Keith "Nostrodamus" Olberman comments on the 2013 NSA scandal. (...in 2006...)

[TrollBuster9090]

This scandal has been going on since 2001.

The LEFT noticed it in 2006 and made a fuss about it (see below).

Apparently the RIGHT didn't notice the program until the occupant of the White House was a Kenyan Userper.

[eShirl]

1. He didn't realize we might have a written copy.

[LIBertea]

2. The LEFT noticed Keith and had him kicked out of MSNBS

Which LEFT are you talking about?
The 1%ers running the Democratic Party?
The apathetic people who keep voting Democratic Party year after year even though in the last 30yrs the Party keeps moving right.
The so-called liberal sheeple who attack policies when Republicans are in charge and then defend the same policies when "their" party/POTUS is in charge.
The DC "liberal" legislators who let the Repugs start the dirty work, only to reaffirm and expand it when they are in charge??

The voters on the LEFT better notice the emargination of KO and people like him, and move away from the current Democratic Paty, maybe even voting for true progressives!!!

[ReRe]

3. Bravo!

And welcome to DU!

[timdog44]

6. Nice words

but where are the choices? Who are the progressive people we can vote for. I am ready. The only other option is to vote for a Republican. You might ease your conscience and vote for one of the other 4 or 5 candidates, but you will be going nowhere. Best to keep voting for the (D) and wait for the pendulum to swing back. Otherwise you are beating your head against the wall. Best to keep writing you reps and do it again and again. The more they hear the more they react.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. True Progressives...

I read about them in a magazine, but I'll be hard pressed to find them on MSNBC anymore. And, based on the way some of the shows refer to their future status on Current TV, I'm not sure how long they may be making their mark in TV Land PERIOD!

Welcome to DU...

[TxGrandpa]

10. Have to agree, BUT......

.... we've had no choice as the alternative was even worse in the last two elections. I have to wonder if Hillary Clinton might not have been a better choice? But would she have also continued the enabling of the past administrations?

Even on the AARP Politics forum, the 'liberals' are supporting the same type policies they were condemning during the Bush Administration.

[pacalo]

14. I disagree with your header.

What led you to form that opinion?

[90-percent]

19. "The LEFT noticed Keith and had him kicked out of MSNBS(C)"

I was an ardent Keith viewer during the journalistic dark ages of the GW Bush Cabal.

I do not recall any group of lefties working collectively to get Keith off MSNBC. I think Keith's work standards and his appetite for complete uncompromising journalistic freedom led to friction with his corporate bosses, who had a lot more to consider with their obligations to their parent corporation - GE - a major player in the MIC with a lot of businesses antithetical to Keith's show.

How could Keith criticize corporate shirking of their civic duty to pay their fair share of taxes when GE has a staff of perhaps 800 all working on making their tax obligation ZERO, or even getting a rebate, and are quite accomplished at producing such a result?

As but one example of the strain Keith must have felt working for such a large MIC oriented multi-national.

I wish deeply for Keith to someday return to broadcast news and journalism. His upcoming return as a sports journalist is bittersweet to me, as he will allow himself no political commentary in that role.

-90% Jimmy

Welcome to DU.

[ReRe]

4. K&R

Michael Hayden... Wonder where that SOB is now raking in the money? The head of a Private Contractor Corp, I have little doubt. I remember him coming to the NSA. Where was he before he came to the NSA? All I can remember is my rage at his becoming the Chief of the NSA.

Thanks for sharing the clip of this jerk being asked a question about the 4th Amendment by a reporter, and of Keith reading the 4th Amendment afterwards.

[marble falls]

20. Good guess!

He is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy co-founded by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.[3] Hayden also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy and was elected to the Board of Directors of Motorola Solutions effective January 4, 2011.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hayden_%28general%29

[ReRe]

23. Oh yeah...

.. I had it mixed around... he went from the NSA to the CIA. Thanks.

[marble falls]

36. You nailed it plenty good in my humble opinion.

[reusrename]

5. K&R for KO

sure do miss that guy

[baldguy]

7. And we have people on DU saying Obama is a fascist.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. He IS a corporatist, baldguy...

Do you feel better hearing it put that way? He never was a true progressive. I think he wanted to survive in a "bipartisan" way so that he could live to fight another day.

Where has that gotten us on civil liberties? Uh-uh, now...

[baldguy]

11. Are you claiming that this is a new revelation too?

Obama is carrying out Bush's 3rd term? That he's going to send armed drones after Snowden?

Uh-huh...

[MrMickeysMom]

31. Actually, it's Bush's 4th term...

... if you want to be accurate about it, bubba.

[baldguy]

32. And that's where you lose every last shred of credibility.

[MrMickeysMom]

33. You fucking asked that kind of question, so that's what you get...

I know and others understand what I'm saying here. I don't base my "cred" on your understanding.

[baldguy]

37. Where were you 6 yrs ago?

Claiming ignorance now just means you either haven't been paying attention, or you don't in fact understand what you're saying, or that you're simply lying.

You just want an excuse to hate on Obama & the Democrats who support him. Rand Paul & the rest of the GOP are happy to provide one: Ed Snowden.

[MrMickeysMom]

39. Your answer is best explained as one that is full of shit...

Just confirming what others have said here, bald guy.

There are some who are deaf dumb and blind to the continual erosion of civil liberties who are willing to be fitting for nose rings. I already know you've been fitting for yours. Best of luck with coming to the surface on this subject, citizen.

