I Think President Obama Should Hire Ed Snowden

[polichick]

The administration could use some smart Americans who still remember what this country was supposed to be about.

Bring him home and use him (along with plenty of others) to help find a Constitutional balance between citizen rights and security.

It's not surprising that Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe it's time for President Obama to build the Department of Peace that Dems used to dream about and earn his premature Nobel Peace Prize.



I know, I know, all this is unrealistic and beyond unlikely - but so was the idea of America and its Constitution in the first place.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Obama believes "We Have Struck The Appropriate Balance" Of Privacy And Security

"I came into office committed to protecting the American people, but also committed to our values and our ideals. And one of our highest ideals is civil liberties and privacy. And I was a critic of the previous administration for those occasions in which I felt they had violated our values, and I came in with a healthy skepticism about how our various programs were structured. But what I have been able to do is examine and scrub how our intelligence services are operating, and I’m confident that at this point, we have struck the appropriate balance..."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/06/19/obama_on_nsa_spying_we_have_struck_the_appropriate_balance_of_privacy_and_security.html

From Obama's point-of-view, he's already fixed anything broken about spying.

[polichick]

2. His poll numbers show that the people don't agree - maybe he'll remember...

some of his own campaign speeches.

[gcomeau]

3. The only response I an summon to this collection of nonsense...

...is

[polichick]

4. Try not to hurt yourself - easier just to think.

[gcomeau]

5. Reading that post hurt *because* I think. -eom

[polichick]

6. Thinking people can discuss without bashing their heads into walls.

[gcomeau]

7. The emoticon exists for a reason.

It was an entirely appropriate characterization of the impulse your string of nonsensical statements inspired, distilled into it's simplest form.

Discussing either the ridiculous proposal that someone who committed espionage against their own nation should be hired by it or that Snowden warranted nominatation for the Peace Prize would be as large a waste of time and energy as continuing this conversation any further would be... so see you around. I'm out.

[polichick]

8. LOL - stirring the shit a little always outs a few.

[railsback]

9. One guy nominated Snowden for the Nobel.

One guy.

One.

1.

[Laelth]

10. And that one man's sentiments are shared by many.

Last edited Mon Jul 15, 2013, 05:27 PM - Edit history (1)

And you know it.

Lame argument.

-Laelth

[railsback]

14. Is it? One guy out of thousands of eligible nominators?

Ok, then.

[former9thward]

18. How many nominated Obama?

[illegaloperation]

11. I think President Obama should put Ed Snowden to jail

Snowden has already gave copies of all the documents he has to those around him.

[pnwmom]

12. Sorry, we already tried that. He worked for the US before he went to Booz Allen.

With employees like that we don't need enemies.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Uh..............

My whole feeling about this whole situation is this: If what Snowden exposed is "illegal" or "unconstitutional", then people need to put their money where their mouths are and push for impeachment of President Obama and/or criminal charges for anybody involved in illegal activities within the NSA.

If it's a matter of just "not liking" what the NSA is doing, then we need to get Congress to change the laws and/or elect new people to change the laws. It's sort of bizarre that Congress has been passing laws about surveillance since 2001 and, although there have some people protesting them all along, it strikes me as weird that some people are acting as though it's so much worse under President Obama than it was, say, under Bush, who WAS actually operating outside the confines of the law as it existed at the time.

As for Snowden, he has been lawfully charged with a crime (it is still a crime to take classified information and potentially disseminate it) and should return home, lawyer up, and fight the charges if his cause is just and proper.

[JoeyT]

15. They're doing all kinds of illegal shit.

That's not a reason to push for impeachment, it's a reason to push for the illegal shit to stop.

Just as an example, double tapping is a war crime.

[polichick]

16. That's why I think the president should hire Snowden...

It would be a bold move - probably even dangerous - but would indicate his intention to stop the "illegal shit" and show the country that it's not only high level war criminals and banksters that are given a pass sometimes, but patriotic whistleblowers who have the interests of the American people and our Constitution at heart.

[bobthedrummer]

17. K&R n/t

[Chan790]

19. I don't.

I think we should expend all resources necessary to return, convict in a fair trial in open court and ultimately imprison Snowden in Florence ADX between Ames and Hanssen in the same wing as Kaczynski and Manning until the day he stops breathing of his own accord. (None of them should ever breathe a breath as a free and unimprisoned man ever again.)

Any other course of action by this or any subsequent regime is a betrayal of US security and a mockery of US laws that does nothing but encourage the next traitorous fuckwit.

[11 Bravo]

20. Rush Limbaugh was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and he had precisely ...

the same chance of winning as does Snowden.

[Drahthaardogs]

21. Snowden would have to take a $100,000/yr pay cut.

As a Booze Allen Hamilton Contract employee to the U.S. Government, he made over $200,000/yr. He has a GED and no college degree but gets paid better than all federal employees, with the exception of Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and the Executive Branch.