We have no earthly idea if the right balance is being struck with prism and the phone company data
and we can't have any earthly idea. Barring one being a complete ideologue the balance is an equation with privacy being sacrificed on side and terrorist attacks being stopped on the other and we, out of necessity can't know the value of either side. It is this lack of knowledge that is why we have representative government. We vote for people to be our stand ins, to be told what we can't be told. This is why the lie director Clapper told to Senator Wyden is so troubling. Our representative, and their staffs, have to know what is going on. They are our stand ins. I understand why we can't know the details, but our representatives must.
Spies, left to their own devises, will gather information. That is what they do. Thinking they will voluntarily take in less information discounts their nature. Someone, other than they, have to decide just what balance is right. That is Congress' job. If they don't get the true value of each side, they can't come to the correct answer. The one and only way this kind of program can exist in a democracy and not destroy it, is for there to be complete transparency from the executive to the representative branches. We can't have directors lying to the Senate. Now we have accusations that Nadler was lied to by FBI director Mueller.
In the final analysis, we need this program to be overseen. Mr. Clapper needs fired. If director Mueller lied, he needs to be fired. Our democracy can't survive anything less.
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