Our Country is dying FAST!

[joninliverton]

So Will... Do you think Snowden is a black hat, a white hat or a gray hat?

Talking of Snowden, he's been seen in Moscow once more.

 

[rrhill]

[h=1]Majority of Americans think Snowden did the right thing[/h]Fifty-five percent of registered American voters consider former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to be a whistleblower, and only 34 percent call him a traitor - despite US lawmakers labeling him as such.

A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that the majority of Americans perceive Snowden as a man who exposed the inappropriate surveillance tactics of the US government - not as a man who betrayed his duty.
read: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...ers-say-snowden-is-whistle-blower-not-traitor

 

[rrhill]

[h=1]Snowden case shows leakers need protection: U.N. rights chief[/h]Friday Jul 12, 2013
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay gave guarded support for fugitive former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Friday, saying his case showed the need to protect people who uncovered abuses.In her first public comments on the matter, Pillay also called on all countries to respect the right for people to seek asylum.
Snowden, wanted by the United States for leaking details of its secret surveillance programs, said on Friday he would seek temporary asylum in Russia. Washington has pressed nations not to take him in or help him travel.
read more: http://nos.nl/artikel/529101-vn-help-klokkenluider-als-snowden.html

 

[shyhedgehog]

I think there's a definite difference between intelligence and what has happened here.

Intelligence gathering should be led and targetted fairly specifically to ensure that people's rights to privacy are balanced carefully with the absolute need for the population to be protected.

Prism seems to have been a massive catch-all net and I'm not sure what evidence there is for conducting intelligence on this way.

Obviously many people will have some distasteful views about certain things and would only say these in what they think is private, often in frustration. Most of us will agree that these opinions are wrong and abhorrent but the cast majority would not act on these thoughts or let them impact on their daily lives or the lives of others.

Should we get to the point of Minority Report?

 

[mikeyank]

I'm just happy that Perry isn't running again for Governor of Texas.

With today's news coming out, I can certainly see your point:

Texas Senate passes sweeping abortion restrictions, send to Gov. Perry to sign into law

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...-restrictions-article-1.1397843#ixzz2Yw3ZWkHX

 

[tampa24]

I'm just happy that Perry isn't running again for Governor of Texas.

With today's news coming out, I can certainly see your point:

Texas Senate passes sweeping abortion restrictions, send to Gov. Perry to sign into law

The other bad news though is that by leaving the governor's mansion it shows that he wants to run for president again. And he may just find enough idiots to vote for him. I really don't think he'll win though. He crashed and burned pretty badly in the last presidential primaries. He was too dumb to become president in 2013 but enough Texans figured he was smart enough to run the state.

That abortion bill is awful.

 

[joninliverton]

I think there's a definite difference between intelligence and what has happened here.

Intelligence gathering should be led and targetted fairly specifically to ensure that people's rights to privacy are balanced carefully with the absolute need for the population to be protected.

Prism seems to have been a massive catch-all net and I'm not sure what evidence there is for conducting intelligence on this way.

Obviously many people will have some distasteful views about certain things and would only say these in what they think is private, often in frustration. Most of us will agree that these opinions are wrong and abhorrent but the cast majority would not act on these thoughts or let them impact on their daily lives or the lives of others.

Should we get to the point of Minority Report?

No one knows how NSA, GCHQ and other countries' intelligence services gather information or indeed determine which is worth looking at and which is not. In today's society (as was the case with the UKs 7/7 London bombings), no one knows who is a terrorist and who is not. Some of the 7/7 terrorists were teachers and their secret was so well guarded that not even their closest family members knew what they were doing or what their ideology was.

Nowadays, the enemy is definitely within so if it means that we have to mass trawl everyone's emails, telephone conversations, texts etc, then so be it. At the end of the day if you're clean then you've got nothing to lose/hide. Be assured that our intelligence agencies will be targeting certain groups with more scrutiny than joe public, but I'm sure that they will have also developed some system to pick up phrases or words or even languages that alert the monitors. And a good job too. We don't want to see another 7/7 or 9/11 again.

 

[broadbander]

With today's news coming out, I can certainly see your point:

Texas Senate passes sweeping abortion restrictions, send to Gov. Perry to sign into law

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...-restrictions-article-1.1397843#ixzz2Yw3ZWkHX

Funnier still is that his sister stands on making money with this Abortion law that he was pressing hard into making law.

http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics...-an-advocate-for-ambulatory-surgical-centers/

One company that will be faced with that decision is United Surgical Partners International, based in Addison, TX. Their vice-president of government affairs is Milla Perry Jones, Gov. Rick Perry’s sister. She is also on the board of the Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center Society

 

[broadbander]

So Will... Do you think Snowden is a black hat, a white hat or a gray hat?

Public action I would go gray. While under contract work within the government sector, Red.

 

[tampa24]

I couldn't find a good definition of a red hat techie or hacker online. What's your definition of a red hat BB?

 

[rrhill]

 

[broadbander]

Actually it was a Final Fantasy joke for a Red Wizard of which was able to cast both Black Magic Spells and White Magic spells. So, basically a Grey Hat. ^_- I'm a gamer remember =P

 

[rrhill]

 

[angelone]

I think that Americans in general are more concern with quantity and the means of acquiring it - it's a sign of their short history. What is it, a little more than 200 hundred years old. Whereas your continent has more history and hopefully more time to think things through than the your cousins across the Atlantic. You may not be good at making money as the Americans but I believe that the Europeans maybe not the English are more reflective and yes, more civilized about what is important about society and its well-being. I say, Let the Americans do what Americans do best and Let Europe be a standard of what society should be. America for Pete's sake is always one step behind European when it comes to societal concerns, e.g., gay-marriage, gays in the military, voting rights, civil rights and so on.

 

[angelone]

Another thing on the subject on our country dying: Well, it isn't. Read our history especially the Civil War. If ever there was a time we could have perish as a united states it was there. I say, if you don't know your country's history you may come up with some outlandish comments. I believe that as long as people talk, there is always hope that there may be some resolution. Reasonable people converse, fanatics shout. And unfortunately there are too many fanatics in Congress who spend too much time doing nothing. People who do nothing are the ones who are killing this country. This may be a good reason to get rid of our form of government and adopt the European form. This adoption may solve the problem of deadlock in Congress where a minority can stop any legislation. My personal solution for fanatics is simple: send them back to school.