A Year of Edward Snowden

Today celebrates a year since Edward Snowden first showed us the beginning of a long, deep hole of NSA spying and lying. From Clapper lying to Congress, and getting away with it, to Obama saying metadata collection isn't a big deal, when we've learned that it clearly is. Check out my first and second articles written almost a year ago talking about the information shared by Snowden and the potential impacts.

Snowden seems content with his choice and happy with the uproar his revelations have caused. Just recently he had an interview with Brian Williams on NBC, his first American news media interview. Watch part one of three:


Because today is a significant day to those of us who take our privacy seriously and believe the NSA is wrong in their bulk collecting and overreaching spying, today has been deemed, Reset the Net. Activists have gathered free tools for your computers and phones to keep your information private and make it more difficult for the NSA to spy on you. Check it out.

While the government's argument is still that Snowden is a traitor and that he should come home and face the justice system if he was an honest person, questioning his choice in going to Russia. It seems they have already forgotten what happens to people who have spoken up against the government and the fact that he didn't choose Russia, because the USA took away his passport he's stuck in Russia. Two very different things.

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Seeing Secretary of State Kerry's response, it sounds more like a frustrated child. "For a supposedly smart guy that's a pretty dumb answer," really? That's how our officials talk when they can't get their hands on someone they want? Throwing around patriot as bait is just pathetic. And last bit, saying that if he believes in America he should trust in the American system is just ridiculous! That's the whole problem right there. The system is broken, it isn't there for the American people, unless you're counting corporations. That's what needs to be fixed! The founding fathers didn't say you have to trust the system, it says you have to be weary of it!

While people question whether he is a traitor or a patriot, I feel that is best left to history to decide. To me, it does seem as if he is trying to do what is best for the American people and Constitution, whether or not it's good for our current governmental structure.

But let's not get suck on the man, let's stick to the issue. NSA spying is way overbearing and overreaching. While spying on the enemy has its advantages, spying on one's own citizens is a recipe for disaster. A control state strikes fear into its citizens. It creates an environment where people second guess everything they do on the web, or will one day.

On the brighter side, it looks like Oliver Stone might do a film about the subject! And the fact that JFK convinced Congress to enact the JFK Records Act of 1992, maybe this will force the government's hand. One can only hope.