Greenwald's Latest - He is counter punching to great effect!

[AceWheeler]

157. Nope, didn't lie

Mislead, yes, lie, no. The operative word used by the senator was the verb "collect" Does the NSA collect data on millions of Americans. And in truth, it does not. The data is collected by others and made available to the NSA. The NSA has neither the means, nor the apparatus to collect this data.

Clapper, like Clinton when he said he didn't have sex with Monica Lewinski (and he didn't--he got them to define "sex" and by their definition, he did NOT have sex with her) evaded, because the question was poorly phrased. The question should have been, "Does the NSA have access to data on millions of Americans?" The follow-up question should then have been: "Does the NSA use the previously collected data?"

And this leads to a major problem in this discussion about what Snowden has said: The fact that this data is out there, massive amounts of it. Whether the NSA uses this data in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks is secondary to this primary fact.

There is much interest in attacking the government and little attention, by comparison, to the fact that the NSA could not mine data that is not available. The latter is important, but it is second in line when it comes to priorities.

The fact that so many people want to go after the government says more about them than the issue before us. Do we know and realize what a very large quantity of information (data) is routinely kept by all sorts of businesses (internet, bank, stores, credit rating companies, etc.) and government agencies (county registrar, DMV, etc.), information that they use repeatedly (to track what we do, send us ads, etc.)? Do we care?

If we don't care about that data being out there available to scrutiny, the second question is: Do we want our government to use all available means to protect us from terrorist attacks, including mining this massive amount of data already available (GAP thinks not and calls such surveilance "corrosive," just as the NRA thinks 2nd Amendment rights preempt background checks)?

Putting these two questions together: Are we in favor of NSA data mining existing data from multiple sources?

So....where to you stand on these questions.