Thursday, June 06, 2013

Fill In That Scandal-a-Palooza Wildcard Bracket, People

This scandal bracket was supposed to be a wry joke.  Well, nobody's laughing now as we know that we can definitely fill in that last wild card bracket with the news about the NSA and Verizon.  

People are furious, and they should be.  Don't give us that stupid argument that if we've done nothing wrong, then we've nothing to fear from government agencies snooping around.  Secret blanket surveillance is not OK.  This isn't even targeted.  This isn't about people suspected of wrongdoing.  The NSA's just indiscriminately scooping up everything on everybody.  Anyway, see this and this, which pithily snarks, "from the Verizon: home-to-nearly-100-million-terrorism-suspects! dept."

Oh, by the way, am I the only one starting to get a case of "scandal fatigue"?  Another day, another mess in the news ... Hey, government overreach?  Must be Thursday.

Also, Rand Paul.

UPDATE: But wait, there's more!

2 comments:

Eric said...

Of the takes I've read, or can guess at, the one I most agree with is Michelle Malkin's take:
http://michellemalkin.com/2013/06/06/history-lesson-the-crucial-differences-between-bush-and-obamas-nsa-phone-surveillance-programs/

The surveillance power is based on a legitimate state interest. However, a justified and necessary power - lake any state power - can be abused. The answer is to roll back the overreach, not remove the whole power and undermine the legitimate state interest.

The best way to fix the abuse is a system reboot that removes the Obama corruption and restores Bush's original program. But to do that, the American public needs to understand the distinctions between Obama's and Bush's applications.

Malkin takes the right tack to criticize Obama's hypocrisy and overreach, and rehabilitate Bush's legacy while not throwing out the baby of national security with the bathwater.

Mad Minerva said...

Yep, and you know that the overreach this time has crossed a line that not even the establishment media can ignore if we see this in the Obamaphiliac New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0