This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
"Will Obama See Out His Full Term?"
It seems the question on many people's minds, as scandal after scandal crashes on the shores of Obama's White House is best summed up by The Telegraph's Damian Thompson. Yet another non-US paper asks, will Obama last the duration of his second term in a surveillance context where what has been revealed is said to be worse than Watergate.
Via The Telegraph,
"They could pay off the Triads," says Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower interviewed by the Guardian in his Hong Kong hideout. Meaning: the CIA could use a proxy to kill him for revealing that Barack Obama has presided over an unimaginable – to the ordinary citizen – expansion of the Federal government's powers of surveillance over anyone.
Libertarians and conspiracy theorists of both Left and Right will never forget this moment. Already we have Glenn Beck hailing Snowden on Twitter:
Courage finally. Real. Steady. Thoughtful. Transparent. Willing to accept the consequences. Inspire w/Malice toward none.#edwardsnowden
Snowden will be a Right-wing hero as well as a Left-libertarian one. Why? First, he thought carefully about what he should release, avoiding (he says) material that would harm innocent individuals. Second, he's formidably articulate. Quotes like the following are pure gold for opponents of Obama who've been accusing the President of allowing the Bush-era "surveillance state" to extend its tentacles even further:
NSA is focussed on getting intelligence wherever it can by any means possible... Increasingly we see that it's happening domestically. The NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone, it ingests them by default, it collects them in its system and it filters them and it analyses them and it measures them and its stores them for periods of time ... While they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government or someone they suspect of terrorism, they're collecting your communications to do so. Any analyst at any time can target anyone…
I do not see how Obama can talk his way out of this one. Snowden is not Bradley Manning: he's not a disturbed disco bunny but a highly articulate network security specialist who has left behind a $200,000 salary and girlfriend in Hawaii for a life on the run. He's not a sleazy opportunist like Julian Assange, either. As he says: "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
It will be very difficult for the Obama administration to portray Snowden as a traitor. For a start, I don't think US public opinion will allow it. Any explanations it offers will be drowned out by American citizens demanding to know:
"So how much do you know about me and my family? How can I find out? How long have you been collecting this stuff? What are you going to do with it?"
Suddenly the worse-than-Watergate rhetoric doesn't seem overblown. And I do wonder: can a president who's presided over, and possibly encouraged, Chinese-style surveillance of The Land of the Free honestly expect to serve out his full term?
»
- 35704 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Looks like I'd better sow a few more rows of potatoes........
Please pardon my negative Nelly stance, but this
Doesn't
change
a
fucking
thing.
The masses, either drugged out or too damn lazy and distracted to care, won't give a flying fuck about this.
Heck, he could light himself on fire after showing all sorts of documents, etc ad naseum about all that is going on, and the dumb sheep would throw gas on him to boot. Remember, we still have bread and circus, the sheep are still happy.
I used to think one of these years I would be able to say "told ya so you stupid sheep"
I have given up hope of ever seeing that happen. Sorry for the attitude, I always hope I am wrong but each day that goes by I am more inclined to believe nobody will see the light until they are either locked up at club med or staring down the barrel of a 45.
Agreed... See my post above...
Resign and make Dopey Joe the President.
The laughs just keep on coming.
PEAK LIBERALISM!
He should be hanged on the white house lawn along with his pals in his administration, state department and in congress.
Personally, I suggest stringing him up by his genitals stark naked in a Minn. winter would be appropriate. We could find a large tree farm and do them all too.
Summer better, the MN mosquitoes would yield death by a thousand itches
The democrats and republicans are like a couple of petulant teens fighting over who gets to drive the new shiny black NSA. Neither one wants the other use it, but neither of them wants it to be taken away.
One of these network specialists needs to "adjust" the GPS system, so that DC appears to be Damascus. Then they can let the military industrial complex take care of itself with drones, and B52's
Edward Snowden's sacrifice demands our respect, and his patriotism our gratitude. Thank you Mr. Snowden.
Agree, act of bravery and conscience!
