There's one level of deception from politicians in which they make grandiose promises in campaigns but never fulfill them. This has become so commonplace as to be a routine component of American politics. It really doesn't matter what you say is true so long as your boy wins the race.
However, the level of shameless bipartisan duplicity in the NSA scandal is something that puts the final death to any kind of idea of honesty, integrity or morality in Washington. It's one kind of shameless when they get drunk and turn up in Washington fountains with strippers (Wiki: Wilbur Mills) but it's many magnitudes of difference between that and the staggering deceit that has been manifested in the activities of the National Security Agency.
Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told Congress, Section 702 "is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States." (CNN: Top U.S. intel official challenges reports that spy agencies mined Internet data)
That is now revealed to be complete rubbish and it comes from the same person who has been saying there has been full disclosure to Congress on what the NSA is doing whereas, in fact, the security agencies have been lying as much to them as to the people. As this scandal rolls forward, Clapper is revealed more and more to be someone who doesn't feel in any way bound by truth or morality.
Even going beyond that level of dishonesty is Representative Peter King of New York in which he manufactured a story that Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian has lists of the names of CIA agents and will publicly release them. On that basis the journalist should be prosecuted. (CNN: Guardian's Greenwald blasts Rep. King's accusations in NSA case)
Compounding the functional dishonesty regarding the NSA is the cover the organisation uses for it in claiming it has thwarted countless terrorist activities but classifies them so it's impossible to verify the truth of the statement.
It may be interesting to you that there are some predictable callers for proclamation of Edward Snowden as a hero but another has been Glenn Beck.
The consequences of all this are first that the Obama Presidency is beyond salvage. His word has been shown to be false, just as with the other talking heads, and he has vigorously defended the NSA. Hillary Clinton has been silent on the matter but it's not likely her aspirations for the Presidency will survive and this scandal may well hand, in the most incredibly ironic turn, the next election to the GOP which started the security agency police state in the first place.
However, the level of shameless bipartisan duplicity in the NSA scandal is something that puts the final death to any kind of idea of honesty, integrity or morality in Washington. It's one kind of shameless when they get drunk and turn up in Washington fountains with strippers (Wiki: Wilbur Mills) but it's many magnitudes of difference between that and the staggering deceit that has been manifested in the activities of the National Security Agency.
Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told Congress, Section 702 "is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States." (CNN: Top U.S. intel official challenges reports that spy agencies mined Internet data)
That is now revealed to be complete rubbish and it comes from the same person who has been saying there has been full disclosure to Congress on what the NSA is doing whereas, in fact, the security agencies have been lying as much to them as to the people. As this scandal rolls forward, Clapper is revealed more and more to be someone who doesn't feel in any way bound by truth or morality.
Even going beyond that level of dishonesty is Representative Peter King of New York in which he manufactured a story that Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian has lists of the names of CIA agents and will publicly release them. On that basis the journalist should be prosecuted. (CNN: Guardian's Greenwald blasts Rep. King's accusations in NSA case)
Compounding the functional dishonesty regarding the NSA is the cover the organisation uses for it in claiming it has thwarted countless terrorist activities but classifies them so it's impossible to verify the truth of the statement.
It may be interesting to you that there are some predictable callers for proclamation of Edward Snowden as a hero but another has been Glenn Beck.
The consequences of all this are first that the Obama Presidency is beyond salvage. His word has been shown to be false, just as with the other talking heads, and he has vigorously defended the NSA. Hillary Clinton has been silent on the matter but it's not likely her aspirations for the Presidency will survive and this scandal may well hand, in the most incredibly ironic turn, the next election to the GOP which started the security agency police state in the first place.
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