Obama Defends Surveillance Programs as Legal and Limited

[Psephos]

89. bunnies, you have earned my respect as a *true* liberal thinker

I'm applying the definition from Bertrand Russell.

"The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment."
-- Bertrand Russell. Unpopular Essays, "Philosophy and Politics" (1950).


Hey, I'm sure this story will have twists and turns, and I'm also sure that pugs will try to make hay from it. I'm not treating the WaPo and Guardian stories as gospel. Over the next few days we'll be able to make better judgments as findings are either corroborated or disproved, and new facts come to light.

BUT. It's definitely bad.

Here's a good Mother Jones article from today worth reading. Justice Department is fighting release of a secret court finding that the government engaged in unconstitutional spying. Why?

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/justice-department-electronic-frontier-foundation-fisa-court-opinion

Also, I *highly* recommend finding a DVD of The Lives of Others, a movie about an East German tasked with spying on citizens. It's totally engrossing, and really brings you into the emotional and moral consequences of all this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lives-Others-Martina-Gedeck/dp/B000OVLBGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370658777&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lives+of+others

Good on ya!