Maybe it's because I've held a Top Secret security clearance once...

[Savannahmann]

30. I've read the same sentiment severl times.

It is as unacceptable now, as it has been. Let me boil down the argument.

First. The Government is going to collect intelligence and spy on you. Get over it. Get used to it, and learn to love it. That is the same asinine arguments that small minded people use about rape. If you're going to be raped, you might as well relax and enjoy it. It's wrong, it's immoral, and it's not in keeping with the principles of this nation. I eschew such arguments whenever they are made.

Second. The messenger. The messenger is a bad guy, and while he may be telling the truth, he is a bad guy and we should hold that against him and reject any information he brings out. Churchill when asked why he was speaking well of Stalin, a Dictator in charge of a system that Churchill had actively worked against, said that if Satan declared war on Hitler, he could count on Churchill making a favorable mention on the floor of the House of Commons. The obvious point is that first, we must defeat the greatest evil, and then we should work towards defeating the other, less threatening evils. Glen Greenwald may be a RW asshat. But is that worse than a Government that spies on it's own citizens? If I can find one area in which everyone can agree with me, and my ideals are based upon good principles, then my view is not that I am wrong, but that finally they are right.

My opinion is this. Civil Rights matter, for every one of us. When they are abused, or trampled, even for the worst of us, that abuse becomes the foundation of the next abuse. We did it here, and this guy is almost as bad as that guy.

No one should have the kind of power that these programs entail. We have a choice, we can accept, and become parties to it, and later when we ask how our children, and grand children, were targeted for speaking ideals that were unacceptable, we can feign ignorance, but we can't be stupid. We know where this leads. We've seen it before. We've seen McCarthyism, we've seen the House Un American Activities investigations. We've seen blacklists. Why would we not object?

Oh that's right, there's nothing we can do to prevent it, so we might as well relax and enjoy.