I wish I had something useful to contribute to the discussion about the NSA spying scandal. Sadly, I don’t — I’m still in the learning-and-processing stage. But since I feel I should post something about it this week, I’ll direct you to some of the more interesting updates and commentary I’ve found:
— Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked the NSA surveillance, has just gone public.
— Today, Rand Paul said he is pursuing strategies to bring an anti-NSA surveillance case before the Supreme Court. To which I say, lotsa luck with that, given the current makeup of the Supreme Court.
— In the New Republic, Rachel Levinson-Waldman makes the important point that data mining efforts like the NSA spying program don’t actually keep us safe.
— Over at The Monkey Cage, political scientist John Sides asks, “Could there finally be a backlash against domestic surveillance?” (Short answer: probably not).
— Scott Lemieux looks at the dangerous legal ramifications of the policy.
— Finally, this Charles Blow column more or less expresses where I’m at. I believe the surveillance is both: 1) utterly unsurprising and 2) “one of those rare moments where the left edge and the right one can meet” (I’d alter that to “should be able to meet”). It certainly appears to be “government overreach” and “a threat to liberty.”
Discuss!
