The surveillance state is a grievous wrong

President Obama had a news conference the other day and announced that there would be reassesments done with regard to state surveillance.

He also said that Edward Snowden is neither a whistleblower nor a hero. Obama emphasized that debates are supposed to take place within certain bounds, etc.

Bullshit.

Its not within bounds when law enforcement agencies routinely spy on groups of citizens gathered together for almost any reason including religious or other ones.

Its not within bounds when one flicks on a television and sees the bigots carrying on on stations like but not limited to Faux News. This is open bigotry being displayed in mainstream American media on a daily, ongoing basis.

Its not within bounds that American mainstream media is fucked and amounts to propaganda and extensive mind-control. Its not within bounds that some very important stories – like GM contamination incidents – are completely covered up by the mainstream American media but make the headlines across Europe and much of the rest of the world for weeks.

Its not within bounds when the American government takes taxpayer money and uses it to force frankenfoods down the throats of the rest of the world, and cover it up so the American people don’t even know about it.

Its not within bounds when politicians lie, when they engage in extensive porkbarrel manipulation of budgets and waste of taxpayer money, when they blow off important issues, and when they take up others which are beyond frivolous.

Its not within bounds when basic fundamental rights are eroded with the complicity of the government. Its not within bounds when more and more the existing infrastructure that America is built around is turning into a farce. When law enforcement and the justice system fail. When “public safety” represents the deprivation of public safety. When “health care” represents the deprivation of health care. When the “system of higher education” represents the deprivation of education.

Finally, its not within bounds when the leaders of America lie to the American people in order to wage a war which has devastated other parts of the world and was an act of grievous wrong, for which there has been no atonement.

The amount of bullshit is so extensive and so pervasive that it is overwhelmingly clear that the existence of overarching powers of surveillance, regardless of the extent to which there are effusive guarantees of oversight, is absolutely wrong and a serious danger to the freedom of human beings which the United States of America was founded on and which are accepted and established fundamental princicples of rights for all humans on Earth.

President Obama, this is where we’re coming from. This is why things like the Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, and other incidents occur. Its because the actual human beings who live in America see the corruption, see the lies, see the manipulation and BS and make heroic attempts to tell the truth in the face of it.

President Obama, Bradley Manning was a whistleblower. Please read the Wikipedia pages about the sets of documents released. Except perhaps for the embassy cables, the Iraq and Afghanistan war documents were clear cases of whistleblowing similar to what occurred with the Vietnam war. It was an act performed out of a strong belief – highly justified – that inhumane acts were being committed on a regular basis and extenisve cover-ups were occurring.

With regard to Edward Snowden’s revelations, so far they amount to similar in-depth whistleblowing which clearly was based on the correct belief that there was extensive deception, cover-up, and lack of basic democratic process.

I understand full well the importance of responsibility. I have worked many positions which entailed such responsibility and always have strived to maintain the highest personal standards, regardless of whether anyone was watching or not, regardless of whether anyone cared or not.

If America is losing the hearts and minds of its citizens (and others around the world) then it is because it is failing and it has to examine its conduct in every aspect. People living in America see the extensive waste of resources which must be propped up with global resource wars and grievous acts of violence, and they wonder what the hell is going on.

The apparatus which is capable of conducting surveillance is a violation of human rights and must be immediately and permanently dismantled. It must not be allowed to ever exist.

Now we are being asked to have faith in our government, but just a few years ago our government extensively lied to us and killed 100,000 Iraqis and wasted $2 trillion.

We are being asked to have faith in our country but we flick on the television and see open bigotry with hate-mongers having a field day against just about everyone in what certainly seems more frightening that National Socialist rhetoric in the final days of the Weimar Republic.

What happens when they win the next elections and take over the systems that we are all supposed to trust?

Dismantle the surveillance state and never let it exist.