Teflon with a coat of wd40 ... the first Non-stick President
I'm not so sure. Cruz, Paul and a few others have the stones, brains and position to take it to him, or at least make a big show of trying. Even in losing, they'll rally their base.
It only takes is a few. The Revolution was won by a convicted 10-20% of the population.
The big loser in the Clinton Impeachment was not Clinton (or Mrs. Clinton) but the Republicans. There is no way Obama can be touched, low information voters (Morons) abound
You mean when a sitting vice president, in office during a pretty decent clip of growth couldn't get elected?
Winterfell is in shambells. Calisi hurry up already.
The only way to get the" land of the free " (i.e. the sheepie) awake and outraged would be to hit the kill switch on the internet and cable t.v. That would finally, maybe get the rest of the citizenry mad enough to do something besides playing on their i-pod, i-phone, i-pad, laptop and watching the black box of propaganda...I agree with E.B. ...impeach the fucker and blow up all the congresscritters.
Well, I say we all keep paying into the system.
Oh, and voting too. That helps a bunch.
Yup, keep paying their salaries and keep voting for them. It's like asking the rapist to use an ice cream scooper to remove your left eye out of it's socket, because it hurts just slightly less than the cocktail fork. Ok, now that we agreed on that, that you can scrape my eye out, you can now skull fuck me, or would you prefer to anally rape me? Gee I don't know. Let me pay for the ice cream scoop and we'll discuss where you're gonna penetrate me.
Sure seems logical to me.
Pay their salaries and keep voting. Worked well so far, right? By all means, give them your consent.
I think I'll sit the next one out on the sidelines.
"goin' fishin'"
This Pew Research poll seems to show the apathy of about half of the brain dead U.S. citizens about surrendering their liberty for what they perceive to be safety...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-10/majority-americans-dont-mind-being-spied-upon-pew-study-finds
Fact is, people have been, and continue to be conditioned to accept databases being built on them, all for their benefit of course.
Whether people realize it or not, every time we use our credit cards, our grocery store card, our Sam's and Costco Cards, our Kaiser card, our Blood Doner's card, our Library Card, etc, etc, the info gets added to a personal database(s) somewhere, just like now, our emails and phone calls and who knows what else. Have you ever done a Google search? Heck, even Progressive Ins Co wants you to plug a device onto your car so they can aquire info on your driving habits under the guise of giving you a better insurance rate. Do you have a transponder so you can drive on the toll road without having to stop? Got a checking account? Use your bank card to get cash out? They can't trace cash yet, but the time is coming when they will add an RFID microchip to the currency that you pull out of the ATM that can be traced back to you.
Marriott Hotels, and others I presume, has a massive database on all its guests that goes back for years. They know everything you have complained about, all your special requests, the movies you have watched (not by title, but by cost... adult movies cost more that regular movies), any special needs or requests you have made, these are all added to their database whether you like it or not, all to serve you better when you return.
We know that information data bases are basically ammoral. Everything boils down to who is going to use the info and what they plan on doing with it. I hate it, but it is an encroaching fact of life that these data bases continue to push their way into our lives. These are perilous times we are living in. Our privacy is under attack and our freedoms will be taken away bit by bit, all under the guise of keeping us safe. Regardless of the spin, these data bases will ultimately be used against us... Prepare accordingly... As best you can...
Regarding the possibility of RFID chips in cash, a few seconds in your microwave oven will permanently solve that problem.
But will my cash still retain that crackly crunch???
Don't try that at home. The magnetic inks in cash absorb microwaves very well, and get hot enough to ignite the notes.
Iceland would be a good fit for the time being for Snowden. The Icelandic government isn't fond of the EU either, so they could offer decent protection for him. I would take that option over China. He's not guilty in any way of espionage. If he does the China route the MIC will have a field day with him. (above and beyond what they're doing)
Iceland opens door for NSA whistleblower
Thousands sign petition for Snowden's pardon as he seeks asylum | The Daily Caller
Iceland has a population of only 300K, no nukes or other military power, and is an island somewhat near the US. The US Navy could send in a crack team of Marines and render him from there in nothing flat.
