I believe the charges are "espionage", not actually treason. It's the 24-hour news networks and other uninformed observers who are blowing the "treason" horn.
First of all, no one who is capable of getting elected President is a moron. Even W was not a moron, he just cultivated that persona as a "folksy guy."
Second, can we dispense with the "nail in the coffin of [x]"? Neither party is going to die, and that's just a useless hyperbolic phrase.
How did Obama get (re)elected? Because the alternatives were still worse. Would we be any better off with McCain (well, Campaign McCain + Palin) or Romney? No. Those guys would be doing exactly the same thing Obama is, minus getting the ACA passed.
This isn't a "partisan" issue, it's an issue of endemic overreach in more than just one Office. Obama's not doing anything to stop it, he's expanding it even, but that has less to do with him being a "Democrat," and everything to do with just straight having Power.
Grasping for power, and refusing to give it up once obtained isn't a "party line." Both parties are equally guilty of it, and will continue to be so.
Can we skip to the part where he lives out his life in peace in some other country, under a different name, so we can get on with writing the inevitable screenplay?
I'm glad someone had the means to do that which I could not. I also hope that such an amazing good deed has the ability to pull the poor kid out of depression.
Anyone who bought ebooks before and after Amazon got in the market big time knew something was very wrong, and everyone knew it was Apple making the deals with publishers.
Apple's deal with publishers eliminated the "wholesale/retail" pricing model that has been the mainstay of every product sold anywhere. Distributor (publishing houses) set the wholesale price, retailers (stores, whether online or not) get to set their prices. That includes putting things on sale, selling at a loss if they want, etc.
Ebooks became the only product where the distributor got to dictate the final selling price.
And because Apple gave them that sweet power, they turned around and "blackmailed" Amazon into accepting the same deal or else they'd pull their whole catalogs.
It was a shitty, shitty deal for everyone but the big publishers. And everyone knew exactly what was happening. It was an "open" secret.
Why should there be redactions? Swartz was a US citizen, now deceased, and nothing about his case has ever been said to fall under "national security."
What internet cafes do you go to? All the ones around here just serve coffee, let people check their email, and allow aspiring novelists to "write" where everyone can watch them do it.
Don't lay this all at the NSA's feet. If you're going to invoke Godwin's Law, then we might as well go on and say the NSA is "just following orders." Because they are.
The NSA probably IS just an information-gathering organization. They're not the CIA, they're not the military.
They're gathering what the Administration(s) told them to gather. This is at the feet of the Executive Branch... Bush and Obama.
The NSA is violating our rights, but at who's behest?.
People like to blame the POTUS for a lot of ills, many of which aren't things that office can control. This, though, is entirely in the POTUS' hands. One of them started it, and each successive POTUS has gone along or expanded it.
The NSA isn't the Big Bad here, they're just the minions.
"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
On the post: Irony: Congress May Declare Today 'National Whistleblower Day' As Court Announces Manning Verdict
Re: Re:
Everyone asking for pardons needs to say "drop all charges" instead.
On the post: Irony: Congress May Declare Today 'National Whistleblower Day' As Court Announces Manning Verdict
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On the post: Public Outlook Shifts: More Worried About Gov't Stomping On Civil Liberties Than Terrorism
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On the post: How Far We've Fallen: Attorney General Eric Holder Promises Russians US Government Won't 'Torture' Or 'Kill' Ed Snowden
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On the post: Obama Promise To 'Protect Whistleblowers' Just Disappeared From Change.gov
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On the post: Student's Free Speech Victory Is A Victory For Everyone Even If You Disagree With His Speech
Re: Free Speech
On the post: Architect Of Obama's War On Whistleblowers: 'It's Good To Hang An Admiral Once In A While As An Example'
Re:
Second, can we dispense with the "nail in the coffin of [x]"? Neither party is going to die, and that's just a useless hyperbolic phrase.
How did Obama get (re)elected? Because the alternatives were still worse. Would we be any better off with McCain (well, Campaign McCain + Palin) or Romney? No. Those guys would be doing exactly the same thing Obama is, minus getting the ACA passed.
This isn't a "partisan" issue, it's an issue of endemic overreach in more than just one Office. Obama's not doing anything to stop it, he's expanding it even, but that has less to do with him being a "Democrat," and everything to do with just straight having Power.
Grasping for power, and refusing to give it up once obtained isn't a "party line." Both parties are equally guilty of it, and will continue to be so.
On the post: Ed Snowden Explains To Former Senator, Who Emailed In Support, That No Foreign Gov't Can Access His Documents
On the post: Anonymous 'Good Samaritan' Pays Justin Carter's $500k Bail After 4 Months In Jail For Online Trashtalk
On the post: Court Finds Apple Guilty Of Conspiring To Raise Ebook Prices
Re: An important distinction
Apple's deal with publishers eliminated the "wholesale/retail" pricing model that has been the mainstay of every product sold anywhere. Distributor (publishing houses) set the wholesale price, retailers (stores, whether online or not) get to set their prices. That includes putting things on sale, selling at a loss if they want, etc.
Ebooks became the only product where the distributor got to dictate the final selling price.
And because Apple gave them that sweet power, they turned around and "blackmailed" Amazon into accepting the same deal or else they'd pull their whole catalogs.
It was a shitty, shitty deal for everyone but the big publishers. And everyone knew exactly what was happening. It was an "open" secret.
On the post: Judge Tells Homeland Security To Shut Up And Release Aaron Swartz's File
Re: Re: Be prepared
There should be no redactions.
On the post: Way To Go Florida: Governor Signs Law That Accidentally Bans All Computers & Smartphones
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On the post: Your Tax Dollars At Work: How Commerce Dept. Spent $2.7 Million Cleaning Out Two Malware-Infected Computers
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I haven't found your three effective in quite a while.
On the post: Your Tax Dollars At Work: How Commerce Dept. Spent $2.7 Million Cleaning Out Two Malware-Infected Computers
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On the post: NSA Recruiters Get Smacked Down By University Of Wisconsin Students
Re: Re: Live with Themselves
The NSA probably IS just an information-gathering organization. They're not the CIA, they're not the military.
They're gathering what the Administration(s) told them to gather. This is at the feet of the Executive Branch... Bush and Obama.
The NSA is violating our rights, but at who's behest?.
People like to blame the POTUS for a lot of ills, many of which aren't things that office can control. This, though, is entirely in the POTUS' hands. One of them started it, and each successive POTUS has gone along or expanded it.
The NSA isn't the Big Bad here, they're just the minions.
On the post: Turkish Police Shoot Down Surveillance Drone During Istanbul Protests
On the post: Adobe's New Subscription Service Goes Live And Is Cracked In Less Than 24 Hours
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On the mac, Pixelmator is an *ok* alternative, but still missing a few tools I use in Photoshop all the dang time.
On the post: Yes, Journalists Should Be Advocates For Shedding Light On Secret Government Powers
Re: Re: To ask the question is to answer it
Are we there yet?
On the post: Dear Everyone: Please Don't Turn Edward Snowden Into Julian Assange
Re: Snowden 2016
On the post: Dear Everyone: Please Don't Turn Edward Snowden Into Julian Assange
Re: Classic gambit
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