SNOWDEN SNOW JOB
nightmare on white street
by edward bass
Surveillance
became up close and personal when those busybodies of my TriBeCa 79
White Street NY condo installed a camera in front of the only private
spot I can call my own. Everyone has a peeping Tom inside them (I have
cameras in my unit), my neighbors have more. They used to shoot pictures
of me on my patio, call the police when they anticipated a party and
broke in several times (in the name of the board). I have wiped them out
in court but now they have gone to far! So understand how I will fight
for my privacy as a filmmaker- I want final cut! Whether it be from NSA
or my hoodlum housewife neighbors eyeballing my dates or celebrity
vistors or waiting for me on some dark alley!
Arguably since Abraham Lincoln
no individual has given a more credible issue to rally the Republican Party than Edward Snowden, and no one has made us rethink our inner soul
like him. The GOP always gets the blame for what happens under their
watch; the party that could not shoot straight, have found donkeys in a
barrel. The Obama administration is treating Snowden as a traitor, not
as the whistleblower his base of support claim.
Look
past the past torture, the killing of American citizens with drones,
look past Gitmo, and understand that honest Americans are losing their
rights; this is torture!
President
Obama has dropped the hammer on more whistleblowers than any president
in U.S. history. Prior to Obama taking office, only three people in
total ... had been charged with [violating the Espionage Act]." Under
Obama's watch, that number has more than tripled.
Libyan ambassador Sidi Haji Adbrahaman told the US ambassador : “Islamic Piracy was founded on the laws of the Prophet, as it was written in the Koran;
that all nations which had not acknowledged [Islam’s] authority were
sinners; that it was [the Muslim’s] right and duty to make war upon them
and enslave them as prisoners, and that every Muslim slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
That US ambassador was Thomas Jefferson who studied the Koran, to become more knowledgeable about his chief enemy – the Islamic terrorists, who terrorized American ships, enslaving Americans, demanding protection money and ransom for their release. Over 5 million
westerners were held prisoner and yet we were neither adjusting our
constitution then nor should we be apologizing for Obama’s use of drones
now.The 4th Amendment states that we as American citizens are protected against unwarranted search and seizure. Sir Edward Coke first identified this right in English law. The judge ruled, "The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.” Maybe there never were not have been red or blue states!!
The
only camp you should be ascribing to is the fact-finding one, not the
opinion backing one. You may not yet know if you stand on left or right
but you can always try to decipher right from wrong (which may make you a
centrist)...
The
line between right and wrong is often jagged and blurry. Sometimes its a
paradoxical full circle. As in this case for instance; our government
('...of the people by the people...') thru the National Security Agency,
is imposing on our freedom (...'don't tread on me...') to protect our
freedom, by listening into our conversations, tracking our electronic
communications, (or the Transportation Security Administration, an
agency of The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is taking nude
pictures of EVERYONE about to board a plane).
The
question is: At what point do the methods of protecting our freedom
cause too much imposition to our freedom?
We are stirring the pot to promote discussion and suggest you consider sticking to the Socratic method of asking the key questions rather than telling people what to think. Its okay to be young and dumb but better to not yet know your stance. Experience and education builds perspective character, the evolution of which demands the formation of intelligent stands on issues. (The biggest insult politicians hurl at other politicians when running against them for office is that they vacillate on the issues depending upon how the political winds of the day are blowing.)
We are stirring the pot to promote discussion and suggest you consider sticking to the Socratic method of asking the key questions rather than telling people what to think. Its okay to be young and dumb but better to not yet know your stance. Experience and education builds perspective character, the evolution of which demands the formation of intelligent stands on issues. (The biggest insult politicians hurl at other politicians when running against them for office is that they vacillate on the issues depending upon how the political winds of the day are blowing.)
My
uncle Bob was very keen on this. He knew of every U.S. senator of every
state and knew where they stood on the key issues of the day. He could
smell out the phonies and suffered no fools. He was very much bothered
that Obama inordinately was absent for the votes or abstained from votes
on laws in his pre-presidential senate days. He would possibly direct
you to this link, if his fingers ever touched a keyboard! http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/9490/barack-obama-ii/?p=2#.UfFI_Y3VB6k
I
am not as adamant about making the government the enemy for attempting
to flush out the evil screws who want to kill us in the name of their
religion. Yet I am for adhering to the constitutional right of freedom
of religion, so long as the practice of that religion does not tread on
me. I am also for punishment of those who engage in the unlawful abuse
of power. Yet I do question several laws in place.
There is much to question about how (political) things came to be. Arguably, the political expediency of Jefferson and our 'Founding Fathers' in writing our Declaration of Independence is incongruous with their being slave owners. One could say Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was being politically expedient in freeing the slaves because it effectively denied the South access to the cheap labor necessary to harvest the cotton they needed to sell to the British to buy arms. Its a very complex world out there. You will have to actively figure it out for yourself. Don't let anyone's influence pigeonhole you into their position before you've satisfied your curiosity on the subject. Its important to take a stand, but its more important to base that stand on fact acquired with an open mind. Utmost character may even be the ability to say, "I've been wrong."
Contributors: Todd Barrett