His best bet is to sell out totally to China, assuming he hasn't already done so.
How do we know he wasn't spying for China, and released those powerpoint slides to the press as a way of garnering popular support?? Spies always have to play double and triple games, don't they?
Canada to the rescue!
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/26/we-stand-on-guard-for-iceland-canada-takes-its-turn-defending-only-nato-country-without-an-army/
Taking turns protecting Iceland -
With no air force of its own, for the next five weeks the only thing guarding Iceland from air invasion will be a sextet of Canadian fighter planes.
In mid-March, six CF-18s and more than 160 Canadian Forces personnel bunked down at a Cold War-era base just outside Reykjavik to kick off Operation Ignition, a periodic mission in which Canada takes its turn defending the island nation, which is the only NATO member without a single soldier or pilot on the payroll.
Canadians will monitor radar, escort “unauthorized” aircraft out of Icelandic airspace and practice scrambling jets to “intercept and identify unknown airborne objects,” according to a statement by the Department of National Defense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCmSUQD9QC8 (Moody Blues - Talking out of Turn)
It's a matter of principal.
Outside of accidents, Obama will serve until January 20th, 2017 - for the simple, brutal, political reason that the Democrat powers-that-be dare not dump him (as the GOP powers-that-be dumped Nixon in 1974) because to do so means a collapse in the African-American vote in 2014 and 2016, and perhaps beyond. Regardless of what else is thought of President Obama, African-Americans (with reason) are loyal to the first African-American President and won't take kindly to anyone who turns on him. Its really the reason he was nominated in the first place - in reality, Hillary was ahead in 2008 and was set to eke out a narrow nomination victory...but with Obama so close, the powers-that-be in the Democrat party worried that nominating Hillary over Obama would lead to a lot of African-American voters staying home on election day...and so they tripped over themselves to endorse Obama, thus killing off Hillary's chances. More than any other demograhic, African-Americans are crucial to Democrat political success - failure to get a high turnout and 90%+ of the African-American vote not only means possible loss of the White House in 2016, but the prospective loss of a dozen Senate and 50 House seats over 2014 and 2016. The Democrat leadership won't do that - no matter what Obama does there will never be 67 votes in the Senate to convict and remove him from office.
On the other hand, Obama being in office with all these scandals will greatly energize conservatives and libertarians to vote - both in 2014 and 2016. Without even trying, the GOP will be the beneficiary of this. And if they try by actually appealing to conservative and libertarian voters, then 2014 could turn out to be an anti-Democrat "wave" election bringing in 20-30 new, conservative/libertarian House members and 6-8 conservative/libertarian Senators - which still won't make conservatives/libertarians the actual majority in either chamber, but enough to ensure that nothing gets done which gravely offends conservatives/libertarians.
Good analysis. I hope you're right.
You grossly overweight the effect of the black vote, as 3 out of 4 black men have been incarcerated and don't make it to the polls in significant numbers. The 1 out of 4 is educated, intelligent and determined, and, thus, has the wherewithall to assess criminal behavior when they are oppressed by it, be it a black president or a white president. The same statement could be made about whites in certain geographic concentrations.
The bottom line: The only thing worse than being subdued by your enemy is being betrayed by your friend.
I voted for the fool twice. Now who is the fool...
He is history.
He is right. The Black vote counts because it is solid and loyal. A group that is 12% of the population and votes as a solid 97% bloc has the impact of a normal voter group at least 3x that size.The incarceration rate cuts it a little bit, but that loyalty certainly mattered in 2012. The Black vote is overwhelmingly female. It carried Ohio and Virginia. Florida too. Black voters don't give a rat's ass about NSA surveilance or IRS harassment of Republicans, either. These kind of issues matter only to the white "gentry liberal" part of Obama's base, not to any of the minority components. So if these revelations damage Obama, it will only damage him among those white "gentry liberals". And they tend to be very ideological, so his approval rating still won't go below 40%. The impact could show up more in fundraising than in actual support, because these issues turn off the part of his base that gives lots of money.
