e-commentary

. . .

K          “Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Edward Snowden’s receipt, along with  several standing ovations in the Swedish parliament, of the Right Livelihood award for his revelations of the scale of government surveillance and monitoring.  And a fortnight ago O’Bama announced the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and forgot to mention Edward.  And right after he released Edward Pollard, a spy who pedaled state secrets for money.”

J          “He released the wrong Ed.  He’s a busy guy.”

K          “The absurdity and the insanity and the dishonesty and the hypocrisy continue in overdrive.”

. . .

K          “For two individuals who did so much to protect our liberty and freedom, neither of them should lose a moment’s freedom or liberty.  Require them each to do one thousand hours of community service.  To send a message that actions have consequences.” 

. . .

K          “The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) is the unconstitutional law that allows the government to wiretap Americans who are communicating with people overseas.  Under the FAA, the government can conduct this surveillance without naming individuals and without a traditional warrant based on a showing of probable cause.”

J          “Despite the Fourth Amendment that requires a warrant.”

K          “Yup.  Despite the Fourth Amendment that requires a warrant.  When the Supreme Court addressed whether the unconstitutional law is unconstitutional the Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of the law itself and instead ruled that the plaintiffs could not prove the surveillance was ‘certainly impending’.”

J          “We suffer because of the ignorance and intentional naiveté and dishonesty of the Supreme Court.  Goes to show.”

K          “They are only running show trials.  The plaintiffs were held not to have the ‘standing’ necessary to sue.  They were just a group of lawyers, journalists, and human rights advocates who regularly communicate with likely ‘targets’ of FAA wiretapping.”

J          “Seems like a ‘stand up’ group of individuals to me.”

K          “Since the ‘stand up’ group of Americans did not have definitive proof that they were being surveilled under the FAA, they cannot challenge the constitutionality of the unconstitutional statute.”

J          “And the government nearly always keeps its surveillance activities secret.”

K          “But you always knew they were illegally surveilling.”

J          “Sure.”

. . .

K          “‘Condign punishment’ is the ideal punishment that balances the rights and responsibilities of the individual and the society.  ‘Con’ means ‘with’ and ‘dign’ means ‘dignity’ so that condign means to provide ‘with dignity’.”

. . .

K          “Both should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  They have made great personal sacrifices for our freedom.”

. . . 

[President O’Bama failed to name Edward Snowden as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Again.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/16/president-obama-names-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom.  He cannot.  Yet he could pardon Ed and Chelsea on the way out.]

[See the e-commentary at Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013), Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014) and Profile in Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“For especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”  Presidential Medal of Freedom

And Edward Pollard, a spy who pedaled secrets for money, gets released.