I propose that we award the medal of freedom to Edward Snowden

Everyday, it's like peeling an onion, layer after layer, bringing tears to our eyes and now justified fears that our privacy has been invaded by a government that's out of control. In this alphabet soup of scandals (IRS, DEA, HHS, OMB, etc.) I'm talking about the NSA (National Security Agency) which we now learn has violated privacy laws thousands of times. They probably read this blog post before you!

The NSA was granted broad new powers in 2008. Who controlled congress in 2008? Oh, that's right--the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi. This broad expansion of the NSA's power was not done by George Bush, but rather by Obama and his congress. We now learn that the DEA is receiving intelligence from the NSA on ordinary American citizens which they use for prosecution of "supposed" crimes. We have a government that sits in Washington DC and sees you and me as potential criminals, ripe for prosecution. How scary it that?

Edward Snowden, now a fugitive,  exiled in Russia

I don't know what you think, but right now, I'm ready to award the medal of freedom to whistle-blower, Edward Snowden who is languishing in Russia and may never step foot on U.S. soil again. Many pundits on the right have labelled him a traitor, but I'm not one of them. I don't march in lockstep with the right or the left. I'm thankful that Snowden dumped all this "secret" information and started this national conversation on security and privacy. We wouldn't be talking about this had it not been for Edward Snowden. We'd still be believing the lies of the James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence (what an oxymoron!), who perjured himself under oath when he was asked by Sen. Ron Wyden if the NSA collected any data at all on hundreds of millions of Americans? His answer: "No Sir." (Watch the video yourself at the end of this post).

Here's what I would do about Edward Snowden, along with giving him the medal of freedom. I would exonerate him of all charges, reinstate his passport, provide free passage back to the U.S. along with a government-paid-for-tax-free home and land (with no property taxes) to compensate him for all that he has been through, and well as to reward his efforts on behalf of our freedom and liberty.

In my next post, I have some questions that I'd like answered regarding the NSA and their invasion of our privacy in the name of fighting the evil of terrorism (which DOES exist and needs to be taken more seriously than our President takes it. Instead of Islam being the enemy, Obama sees you, me, Republicans, conservatives, Rush Limbaugh, etc. as the enemy). For now, I leave you with this quote from Xavior Simon, "I for one have come to fear abuses of power by the government more than I do terrorism." Amen.

                                 35 sec. video of James Clapper lying under oath

Can you hear me now? The NSA says, "Yes we can!!"

President Obama was commenting last Friday on the National Security Agency's anti-terrorist monitoring program, and said this, 

"We've got congressional oversight and judicial oversight. And if people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust Congress and don't trust federal judges to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution, due process and rule of law, then we're going to have some problems here."

Duh. You think? 

Trust is earned, Mr. President, not assumed. The trust factor between this administration and the American people has been broken. We've been lied to on a daily basis. Too many people, telling too many lies, on too many subjects. The trust locker is bare.They tell lie after lie and have no shame or remorse when they get caught. Why would anyone believe anything they say. If they told me it was a beautiful day I would have to go check for myself and if it was I still wouldn't believe them. 

Do you trust the President? Do you trust the Attorney general? How about Congress? Character matters, and for the past five years, we've put a man in the White House along with his cronies who lacks character. He is a man without a soul, without any conscience.  

Believing Obama and his minions including Hillary Clinton, James Clapper, Jay Carney, Eric Holder is like being asked to purchase a $19.99 video entitled "Gov Gone Wild!" He claims to know nothing about anything. He learns about the latest scandal when you do, by watching the evening news.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on March 12 of this year, Ron Wyden asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper a simple question: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”

“No, sir,” Clapper shot back without a pause. 

This message, an explanation to Congress of what the executive branch was up to, was crystal clear: Don’t worry, the NSA is not allowed to track Americans — and it’s not going to. The primary problem with this, as the revelations of last week have demonstrated, is that it was not true.

Now we learn that James Clapper was lying.

Yesterday, Army General Keith Alexander, Director of the NSA, testified before Senate and said the NSA's warrantless, data-mining, secret surveillance program had prevented dozens of terrorist attacks in recent years. Course we can't tell you about them because they're classified. So you'll just have to take our word for it. And we're from the government so we would never ever lie.

Gen. Alexander, do you pinky swear that you're telling the truth? 

NSA Director,  General Keith Alexander with a pinky swear
that he's telling the truth.

The NSA collects all of this data on everybody, but somehow, the government can't track down illegal immigrants. How come meta-data didn't detect the Boston bombers or Maj. Hasan? The Obama administration was also monitoring four Americans fighting for their lives in Benghazi and begging for help. He let them die. Obama let them die!!

Our government is spying on all of us because they refuse to do the sensible thing called "profiling". Why not monitor the calls and emails that go in and out of every mosque in America. Currently, the NSA will not monitor a mosque, church or synagogue. But it would be fine with me if they dropped this wall of separation between the religion and state. Why? Because they would get nothing worthwhile from any church or synagogue, but I suspect that there would be lots of chatter and intel coming from some mosques in America that would help us stop future terrorist plots.

Rather than profile Dearborn, Michigan which is 95% Muslim or those who have secured student visas from Saudi Arabia over the last 5 years, they instead subject every American to scrutiny. This is patting down a 4 yr old in a wheelchair at the airport, rather than focusing on those who are Middle-eastern and fit the profile of just about every terrorist act that we've had in this country since 9-11. We also need to stop giving student visas to Muslims.

James Madison, fourth president of the United States and father of the Constitution wrote: 

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, wrote:

 "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."