THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS QUESTION

Just a few months ago, this would have been just more Bagger hysteria.  Now, it's a real possibility...

Friday, Aug 16, 2013 05:46 AM -0700

What if the president lied to us?

So many of President Obama's statements about NSA have been wrong. But he's too smart not to understand the truth

By David Sirota

UPDATE: Sirota is not the only one upset about the latest NSA revelations..

The Snowden Effect, Continued
By Charles P. Pierce at 10:05AM
Aug 16, 2013
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It's well past time for another Church Committee -- or, if you will, another Pecora Commission -- dedicated to a full exposition of the surveillance state and its place in our lives and in our democracy. No half-truths. No hedging. No James Clappers, slow-dancing with perjury and obstruction of Congress. Put people under oath and compel their testimony as to what is being done in our name, especially what is being done to us in our name. If we're going to have a "national conversation," then let's have a by-god national conversation, and let it be held in the place where we are supposed to have our national conversations on issues like this -- in the Congress, among our elected representative, out in the open and in the light of day. Let us at least have all the information so we can decide for ourselves how to keep ourselves safe. We are not fragile children. We're the world's oldest democracy. We should damned well begin to raise hell and act like it.

Absent that, here's what now should be taken as an operating procedure in any discussion of the NSA and/or the surveillance state. First, everything they say is a lie, or, at best, a quarter-truth. Second, any argument based on the fundamental premise of "Trust us," should cause the person making the argument to be laughed out of government service forever. Third, any defense based on the alleged safeguards of either the FISA Court, or the responsible committees of the Congress is prima facie worthless, whether it comes from your favorite pundit, your favorite congresscritter, or, especially, your favorite President of the United States. Fourth, Edward Snowden, International Man Of Luggage and flawed human being, has blown himself a helluva whistle here.