You grossly overvalue the value of voting. Doesn't matter who you vote for, everyone with a brain knows the dice are loaded...
You are dead right on the politics, but I think a Black Swan or two is coming, and it will change everything . Possibly one from left field, and/or a Rubicon Crossing by Julius Hugo Obama I. Remember, this is all happening during a time when the global financial system is in a Terminal Stage III disease of some kind (people disagree as to what kind of disease, but no matter...), and several parts of the world are powder kegs.
Anyone started impeachment proceedings yet?
@Skateboarder was bang on...until the supply chain breaks, the GUMS will shuffle mindlessly between American Idol, that Dancing shit show and a bit of World Series something. Them be PROUD 'MERICANS.
But wait for the first foul up in a claimant's SNAP payment or suchlike ...then there goin' be trouble ...BIG trouble. Lucky FEMA/DHS got all those aroured personnel carriers recently...oh, and those lovely looking camps decorated with barbed wire.
He's politically finished (abandoned by even staunch former loyalists).
How many senate, congressional and gubernatorial seats the liberals are willing to sacrifice on his alter?
Last fight is likely debt ceiling in the fall.
And there is also the hypocrisy angle. Because he said he wasn't going to do it.
Mid terms should be interesting
what mid-terms????? ha ha ha
I just have this real grave feeling something big is going to happen within the coming weeks.
It just has to.
Obama is a puppet, nothing more. That's what he was selected, groomed and illegally given the office for. He is a complete creature of ZOG. He's there to preside over and take the blame for the downfall of the USA.
He is what ZOG decides he is, does and says what is on the script ZOG gives him. It's that..............or "Kennedy-ization!" They may decide to "Kennedy-ize" him in any event.
If they do decide to, the perp will either be a "Muslim terrorist" or a "white racist." It depends on the conditions they want for the next national black op "crisis."
Ultimately, ANY politician is irrelevant and easily replaced.
Unlike the times with Nixon when people actually cared and went to the streets, the press was still relatively free and powerfull, nowadays people are more interested in videos of grumpy cats and in sleazy TV. People are too fat to get of their arses anyway. As long as the majority of the hopium believers continue to do so, nothing will change. Cause admitting that 'change one can believe in' was actually a hoax can be rather confronting.
Thank you Edward Snowden...may your act be the genesis for the real change we hope for
The only question that really remains is: Where are we going to hang Obama, Bernanke and Holder?
I have a lamp post out in front of my apartment that I will offer for the deed. However, I call dibs on Holder, that Grover-looking piece of shit. Oh, and I think it needs to be pay-per viewed, with the proceeds going to the survivors of those killed with the weapons he sent across the border.
Something is going to snap. I rarely say that, but things really have been too quiet for too long. I think a moderate market crash would give the PTB some cover at this point, they probably need it. market crash and war in Syria or something real happens here at home involving the Obozo.
Obama now number 1 enemy of mean MoFos with an incredible amount of wealth to lose.
Looks like things just got physical.
Snowden has probably already been buried at sea with no record kept. If not, he might want to keep a pair of trunks handy.
And to think, that could have been Barry the hero if he had followed through on campaign promises.
At least one commenter to the Telegraph blog article claims that - when considering if he should be impeached - Obama will be given far more leeway because he is black. I agree with this. He's also a socialist and clearly much of America has become socialist over the past coupla decades. Are these people going to impeach their own hero? I don't think so. Not least because many socialists like being supervised and watched by big government, because it makes them feel safer.
And is it not also true that since the days of Nixon, most Depts and Agencies of US Government (NSA,CIA,FBI,IRS,DHHS etc) have themselves become progressively involved in abandoning the Rule of Law in favour of imposing ever more government tyranny. Meaning, is there anybody left with enough commitment to initiate impeachment proceeedings against the American traitor: Obama?
I don't think so.
The only people who can deal with this are the American people themselves.
