Edwin Snowden Come In From The Cold

I will be more furious than I already am when we are attacked again and it could have been prevented.

 

is Bush-Cheney running again?

 

I thought Cheney did an ok job for 8 years as President.

 

This is the myth that keeps on mything.

From Parks' interview:
"I did not sit at the very front of the bus; I took a seat with a man who was next to the window -- the first seat that was allowed for "colored" people to sit in.''

Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, no civil disobedience planned, no desire to be arrested. No expectation of being arrested. And so the bus went on its way.

Only three stops later, when several more white people got on and one man was forced to stand, was she asked to give up her seat. She decided AT THAT POINT she would not, and the rest is history.

 

Come on, be better. This is why threads get locked.

 

If a threat presents clear danger of an attack on the U.S., I'm sure the feds will have no problem getting warrants to gather intelligence to prevent it.

 

Just about all attacks "can" be prevented.

The key is to what maniacal lengths you are willing to go to make this happen.

 

In Halberstam's book, "The Fifties", he wrote that Parks had previous bad experiences with the busing company, and with the driver, and that she had considered doing a protest at some point. But that day, she was very tired from work, and wasn't looking to pick a fight, so she sat in the "colored" section.

However in that city, the section wasn't fully designated, and if more whites came on the bus, the driver could move the line, rather than make the white passengers stand or sit next to a black person This was considered an even worse indignity for blacks, because blacks weren't even allowed their own section, but could have their seats taken away. When there was a white passenger to sit in Parks' row, the driver ordered all the blacks in the row to give up their seats so the white passenger didn't have to sit next to them. The other black passengers did, Parks refused.

Halberstam also wrote that a few weeks earlier, a teenage black girl had also done something similar to what Parks did, and the local NAACP, which Parks was a member, considered using her case as the basis of a protest. However, the teenage girl was also pregnant, and didn't have the wholesome image that they wanted to represent them.

So, in a way, from Halberstam's book, you're both right. Parks did kinda plan it for some time, but hadn't planned it for that day. It just happened.

 

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

This. Fuck the authorities. They're just pissed off because somebody finally did to them what they've spent decades doing to everybody else.

 

Plus, I'm pretty sure no one has produced one bit of evidence to show that randomly spying on pretty much everyone in America has played a role in stopping any attack or terrorist plot.

 

I visited the Newseum yesterday to see the JFK exhibits. I get what an unchecked and unchallenged government can do. I get how far we've come with FOIA, and steps like the Church Committee in the late 1970s. And reigning in both the FBI and CIA were for the most part very good things.

(Digression: I am heavily influenced by the late Jeff MacNelly, and he had a cartoon ca 1978-9 in which he depicted a fox getting into a henhouse while the farm's dog - CIA - had a muzzle on it and could do nothing to forewarn and stop the fox attack.)

This isn't the 1970s anymore though. We are under a constant threat of terror attacks, and it is DAILY not occasional.

And cyber defense is more than just a daily concern. It is second by second. That's a whole other huge can of worms.

This country has stopped way more terrorist attacks than the general public realizes, and it is not in our interest to reveal sources and methods, nor should we reveal our successes in stopping each and every attack. I can assure you it is DAILY.

Maybe some have slept well with sugar plums dancing in their heads over the past 10 to 15 years, and now have their sleep disturbed by these recent revelations.

I am beyond being the polar opposite - haven't slept well on these subjects since well before 9/11 and sleep even worse now that some of the available tools are probably going to be muzzled.

There is idealism, and then there is reality. Unfortunately the two don't lead to the same thing.

This is the last time I am going to weigh in on this because I am too close to the subject. People can believe what they want to believe, based on idealism, reality, or a bit of both.

VB