Yes. Borat's sister has one.

And what could those Senators have done in response? Increase the NSA budget even more?

I would like to add to that, that from the USA's security risk/reward perspective, it's probably better to have and keep allies, rather than to spy on those allies.

BTW I said "allies", not "vassals". Noam Chomsky's book is called "Hegemony or Survival", not "Hegemony and Survival".

So, the obvious solution is, to make a "Constitutional Reform Party" with only 1 agenda point: to change election law to normal representative voting like all other non-commonwealth democracies, and then call new elections within half a year.
Oh and take money out of politics. "The best democracy money can buy" indeed...

Because Snowden would look weird in a turkey costume, that's why.

Yeah! Like Oliver North! ;-)

Judging from the reactions yours was indeed an unpopular opinion :-)

Snowden committed crimes. For the rule of law, he should be tried and sentenced to the prescribed penalty for those crimes.
I'm glad we know what he told us. But you can't not prosecute people who undoubtedly did commit crimes because you agree with their stated motives.

(emphasis mine)
You bring up an interesting point, and I don't think that you're trolling.

But your statement presupposes that you're living under the rule of law, in the USA at the moment.
But, we have proof that this is not so:

• 1. US Congress security oversight committee asks Clapper: is it true that you're doing mass surveillance on US civilians? (I paraphrase; feel free to look up the original text yourself and post it here)
• 2. Clapper says no.
• 3. Snowden proves that the answer should have been "yes"
• ???
• 5. Security oversight committee notices that Clapper was lying under oath to his bosses (them), and begins an impeachment procedure against that recalcitrant underling

• no... that's *NOT* what happened; and this is, in fact, the scary thing for us outside the USA:

• 5. Security oversight committee notices that Clapper was lying under oath to his bosses (them), and decides to increase the NSA's budget
• 6. If you haven't noticed this yet, this is actual proof that you currently don't have the rule of law, otherwise the media's attention would be directed to Clapper and Alexander and not to scapegoat Snowden.

• 7. No profit. Seriously. I think you have NO idea of the damage this has done to US interests worldwide.

To paraphrase it in computer-like Slashdot terms:
NSA >> official USA government
NSA pwns official USA government
NSA is above the US law (which means that you don't have rule of law which was your original point)

So... tell me.. if we want to do business with an American multinational; or sign a trade agreement with the USA; who do we have to talk to? Whose is the hand up the puppet's bum? It is unclear. Conspiracy theories are just theories, but the reality is that outsiders cannot know who currently leads the USA (just that it's not the official president and government).
Better not to do any business with USA until the situation is cleared up. If it turns out that e.g. the Mafia is pulling the strings of the NSA/USA government, then we'll at least know whom we're negotiating with, and what negotiating points might be of strategic value of them.

tl;dr version:
security organizations cause scandal. well, shit happens. that is not nice but there are procedures under rule of law to correct it. For government employees in USA I belive it's called "impeachment" (it's not just for presidents, you know).
the people in oversight/power react to the revelations with "oh well.. so our employees lied to us.. let's increase their budget". That is NOT normal. People in power (congressmen) are probably not the kind of pushovers that would react like that, or they wouldn't have climbed to the top of the US political pyramid in the first place. Can you tell us if many congressmen like Senator Dianne Feinstein actually have humble, kindly personalities? We don't see them on TV very often over here.

That can only happen after the USA has repealed the "The Hague Invasion Act", otherwise you're just shuffling those poor people back-and-forth all the time.

If you believe this web page, the SuperBowl will be hit with a terrorist attack planned by the NSA:

<tinfoil-hat>
OMG!11one!!
I KNEW it!
The NSA was behind Janet Jackson showing a tastefully decorated nipple!
</tinfoil-hat>

What is it this time, here other nipple? Think about all the heart attacks this will cause to unsuspecting American viewers!

Thank you for your informative post. I suspect (no proof) that if corporate leadership is so attached to established expensive technology like Microsoft XP ATMs, then higher-level economical effects will come into play:

On the scale of entire banks, those banks that have more secure ATMs (i.e. NOT running Microsoft Windows XP) will have fewer attacks, southeast european skimmers will have a tougher job of attacking the ATMs, the reputation of the banks in the high street will be ranked according to the scale "does the ATM work or does it show some cryptic Microsoft error message all of the time and an "out of order" sign".
I know I don't like Microsoft, so there's a subjective factor involved, but when I saw the ATM of the bank where we have OUR money, with some Microsoft error message screen (I made a photo of it if you don't believe me), I seriously thought: "I am SO going to switch to a bank which takes my money a bit more seriously than giving it to Bulgarian scammers" (apologies for the stereotypic slur--I love Bulgarian wine and music).

Because in my personal biased opinion, that's what using Microsoft for serious tasks (such as ATMs) means.

Disclaimer: I've worked a bit with money transfer protocols and a bit for banks, but I'm not really a security or banking professional. I know that the secure systems are all mainframes, Unix and Linux.
I seriously could not believe that a bank would use Microsoft for ATMs, until I saw it with my own eyes.

You'll need lots of cheap labour, so do like these people did: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Vaisseau_de_pierre (in French)
Ask your Friendly Neighbourhood Necromancer to resurrect an army of revenants to help move their descendants' stuff.
Maybe that FNN can also dig up some extra-strong local workforce to subcontract to ;-)
then sail away on the Torne Älv ..


PS: A big thanks to messrs. Pierre Christin and Enki Bilal