I must disagree...100% of blacks vote democratic - you know, like in those 50+ districts in Philly - and the rest of democratic voters are women and the men that will do anything so they get their one obligatory fuck a month, um...oh, wait, that does put us well over the more than half that are voting 'socialist...nevermind
Erm. Everything you say AGREES with my comments !!!
Yep, I was sorta making a funny. I gave you that one up arrow by the way...
Nothing to see here, no impeachment and most likely Mr. Snowden will be 'disappeared' with NO fanfare...this story has run it's course again, 3 days, 4 if you include right wingers and libertarians but that's over now, too
...top 10 stories 'trending' on Yahoo.com
10-Coffee Poisoning
9-Florida Boat Crash
8-JFK Guards Dozing
7-DEER DORITOS BAG <<<====
6-Rite Aid Scam
5-Netherlands UFO
4-Tornado Survivor Killed
3-Ex-Journey Singer
2-Kylie Jenner????
1-THE TOP RATED MOST IMPORTANT NEWS STORY as of 5:49 am IS......
SOBER MAN DUI!
Yep, that's what matters.
EVeryone should file a Freedom of Information Act Request on themselves. Bury the NSA in requests.
I'd put money on Obongo changing the law and trying to stay for a third term. Either that or just cancelling elections.
with 1.4m persons in the know there bound to b a lot more out there with troubled conscience (if its true).
they will want to make an example to deter others.
it will b hard to contain the truth
Remember that Obama Phone ?
How do ya like me now ?
The current political situation I see in the United States today under Obama has many parallels to what happened in the UK under Tony Blair 1997-2006.
Blair was elected in May/1997, and for a year or two peddled the same old same old socialist crap on "fairness", "equality" and "social justice". That was to be expected since he had always been a lying socialist activist, even during his days as a mediocre lawyer.
Then 9/11 happened and Blair changed.
His true authoritarian socialist self came to the forefront. He spent the rest of his premiership - until he was blackmailed into quitting by the Marxist Gordon Brown in 2006 - introducing countless anti-liberty laws, terror laws, surveillance databases, DNA databases and giving the police and spy agencies unprecedented powers (which have never been rescinded and are regularly abused). Blair's links and scandals with corporate money began to mount. MSM mostly brushed them off.
His icing on the cake was to have been the UK ID Card, sold to people on the fallacious grounds that it would protect them from countless crimes and would therefore make them feel safer. The BBC were relied upon to wheel out plenty of people who claimed "I quite like the idea of having an ID Card. It'll make me feel safer". But Blair clearly intended the ID Card to become a major system of state surveillance after its introduction.
Although Obama has not yet advocated a US ID Card, many of his other actions are very similar to Blair's, albeit in an American context. They both have a ruthless desire to introduce overbearing state surveillance, turn the nation into a police state and destroy democratic accountability, leaving themselves as de facto corrupt dictators.
Even with Blair's appalling record of wrecking democrcay, introducing massive state surveillance etc, there are still a huge number of people who like Blair and would vote for him again if it were possible. Much of MSM falls into this and never misses the opportunity of giving him airtime.
Is it not the case that - despite growing numbers of Obama scandals - he still has a strong following from large parts of the American electorate?
Bilderberg Blair was obviously told that 9-11 was a Government Inside Job and that the NWO Conspiracy timetable had been initiated, therefore act according to the Plan.
Perhaps Mr. Snowden is who he is as a result of NOT staying in the American educational system...
+1 GREAT Comment
This is a fascinating event.
Left and Right both together, either for or against.
Larry Kudlow was breaking out the guillotine for Mr. Snowden, in complete contrast to his outrage last week over the IRS Tea Party scandal.
Charles Krauthammer was playing neo con cards, again in complete contrast to outrage over Benghazi, IRS, AP etc.
That b-tch on the "Morning Joe" show was going at Glen Greenwald like a Stasi inquisitor, "But it's legal!"
On Today show, an air headed cutie got b-tch slapped from Greenwald for putting words in Snowden's mouth to the effect that the program was "legal" or that his actions were thus "illegal".
