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Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

petitions.whitehouse.gov

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Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#71

Post by nadaviv »

bhauer wrote: post #46

I feel fairly silly hawking my own site whenever subjects like this come up, but here I go anyway. Feel free to tell me to shut up. :) I just simultaneously believe quite strongly in the idea of pairing calls for action with charitable donations. The donations make a clear and measurable message of the idea's importance. Plus, even if nothing happens, the charities benefit. So in any event, to get to the fireworks fa…

btf.io seems to be down, but http://brianstaskforce.com/382 works (which I think is the same website?).

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#73

Post by kimlelly »

cle wrote: post #69
soundgecko wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its sad that it took so long spite of being all over HN, Reddit, /. Etc. Shows that the tech community is not as big as we think and/or is apathetic to even filling a form, forget about peaceful marches. This is why politicians don't care and don't need to care about things that are important to only the tech crowd. The numbers are just not there. There are lots of posts, tens of thousands of comments, even more up v…

I wonder...how many people are not apathetic but scared to sign a petition like that? Also I think many people aren't apathetic about the issue, they're apathetic about the White House's laughable petitioning system.

"people are not apathetic but scared to sign"

That's exactly what this surveillance is doing: killing free speech by intimidation is killing democracy.

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#74

Post by nmcfarl »

rantanplan wrote: post #51
lignuist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You really think that he's pulling the strings? I have absolutely no idea. How could I, if everything is kept in secret? What I can do, is asking Obama, if he likes what he is doing. If his daughters like what he is doing. If he still believes in "change". If he wants to appear in history books in a row with Bush jr., McCarthy and Soviet leaders. I don't expect answers from Obama, but I can say, that I would not li…

You said it all in your last sentence. You could not ever be him. You're a normal human being. Presidents, regardless of country of origin, don't have that prerequisite. Actually it's a bonus point if they don't have it. The history books will find a way to portray him in a good light. As history books have taught us.

History books do not portray all leaders, even American leaders, in a favorable light. A perusal of history books will come up with quite a number of people portrayed very poorly indeed. A glaring example: Nixon.

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#75

Post by Everlag »

soundgecko wrote: post #64
freyrs3 wrote: post #7

Expect a response pretty much like this: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/why-we-cant-commen...

Its sad that it took so long spite of being all over HN, Reddit, /. Etc. Shows that the tech community is not as big as we think and/or is apathetic to even filling a form, forget about peaceful marches. This is why politicians don't care and don't need to care about things that are important to only the tech crowd. The numbers are just not there. There are lots of posts, tens of thousands of comments, even more up v…

Perhaps it could be due to the fact that, given all past evidence, the chance of this specific petition actually doing anything of any importance is extremely small.

Every time anything even mildly controversial has gotten the signatures required, it is either ignored or replied to with a template answer.

Perhaps one could get a little fatigued after continuous failure to elicit change.

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#77

Post by mscarborough »

austenallred wrote: post #33
meowface wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure he does realize it already, as does the DoJ and NSA. It doesn't matter to them. If you leak Top Secret material it better be something as damning as the assassination of a politician or anything along those lines, else you won't be shown any mercy by the government. It's really just a matter of "50 years, or life without parole" at this point.

Exactly. Which is why the petition matters - it forces a response from the White House. (Obama promised to respond to each petition that reaches 100,000 signatures)

These petitions don't really seem to matter -- there are plenty without a response. Previously, the administration "promised" to respond to all w/ 25,000 signatures. Now it's 100k.

What policies have been affected in any way by these things? Takes about 5 seconds to sign one once you have an account, so the results seem to be pretty close to the effort it requires from the public.

Voted for Obama twice but he's just as much of a liar as any other politician.

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#78

Post by mpyne »

melling wrote: post #68
austenallred wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but honestly that's OK. It's a small step, but for the president to have to come out and say, "I recognize that a significant number of the American people support this man who is convicted of espionage, but..." is a pretty novel thing.

100,000 isn't a significant number of people. You are living in a HN echo chamber. I'm not sure most Americans care. I'd love to know exactly what the NSA is doing. There needs to be some sort of oversight, of course, but they certainly have a job to do. I recently heard former President Clinton talk about it and he was somewhat convincing that there are certain restrictions. At any rate, aren't we venturing into pol…

What else is HN supposed to be for, tech startups and self-improvement tips?

Re: Petition to pardon Edward Snowden reaches 100,000 signatures

#80

Post by pavanred »

ashleyblackmore wrote: post #67
austenallred wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Which is why the petition matters - it forces a response from the White House. (Obama promised to respond to each petition that reaches 100,000 signatures)

Obama promised a lot of things (and didn't act upon those promises)!

And was awarded a Nobel prize..
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