

[Ash_F]

6. Aren't we ornery today?

“I think we pushed the reset back down to about 1955. And so we have to deal realistically with an autocratic ruler of Russia who continues to repress people,” McCain

I was looking at McCain's opinion of Putin right there.

[Purveyor]

8. Very. eom

[truthisfreedom]

2. Lesse... What could we possibly do to hurt Russia?

Got it! We'll exile dubya and he can go drive Putin crazy by following him around calling him "pootie-poot" until he gives up snowden!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

3. Haha what are we going to do?

Couple of dumb asses.

[Galraedia]

5. Snowden's nothing but a hypocritical ass and McCain's an old fart passed his expiration date

Screw both of them. And as far as Snowden goes, take back the property he stole and drop his ass off in Somalia.

[Purveyor]

7. So Schumer is the 'darling' that escapes your rant? eom

[Galraedia]

9. Who the f@%k is Schumer?

[azurnoir]

14. well you got your answer

but hmmm seems like Schumer thinks the Ecuadorians should strangled (economically) too

[Catherina]

10. Somebody needs to shut those two clowns up before they do further damage

Show a little dignity you clowns. Putin already made it clear he's enjoying watching US politicians 'squeal like pigs'.

This is more embarrassing than when Bush was throwing a temper tantrum and demanding the Chinese return our spy jet. And he seems to take pleasure in letting us know just what he thinks of our comportment.

Mr. Obama arrived in office determined to invest in Mr. Medvedev, but he underestimated Mr. Putin’s continuing power. Their first meeting was marked by a nearly hourlong lecture by Mr. Putin about all the ways the United States had offended Moscow. At their second, Mr. Putin kept Mr. Obama waiting 30 minutes.

www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/world/americas/extending-a-hand-abroad-obama-often-finds-a-cold-shoulder.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin kept Kerry waiting three hours before their meeting at the Kremlin on Tuesday and continuously fiddled with his pen as the top American diplomat spoke about the ongoing crisis in Syria.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321001/Vladimir-Putin-keeps-John-Kerry-waiting-THREE-HOURS-visit-Russia-Syria-talks.html

Is it too much to ask our politicians to act with a little bit more dignity?

[MADem]

16. OUR politicians? When they're left rudely cooling their heels by the petulant Pootie Poot and his

pissant pustules?

I think the ones without dignity use the Cyrillic alphabet.

[fujiyama]

18. Petulant describes McCain and Schumer's behavior perfectly

Putin is a thug and it's to be expected. He's cynical, nasty, and manipulative. On the other hand, we have supposedly dignified politicians going around issuing threats based on some rogue NSA contractor. It's not Putin's fault if he wants to extract as much info from this guy as he can. And besides, the rest of the world is absolutely sick of our holier than thou, hypocritical bullshit on the world's stage. No one wants to hear lecturing about human rights from a country that gives itself the right to drone whomever it sfeels like, including its own citizens. People around the world are having a field day with this and for good reason.

Sorry, OUR politicians ARE a fucking embarrassment and lack even the least bit of dignity...

I think this Snowden affair is very revealing when I start seeing posts defending neocon hacks like Schumer and McCain.

[MADem]

20. On the international stage, they're rubes. Pootie Poot shouldn't leave a peer leader or his

direct emissary, his SECSTATE, twiddling their thumbs for any amount of time. Pootie wasn't meeting Schumer or McCain, so your whine doesn't make any sense in this context.


Frankly, I could give a flying fuck what a member of Pootie's Politburo has to say, and I certainly wouldn't allow any behavior by a national LEGISLATIVE politician in any country to influence how our nation handles protocol towards the nation's leader.

So sorry, indeed--shitbird behavior is shitbird behavior--and it is humiliating--for the Russians. What Pootie did to Obama and Kerry was graceless, classless, pigheaded, boorish conduct.


Schumer is a very good Democrat, you know--or maybe you don't. He's the guy who will vote on those 'hack' things like keeping social security and raising the minimum wage, and making sure women don't get fucked out of equal pay.... but I guess you don't keep track of who's who in the zoo, since you can't tell him from McCain and are loving doing that "lumping" thing.

