In this comment "Right now, since there have been no abuses and almost all the court decisions on this program have held that it's constitutional, I really don't know what problem we're trying to solve by changing how we do this" the key word is... ALMOST.

Text editors perhaps would be saints.

http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.html

The AI has another advantage over us human players with the Atari 2600. No blisters.

Past performance is indicative of future results.

Dang LPB

Showbiz Pizza was a front for the Pastafarian movement.

When has a false take down notice ever hurt, really hurt, the person/group/whatever making the claim?

We already know the answers but the important question you forgot to ask is how will the current administration handle this? Or course we know that answer too with the appointment of James Clapper to conduct the independent review of the NSA. It's pretty clear that poor decision making is still occuring to this day.

Two other groups that need to be thanked for all of this is the DoJ and the journalists. If the DoJ hadn't had gone and obtained the phone records of some journalists this would have probably been quietly brushed aside. You know cause the journalists don't want to get shut out but now all bets are off and the news agencies are happy to report on things that effect them.

Just to be fair the NSA is denying knowing a lot these days.

I'll admit it I am "incredibly naive" but this is just a start. It's not about poo pooing it because this or that won't work. It's about starting a dialog to correct the problem. Otherwise the problem will never get fixed. I brought up a constitutional convention because it's the sure fire way to make Congress take notice (that's happened before) and either act or as the framers intended the states, if enough can be brought together, can correct the problem.

I'm just going to repeat this until either it starts or someone makes a valid argument against it. The states need to call a constitutional convention and fix problems like these. Imagine term limits for Congress - the state reps would pass that because it would mean more churn and a chance for them to get there. Problem one solved. That's just for starters. Fixing problems like what this post is about would be on the table too.

In this day and age of social media and groups who have nothing better to do this should be easy to push right to the front. Just have to work hard to not have it be subverted. Just imagine how pissed off this would make Congress & the President. The founding fathers would be cheering! The world would see how it's really done right.

I think blaming the absence of a union here is misplaced. One could argue they charge a fee as well (dues). Often involuntary whether you want the union or not. Which could be considered like this. Someone figured there was a buck to be made somewhere in the process and took advantage. If it's legal I'm sure it will be corrected soon enough along with a lawsuit that will surely make someone else a bit of cash... They did it with gift cards now they are just going at it from another angle.

You are facing your accuser. You just don't have the security clearance to view the evidence. And because such evidence will raise nasty questions about how it was collected. Like what's happening now...

There is a quote out of SW EP1 that rings so true in government when anything goes south on them: "I will make it legal" - Darth Sidious

I want a TV series of just pilots or things that got picked up but were canned and never shown. Stuff like that. If done right it could be entertaining. Give some details on it before it shows. Who knows there could be a winner lurking in there and it would get the attention it deserves.