A common line now heard is, "There have been no reports of abuse of this power which the NSA is exercising, HENCE there is no abuse."
How can anyone report absue about a SECRET PROGRAM when they have now idea THAT / IF / WHEN / HOW they are being spied upon or manipulated?
In point of fact the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) tried to challenge some of the previously disclosed eavesdropping programs in court, but the courts threw it out, since NO ABUSE COULD BE PRESENTED. Why? All the ABSUE WAS SECRET.
Talk about CATCH-22, Fubar, and a clusterf-ck, all rolled into one.
More stories coming, according to Greenwald.
Also, for what it's worth, someone noted on another thread that within the next 30 days a story will drop about how such records and info were used to extort Chief Justice John Roberts vote on Obamacare, something that 2 days before he was known to oppose.
John Roberts: the first Supreme Court rent boy.
What's stunning is that he was bought so cheap.
They got to him through his adopted kids. I don't know if that qualifies as "cheap". But, a whore is a whore, no matter what the price.
Not the first SCOTUS sell-out. How many others ? Not my specialty in History.
Chief Justice Earl Warren sold-out in the infamous Warren Report coverup of the Government assassination of JFK.
"Just because something is secret doesn't mean it's suspicious." Remember this is a mature debate.
Theoretically speaking in our supposed "democracy" who should fear whom more? Should the people live in fear of the government or should the government live in fear of the people?
Should the government control the people or should the people control the government?
Finally what is happening vs what should be happening?
Who is this sack-of-shit writer to cast aspersions on Manning and Assange?
Yes, Snowden is not Manning. Manning has been in a deep dark hole in a military prison for over 3 years, while Snowden breathes free air.
Whoever is President is irrelevant in this regard, no more scapegoating, we need actual change in policy.
I listened to a couple of interviews by this Snowden guy. He is far too articulate for an average non HS graduate. I heard his history was that he tried to get his GED via technical classes but did not finish the coursework.
The guy I heard was too complete, too articulate to leave something like a HS completion, even via GED undone. Especially if he has BOTH technical skills AND the ability to speak and formulate cohesive thoughts. This guy spoke better than the interviewer. Hell, they are giving HS completions to gang bangers just for adding up the receipts of the Drug sales they make in LA.
Something doesn't jive here.
PS. Plus I bet he has a terminal disease. He is not really looking for an out here....
Ha ha ha ... you think graduating from high school makes people articulate? ... HA HA HA.
High school grad yourself, I take it.
Yeh, RttB's outlook is quite common, I assure you. I get that all the time. Things like; "Where did you get your engineering degree?". People look at me in disbelief when I say, "I didn't." In truth I did graduate high school, but that is most certainly NOT where I learned to articulate.
Snowden is exactly the type of person who learned to learn, as opposed to being taught. Big difference.
Perhaps he was too smart to stay in the fucked up public indoctrination mills and educated himself by reading. There are plenty of self-taught coders - I have hired plenty and the best were those with the least formal education in computer science or programming.
If everyone on their cellphones said they were going to plan terrorist attacks and everyone have different scenarios and do this nonstop you'd overwhelm the survellience system they don't have enough bodies to follow up on a mass scale. It would drive them up a wall when they find out how little control they do have regardless of how much information you can gleam. Defeats the whole purpose of PRISM at that point when you purposely skew their mathematical probability behavioral models, you know kind of like what the FED does with the stock market.
Romney would have cleaned this entire mess up by now! And monkeys are flying out of my ass.
Nothing sticks to Obama. Media gives him a pass, convinces the world that Snowden is a traitor and the SHEEP in this country obey their orders.
Life in Amerika sucks
Bill Clinton learned the message of Watergate, and I'm sure Obama has, too: The only real mistake you can make is to resign in disgrace.
Nixon probably knew he would be convicted by the Senate.
Clinton probably knew he would not be convicted by the Senate.
Politicians are trying to make him look like a traitor and want him for espionage. Thats the only way they can get people to not like him.
if the NSA violated the constitution on Obama's watch then it would be impeachable offense i think