It's overrun with ACs high-fiving each other. The character of this website is gone now. I don't know what happened or exactly when it happened, but this isn't the same place anymore. I've been a poster for going on 15 years and I found myself leaving for a bit a few weeks ago. I think I might be done for good now. Really sad to see what happened here. I just wish I knew where everyone else went...

The difference is now that there's an explicit ruling, anyone doing so can't cry about the lack of clarity. Someone would have to take the fall. Sure, cops violate personal residences without warrants all the time and probably even listen in on phone calls, but that evidence is inadmissible and grounds for getting a case thrown out and convictions overturned. I'm not naive enough to expect this ruling to be followed absolutely, but anyone who violates it knows that either they or a lackey is going down.

Ex post facto protections aren't a god-given privilege.

n/t

There you go again not reading. If you pay attention to my 1st two posts the point I've been trying to make is that people like you ignore the distinction between NSA spying and leaking information on foreign intelligence ops. Every time Snowden is criticized, someone like you reverts to using NSA spying analogies as your defense of Snowden when that isn't what people we're complaining about.

WE AGREE ON NSA SPYING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, go back and read my original post on what we DON'T agree with.

No offense, but the Snowden debate really doesn't factor in how foreign nations feel about being spied on. And, talking about your "rights" not to be spied on is just naive.

No, it's simplistic because you're choosing to ignore the leaking of information on valid intel operations overseas. And that is my ENTIRE point. If you look at Snowden selectively then ignore the reasons people criticize him, then yes every one who speaks ill of Snowden starts to look like a villain.

Your analogy is simplistic. I am all for Snowden leaking information on the NSA's illegal activities. I am totally against all of the superfluous information he dumped on the public about US intelligence operations abroad. He is far more Brenda Manning (or whatever his name is now) than Danny Ellsberg. People such as yourself dumb the entire debate down to "is he a whistleblower or isn't he?".

The reasons people such as myself are so pissed off at Snowden aren't that we're defenders of the NSA as your simplistic argument claims. We're pissed off because he vastly exceeded the actions of a whistleblower and drove deep into the realm of espionage against the US. Now, we're seeing that he's actively working WITH foreign intelligence services. You think he's working at a Moscow McDonalds?

A young cocky and very intelligent man who thinks he's way smarter than he is. The way he got conned into that Putin interview should be exhibit A that he's not that insightful. The fact that his exit plan was so cobbled together is also proof.

Ah yes. Kind of like yelling "stop resisting" while they beat the shit out of a guy laying on the ground.

2.) This we know. I saw a story a while back that even NSA surveillance was being leaked to local law enforcement sometimes whenever they ran across illegal activities. I have no doubt that they're abusing this information.

Exactly. This stuff is the smart play if you're a politician. If you DON'T do it and something bad happens, the public will blame you for not doing enough. If people cared enough to complain, things would change...but they don't.

We don't need a revolution. Things are the way they are because the American people don't give a shit. Polls prove it. The public accepts the "if you're not doing anything wrong then what do you have to hide?" mentality. These are the same people who broadcast their daily irrelevant activities on Facebook. You think they really care about the government *maybe* reading what any yahoo could find following their twitter account?

As soon as any politician starts hearing people screaming into his answering machine all day or yelling at him every time he's in public, and they start thinking they might not get reelected, that's when change happens.

Now, where the heck do the blonde jokes come from? I've never seen any association between stupidity or airheadedness with blonde people.

And, etiquette hasn't caught up with technology. Filming people getting drunk at your party and posting the pics on Facebook is bad etiquette, but people haven't figured that out yet because the technology is cool and new. People down to their core haven't figured out that what you post on Facebook isn't just shared with your trusted friends, but is now indexed and associated with you forever. That's OK for older guys like me who have some understanding of the repercussions, but what about kids who haven't figured it out yet? I was on Yahoo answers trying to talk a teenage girl out of sexting her BF because she assumed that he had no way to rebroadcast the pics from his phone!

Once people figure out the importance of internet privacy via the outlets they control, they'll start to associate the effects of privacy on other sources holding their personal information. Once that happens, I think we'll start to see improvement all around as public pressure still does affect change.