"[Sen. Wyden] on Edward Snowden, how the NSA misled Congress, and reining in the massive collection"

[Savannahmann]

36. My Favorite Quote.

RW: I can't talk about classified information, but what I try to do is describe what I think the bottom line is. You have an always-expanding, omnipresent surveillance state that's constantly chipping away at the liberties and freedoms of law-abiding Americans. There's an old saying: You really don't miss your liberties until they're gone. Particularly with cell phones. You have a computer in your pocket which can be used as a 24/7 tracking device. The position of the government is they have the authority to do the tracking. They say they aren't, but they're unambiguous about saying they have the authority to do it.

I tried to deliver the wake up call, the warning about the Patriot Act the last time it was reauthorized. Recently, I've offered up another warning: This is a unique time in our constitutional history. If we don't use this special historical period to reform American surveillance laws and practices, I believe our generation is going to live to regret it. A surveillance state that is taking away liberties and freedoms that the Founding Fathers established and doing it all without actually making anybody safer.[/div]

Without Snowden, and Manning, none of these issues would be discussed. It took someone to expose the secrets so the Conversation could be started. As I pointed out on another thread. If we had sat here and discussed it hypothetically, we would have been dismissed if we had theorized about keystroke, or Prism, or any of the data gathering programs. We would have been shut down for putting forth Conspiracy Theory nonsense. When this first broke, we were all compared unfavorably to Alex Jones more than once. We would post the latest information on the NSA. The inevitable come back was that we should stop listening to Alex Jones. Having never heard him, I would post the link and it would still be dismissed.

But now, now people believe these programs exist, and now, finally after a decade of crap, we're getting to put some pressure on Washington and get people behind the principle. It has taken years, but finally the dirty secrets are seeing the light of day. Senator Wyden is a good and principled man IMO. However, he can't very well discuss the programs if he's prohibited from discussing them. We can't know what he's talking about, and we can't be informed about what our Government is doing if all the dirty doings are wrapped in secrecy.

In two months, we've gone from Alex Jones lunatics to just short of a plurality. Soon, we who think Civil Rights is the one thing we must focus on the most, will be the majority.

All this because one guy stole some slides and a handful of documents from work. In a century, Snowden with all his flaws, and his pole dancing girlfriend (Not sure what is bad about that but what do I know) will be heralded along some of the greats. Because Snowden set in motion the changes that are yet to happen for us. When Congress has to face facts that Civil Rights really do matter to the people.

Write him off as a criminal if you want. But soon the Government is going to be reformed, and if history is any indicator, they'll go kicking and screaming and grabbing everything they can to slow it down.