We can, of course, fire the NSA.
President Obama has said he wants a national debate on the surveillance programs we have recently learned of. This is my contribution to it.
We can fire the NSA. We can also fire the CIA, reduce staff at the Department of "Defense", and any other government organization we want to dispense with the services of. The TSA, for instance. We live in a constitutional republic which fancies itself a democracy. We pay the salaries of every employee of both those organizations, and of the FBI, and all the other federal agencies we can no longer trust to tell us the truth about what they're doing for the money we generously fund them with. After the revelations Mr. Snowden provided us with we know one thing for sure: we know that when the NSA assures us that our communications are opened and read only under congressional and judicial scrutiny, this cannot be true, because we now know that Mr. Clapper lied to the congressional oversight committee. Without knowing what this particular agency is actually doing, oversight is impossible. We do not require that our elected representatives use ESP to divine the activities of the groups they are supposed to oversee. In fact, I'm not clear why Mr. Clapper has not been charged with a federal crime for his lie to the committee he should be answering to.
The only control the American public has over the activities of our government, is the presence of our elected representatives in congress and in the White House, and more distantly, the Supreme Court, whose salaries we also pay. If one employee lies flagrantly to a member of our representative government, that employee destroys the foundation of our government, and we become something other than a republic, or a democracy. Each representative, every senator, and the president represent us and are sworn to defend the constitution. I am at a loss as to why President Obama is not outraged at Mr. Clapper's behavior, because it seem so likely that if congress is being lied to, so is the president.
I am outraged by the depth, scope, and long history of government security agencies snooping on the citizens who pay them to do something useful. At a time when we are told we cannot afford decent unemployment insurance, adequate funding for food stamps, Head Start, and the cost of living component of Social Security benefits, it is an outrage that we the people are paying one set of our employees to lie to another set of our employees at enormous expense. And I would like to see lying employees fired for lying, and prosecuted if that is feasible. Mr. Snowden is being soundly belabored for violating his oaths of secrecy, but without him and similarly brave whistleblowers, the American public would be kept in the dark and fed manure indefinitely.
I demand that our "security" agencies' houses be summarily and thoroughly cleaned.
While this is being done, I demand truth in advertising from the private companies that provide us with the means to communicate with each other in the myriad ways we now can. I demand legislation that every internet, telephone, and electronic social medium provider position on their front pages the following notice:
"Warning! all your posts, messages, phone conversations, and photos can be instantly accessed by numerous agencies of the federal government without notice to you. If you want to communicate privately, follow this link to discover the location of the U.S. Post Office nearest you."
This notice should be posted at FaceBook, Yahoo, Verizon, Microsoft, and all other telecommunications and internet providers until it's no longer true.
Mr. President, I'm outraged not just by the expense and the obvious unconstitutionality of these programs, but by the haunting suspicion that they may be just as stupid as they appear to be. I wouldn't mind spending tax dollars on some security measures, but to spend gigantic sums of money on programs that may be just silly if they are not nefarious, is totally and finally unacceptable. I wish that these programs be brought under control by our President and our elected representatives, and if they cannot be, to know the reason why. Do we exist for the benefit of the NSA or do these people fear no one, starting with the president?
Note to the NSA: Hi, and I hope you have a lovely day, although not necessarily forever.
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