[Android3.14]

13. Isn't it awful how they pick on Obama?

Everyone knows spying on innocent citizens without a warrant isn't fascism. It's a security blanket to keep our civil liberties warm while the boogie man hides under the bed.

[baldguy]

15. So a cop sitting on the side of the road watching for speeders is SPYING on all the cars going by?

[Android3.14]

16. No. Of course not.

A cop tracking the license plates of every car that passes him or her, source and destination, name of rider, number of occupants, and such would be a better analogy. And yes, that goes beyond the pale.

[baldguy]

18. Then your scenario is not comparable to what the NSA is doing.

They are not collecting the names of people sending or receiving messages, and they are not collecting the content of the messages. They also are not targeting each & every one of those messages for extra scrutiny, just those for which they've got a warrant.

They're like the cop, sitting on the side of the road, observing cars going by. He's stopping the cars that are speeding, or driving erratically, or where the driver is breaking doing some other moving violation. He isn't stopping each & every car and doing body cavity searches on all occupants.

[Android3.14]

21. You obviously haven't been paying attention

In your world, as long as they don't record your conversation, it's not a police state. It's okay to record location, origin and destination phone number (because after all, there aren't any names associated with phone numbers, right?), duration, and that sort of data. That kind of information won't tell you anything private about a person, will it. Got it. I'm sure East Germany would have loved having you as a citizen.

[baldguy]

22. So Obama is a fascist, now? I'm sure Glenn Beckk, Rand Paul and Alex Jones would all agree with you.

Sorry, but if you're driving down the road, the color, make & model of your car & the fact that the car is on that particular road isn't privileged information that requires a specific warrant for a cop to record. And neither are lists of anonymous phone numbers compiled by a phone carrier. That's the real world of the 21st century. If you don't like it, then throw away your cell phone, log off the internet & go live in a cave somewhere. But don't try to pretend that this is anything new, that it's somehow illegal, that you didn't know about it, or that it's something its not.

[Android3.14]

25. Because after all, when the police state knocks at the door

The best thing to do, rather than try to send it away, is top invite it into your home and move somewhere so the police state can't get you.
Must be one of those cunning plans.

[baldguy]

28. Keep painting yourself into a corner, promoting Rand Paul's unsupported extremist views.

And the Obama Admin will be weakened, and the Patriot Act & FISA will be the default "moderate" position and be with us forever. Just the way GOP wants it to be.

[Android3.14]

29. Rand Paul's views? Perhaps. But also the ACLU's

The ability to adapt in the face of rhetorical challenges is a sign of intelligence.

[baldguy]

30. There's a huge difference between criticizing Obama to try to make the govt better

and criticizing the Obama to remove him from office & eliminate the fed govt.

Some people can't tell the difference, however.

[Android3.14]

34. Wow. That went zinging out of left field

I am no where near that point. We'll see how he responds to a couple of pressing civil rights issues. This NSA thing in particular is a defining moment for him, and I have no choice but to give him the room he needs to make it right.
However, we must stop fooling ourselves. It serves no purpose to pretend it is anything but the infrastructure for a police state, and therefore we need to express our displeasure and take reasoned action before someone comes along and utilizes that infrastructure.

[baldguy]

35. It's not my fault if you don't understand the fucking objectives of those on your anti-Obama team.

And it's not like they've kept it a secret. Where have you been the last six years?

Needless to say, you protestations of ignorance are less than credible too.

[Android3.14]

38. Let's see if you are making sense, shall we?

The ability of an argument, regardless of the unfortunate language, to withstand rhetorical challenges is usually a good test of its validity.
So what you are saying is that government scrutiny that people like the ACLU, Al Gore, Alan Grayson, and many other dedicated and respected progressive groups oppose is okay, because you think I have an "anti-Obama team", and that because there are indications this infringement on our civil rights has been going on for years in the shadows that it is hunky-dory when it gains widespread exposure?
I'll refer you back to post #29. There's helpful advice there.

[pacalo]

12. The word "unreasonable", he seems to think, gives him a legal cover for him to spy

on whomever he wants. Fascist solutions aren't "unreasonable" if they're masqueraded as national security in order to cunningly justify them.

This Prism operation reminds me of the fictional military operation called "ECOMCON" in the movie "Seven Days In May". The ECOMCON headquarters was secretly located in a Texas desert, made possible by a corrupt, powerful Texas senator. The headquarters for Prism is located in a desert in Utah, which is represented by a powerful senator, Orrin Hatch, & it, too, was meant to be a top secret.

ECOMCON was developed by a cabal consisting of the corrupt, powerful senator; a handful of generals representing all military branches; several colonels; & even a high-level tv network executive to facilitate an elaborate, in-your-face propaganda campaign designed to win public approval for usurping the constitution with a coup to install a general as president. It only took a small group of evil men in key, high government positions to almost pull it off. Seeing too much of the military involved in key policy decisions in reality is off-putting. Military-industrial complex, indeed.

Thanks for the clip -- it was nice to see & hear KO again. Can't get any better than "Countdown".

[progressoid]

17. Well duh. So clearly what we're doing now is "reasonable" and with "probable cause"

Sheesh, what's all the fuss about.

[Hydra]

24. I Miss Keith

He really nailed it on a LOT of occasions.

Hard to believe how much free speech is being quashed by having a (D) President in office.

[sakabatou]

26. Keith was the best

[Hydra]

27. Some of the best bitebacks towards the Bush Admin

To Condi Rice: "USE THE GOOGLE!"