WSwrote: Mypoint is very much different: it is the choice between the government andthe anti-government crowd in the US of A. The government is definitely alesser evil here. Not that I like whatit is doing, but I dislike the anti-government,tea-party libertarian crowd much more. And the US lefties whojump on this anti-government bandwagon remind of the Communists in WeimarGermany who often sided with the Nazis in the opposition to social-democrats. They got what they were asking for.
SoI my position on this is quite clear - I support the administration or, asa New Yorker cartoon has it, I am willing to give up the appearances of privacyfor the illusion of safety. Tradingillusions won't hurt anyone, butsiding with the libertarian, tea party, ant-government crowd will.
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Oh,the fruits of lesser evilism!
Thereis no such thing as a single “anti-government crowd.” Snowden may have pickedup the support of a few maverick right-wing libertarians like Rand Paul (forwhom Snowden also voted). But Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and certainly GlennGreenwald, are not right-wing libertarians. They are acting out of revulsionfor US war crimes, lies, secrecy and assaults on democratic rights, somewhatamorphous though their over-all politics may be. The great majority of theRepublican right, on the other hand, aren’t amorphous in the least; they arebranding Snowden a traitor and screaming for his blood, along with that ofManning and Assange. It is also appalling that anyone on this listserve wouldfall for government talking points to the effect that the principal purpose of thismammoth data mining operation is to ensure “safety” (or even create theillusion of it), and that the main issue is some kind of “trade-off betweenprivacy and security.” One government purpose is to thwart terrorist plots. Butdoes anyone believe that the government will use its data for this purposealone, and not to promote its numerous other nefarious imperial designs andpersecute those who stand in its way? Talk about LEFTIST naivety!
JimCreegan