Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm getting tired of seeing comments like this everywhere, which serve little use. Yes, it's been going on for a long time. Yes, many people have been aware of such programs as small bits have been leaked over the years. Yes, many of us have been angry about it for a long time. The difference this time is not specifically the new information but the fact that it hasn't successfully been buried in the news after a day…
Same here. Not only do such comments serve no useful purpose, but they are actually negatively impacting the "cause" to change things, because such comments are basically saying "relax people, this is old news...". NO! Now is not the time to relax, and it really doesn't matter if it's 1 week old news or 10 year old news. If it's that old, it's much more important to finally have the debate about privacy, which Congre…
It is nearly impossible to have a public discussion about threat assessment and mitigation. If a person has never truly experienced threat, which the vast(99%+) majority of the US public has not, then a persons ability to even identify threat is exponentially reduced. The perceived safety of a persons daily life directly effects the perception of overall threats, which in the context of the US severely jades any discussion towards inherently safe.
I am not an advocate of public surveillance and I am a strongly opinionated in regards to privacy, but my experiences abroad have lead me to resolve this conviction into the reality that is our world, and that world is not the lives we have in the US. The threats to this country are real, are large scale, are extreme, and are discovered every single day.
I know the argument is that we need to talk about this and we need to have review, but this has happened already. It happens all the time. It happens every time a warrant is issued. It was not one person or 5 people or 100 people, but thousands of people that have seen the threat and that have fought the threat with their own hands. These are the people that have time and time again decided that to much information is better than not enough.
I know that people will not agree with this, but I long ago discovered that principles and good intentions do not stop bullets and bombs.