To those who say ‘trust the government’ on NSA spying: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/01/to-those-who-say-trust-the-government-on-nsa-spying-remember-j-edgar-hoovers-fbi/



It’s a fine thing to see mainstream American media outlets finally sparing some of their attention toward the cyber-industrial complex – that unprecedented conglomeration of state, military and corporate interests that together exercise growing power over the flow of information. It would be even more heartening if so many of the nation’s most influential voices, from senator to pundits, were not clearly intent on killing off even this belated scrutiny into the invisible empire that so thoroughly scrutinizes us – at our own expense and to unknown ends.

Summing up the position of those who worry less over secret government powers than they do over the whistleblowers who reveal such things, we have New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who argues that we can trust small cadres of unaccountable spies with broad powers over our communications. We must all wish Friedman luck with this prediction. Other proclamations of his – including that Vladimir Putin would bring transparency and liberal democracy to Russia, and that the Chinese regime would not seek to limit its citizens’ free access to the internet – have not aged especially well.

An unkind person might dismiss Friedman as the incompetent harbinger of a dying republic. Being polite, I will merely suggest that Friedman’s faith in government is as misplaced as faith in the just and benevolent God that we know not to exist – Friedman having been the winner of several of the world’s most-coveted Pulitzer Prizes.

If Friedman is, indeed, too quick to trust the powerful, it’s a trait he shares with the just over half of Americans, who tell pollsters they’re fine with the NSA programs that were until recently hidden from their view. Why, our countrymen wonder, ought we to be disturbed by our state’s desire to know everything that everyone does? Given the possibility that this surveillance could perhaps prevent deaths in the form of terrorist attacks, most Americans are willing to forgo some abstract notion of privacy in favor of the more concrete benefits of security.

[OnyxCollie]

1. This will all blow over in one or two Friedman Units (FU). nt

[Kurovski]

2. But President Obama is much more handsome than J. Edgar Hoover.

If a whistle-blower wishes to be taken seriously, they will have to have a Q rating of a Channing Tatum. Focus on the facts, xchrom!

[xchrom]

3. !

[Kurovski]

4. I'm glad to see you're coming around to the proper point of view...

but was it entirely necessary to include a picture of old Bulldog Summons? I was having such a lovely day until that image appeared.

[xchrom]

5. He has a bad, bad case of Teh Serious. Nt

[Kurovski]

6. His heels are two sizes too small.

I know the look.

[xchrom]

7. He should have stopped at 3in mules. Nt

[Kurovski]

8. Not profesional enough.

Mules are for weekend dinners in Martha's Vineyard.

But he could have found a happy medium. Maybe spy on the House of Dior or Chanel to get a clue.

They had fifth Avenue locations, didn't they?

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. I'll bet he had sycophantic apologists too. n/t