Thank you, Edward Snowden, for highlighting the dangers of privatizing government functions!

[struggle4progress]

How does a young man from Elizabeth City in North Carolina, thirty years old, get in such a position in such a sensitive area?
SNOWDEN: ... I would say it highlights the dangers of privatizing government functions ... What that means is you have private for-profit companies doing inherently governmental work, like targeted espionage, surveillance, compromising foreign systems. And anyone who has the skills, who can convince a private company that they have the qualifications to do so, will be empowered by the government to do that and there's very little oversight. There's very little review ...

1 vote, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Thank you, Mohamed Atta, for calling our attention to hazards facing skyscrapers!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, Four Winds Construction Company, for pointing out the dangers of natural gas
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, John Pike, for helping us understand the dangers of pepper spray!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, Fukushima Daiichi, for educating us about safety issues with nuclear plants!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, James Holmes, for warning us how vulnerable we are in movie theatres!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, for explaining the importance of fire codes!
	1 (100%)
	Thank you, George Bush, for reminding us that elections matter!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, Duke Energy, for teaching us about problems with coal ash storage!
	0 (0%)
	Thank you, Butch and Sundance, for pointing out lax bank security!
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Wilms]

1. Thank you, struggle4progress, for highlighting the pointlessness of your posts.

[struggle4progress]

3. A body might could wonder: whoever suggested to Snowden that he portray his acts as

"highlighting the dangers of privatizing government functions"

[AgingAmerican]

2. Thank you NSA

For pointing out the benefits of blanket public surveillance. It's free one way cloud storage!

[struggle4progress]

6. Snowden does seem to have some difficulty staying focussed on that particular talking point

This is just one of the latest examples, but the tendency was obvious even when he was still in China, where he provided the South China Morning Post with a specific list of NSA targets in China

It would, of course, have had little interest to the South China Morning Post, and their government contacts, if Snowden had reported to them that the NSA hoped for "blanket surveillance" of China: the specific list was, however, interesting to them

[AgingAmerican]

7. I doubt snowden cares about talking points

Thank god for the NSA!! Keeping us free, one citizen at a time!

[Marr]

4. You're comparing Snowden to the 9-11 terrorists now?

You NSA apologists have really lost it.

But whatever-- keep on "struggling for progress", lol.

[struggle4progress]

8. I gave various analogies to captures the idiotic irony of Snowden's self-description

as "highlighting the dangers of privatizing government functions"

If you do not like one analogy, you may choose another

Snowden is not the only one who has had difficulty staying consistently on message. Greenwald has quite informatively said:

... Snowden has enough information to cause more damage to the US government in a minute alone than anyone else has ever had in the history of the United States ... The US government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare ...

This Greenwald quote is interesting, as it exhibits clearly Greenwald's grandiose anti-government libertarian ambitions

[AgingAmerican]

12. Snowden derangement syndrome

You can't defend blanket domestic NSA spying, so you do this instead.

[Marr]

14. +1, Yep.

It's become so lame that I rarely even engage anymore, personally. Just one Breitbart-style smear after another.

[struggle4progress]

15. "Anyone who disagrees with me about Snowden is a Nazi!"

[Fumesucker]

5. Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events

Small minds discuss people.

It's a handy rule of thumb, so to speak.

[struggle4progress]

10. Politics, and political analysis, require attention to actual events and actual people:

only ideologists can avoid that

[Fumesucker]

13. Everyone who has an agenda has an ideology which drives that agenda

Pure pragmatism just like pure agenda and pure ideology does not actually exist in the natural state.

[TheMathieu]

9. Ouch.

Those poll choices are going to sting.

[EOTE]

11. It's OK, polls are difficult.

Cogency can be as well sometimes. Try, try again.

[SomethingFishy]

16. So Snowden bad.. Government that allows a company owned by

the Carlyle group which is in turn owned partially by the Bin Laden family to have NSA contracts... good?

How does a family that has according to all government sources, ATTACKED the U.S. as Terrorists, get to own a company doing secret work for the NSA?

Thom Hartmann keeps asking this question. But all I hear is GREENWALD, SNOWDEN, ODS, CULTISTS... BLUE MEENIES!!!