What this Snowden affair is revealing is that there are more faux Dems on this board than I realized...and that lots of people will take the word of a thin, wan, waxy stranger who looks like an extra in a teen vampire movie just .... because. And even when his assertions are proven to be bullshit, they'll double down...just...because. It sure does say something; precisely what, though, I'm not sure.

It doesn't reflect well on them, in any event.

[JDPriestly]

21. I am most concerned about the information that Obama has confirmed --

that the government is studying and recording our metadata.

If you belong to any minority religion or other minority group, you should be concerned. That affects me personally very much -- as well as many others on DU.

Some who would be affected are gays and lesbians, Muslims or Jews, immigrants from anywhere in the world, people with dual nationality, people with a lot of friends or family living somewhere else in the world, people with unusual hobbies or political or social ideas, people who work in certain scientific fields, basically anyone who has an unusual interest. That would include people with a hobby of collecting guns or studying military history. People who watch endless videos on certain wars or military equipment. People who read a lot and use the internet a lot to research things like military history, military equipment, certain periods in history, foreign languages.

A lot of people will have networks that are unusual and can be discovered by analyzing their computer searches, e-mail tos and froms, telephone calls, etc.

If you don't have any interests or social ties that might cause some administration to study your metadata and maybe target you, then you are very lucky.

But if you think about the number of claimed agnostics or atheists on DU, if you think of the number of abortion rights supporters, anti-discrimination supporters, etc. on DU, you realize that any one of us could be the target of some right-wing fanatics in some corner of the government.

This surveillance is incompatible with freedom.

[MADem]

22. This surveillance has been going on for decades. Nearly a century, in a corporate sense.

Go to the grocer, use a loyalty card, and your receipt will come with a bunch of coupons that are suggested based on your purchases. Same deal with your pharmacy loyalty card. Go on the facebook, and ads get targeted to you. It's been one nation, under surveillance for a long ass time.

I conduct myself circumspectly online, and on the phone. Always have--I've lived in countries where they weren't subtle about tapping your phone or tossing your house--not to steal, just to snoop.

I spent the entire Bush administration years getting stopped at TSA every time I tried to fly. I was on the Watch List and couldn't get off it. I'm quite sure it was a combination of my travel history and my party affiliation that put me on the list. I don't look like an average American either, so I'm sure that contributed as well. I used to fedex my clothes ahead of me to spare myself some agony. Now the TSA excesses have been resolved and they are taking a smarter approach to them, and leaving off people like me, and taking into account my decades of honorable service, with no running off to China or Russia with secrets for sale or barter, either.

Metadata is not YOU, your name, your conversations. It's your phone number. The phone company has been collecting that shit for as long as they have been billing people for using their phones--this isn't "new" data--back in the day, the phone company would send you pages of half sheets that listed all the calls you made, what number you called, and exactly, to the second, how long you talked. When the envelope was thick you knew the bill would be huge. That's metadata. Nowadays, people have all-in-one calling plans so they don't get an itemized bill. They could though--if they ASKED for it, because the phone company STILL collects the data. It's often the first thing requested in a contentious divorce...!

So long as you aren't exchanging hummus recipes with Osama's successor every week, you're not going to get targeted. Much as you might want to, to prove some odd point. They don't care that much about you--they care about jerks with bombs. And they don't have enough people to listen in on boring ass conversations--this isn't the pasdaran or the baseej at work, here.

Many of my lifelong friends live outside USA and I travel enough. I'm just not worried about it. I have nothing to hide, and if I did, and I hated this country, which I don't... I would leave it, not cause agita.

Life is too short to be paranoid.

[Sand Wind]

11. I really hate Putin, but its not his fault if US is unable to monitor is own personal.

Have some dignity.

[SCVDem]

13. Admonish, eh?

Yeah, that'll hurt 'em!

[Jefferson23]

15. That's right, freak out on the international front, it will do wonders for us. Like either of them

have any power.

[Major Hogwash]

17. Oh, we will make Russia pay for this latest episode of noncooperation with the U.S. you can bet.

We'll let them have Windows 8.0, but not Windows 8.1.

That'll teach those pesky Russkies!!

[Scootaloo]

19. A has-been warmonger and a sickening racist fuckweasel? I care bout their opinions why?