Shut Up or Come Home, Eddie

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicalgarbagechute.com/shut-up-or-come-home-eddie/

Shut Up or Come Home, Eddie


Some days I wish that anyone but Edward Snowden had been the NSA Leak. I suppose in a world where we give the most disgusting and embarrassingly selfish among us reality TV shows in an effort to peek inside the lives of embarrassingly selfish and disgusting people that I shouldn’t be surprised at how turned off I’ve become to Snowden himself. Let me make something clear though — in no way do my personal feelings of “meh” for Snowden impact my feelings about the issue he laid bare for all of us to see. In no way do I think the preening smugness of Snowden that has turned me off to his personal cause should make anyone apathetic to whether or not our government is wantonly swallowing up terabytes of data on us for no good goddamned reason.

snip//

The problem is that instead of taking the wool off our eyes and then remaining in the country to take interviews and explain himself, he bolted. He bolted to countries that have just as bad, if not terribly, terribly worse human rights violations on the books as we do. In point of fact, Snowden’s saga mostly points to the fact that the three big super powers, Russia, China and the United States are all engaged in various fucked-upedness and cherry-picking the egregious actions of one doesn’t excuse those of the other. He should have stayed home and faced the music but instead he took off and has ultimately just started to look like a politically-motivated libertarian with an ax to grind.

At this point I just want him to shut up so the business of fixing what’s broken can start. What Snowden seems to be ignoring is that part of the healing process is his trial. We need to let the laws work themselves out in order to identify where the most emergent of breaks lay and how to best go about fixing them. Until Snowden is tried and either acquitted or convicted our laws are meaningless. The very laws he proclaimed to be protecting, he’s flouting. The very same rule of law that he professed to love so much is being trampled on by his own feet.

It’s extremely frustrating to see an opportunity for real, honest dialog be hijacked by theatrics, and the thing is that it’s been Greenwald and Snowden who have been just as guilty of the hijacking as anyone else. I get it. Greenwald’s got to sell papers and Snowden is trying to keep himself visible so he doesn’t end up vanishing with no explanation. That said, we’ll never get around to actually getting people engaged on this subject until all the bullshit distractions go away.

Snowden himself is the biggest distraction. Where will he go? Where will he get asylum? All of these questions get asked and the much more important ones like “How are we going to tell our government to stop snooping into our shit?” get left unasked, let alone unanswered. It’s time for Snowden to be an adult and come home to face trial. I’m on his side. I’m pulling for an acquittal, but he has to stop taking the focus away from the very story he exposed and get out of the way.

[Waiting For Everyman]

1. When Clapper gets charged for lying to Congress, get back to me.

I couldn't care less about little fish like Snowden until all the big fish are behind bars first. If lawbreaking matters, then start at the top.

[quinnox]

2. +1000

[Scuba]

15. Plus another thousand.

[backscatter712]

18. +1,000,000!

Let's hold off on the two-minutes hate and work to bring the real criminals to justice.

[Th1onein]

22. Absolutely!

[reformist2]

23. +1000. First-response smackdowns are awesome. <3

[think]

28. A fish rots from the head down...

[giftedgirl77]

3. K & R

[mick063]

4. Not this again

Every time I read an article like this, I like Snowden a little more.

It has a reverse of the intended effect. The desperation is so obvious.

[Mojorabbit]

26. Does the same for me. nt

[snappyturtle]

5. *YAWN*

[flamingdem]

6. He pretty much undermined any message

with his actions. He's owned by Putin & Co. at this point and lives in a place where civil liberties are a rarity.

[Triana]

7. I'm not interested in Eddie.

I'm interested in what's going to change now (if anything). Eddie isn't the story.

[last1standing]

8. Congrats! The Chamber of Commerce couldn't have said it better.

But they are paying people to say it.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/spy/all/

[deurbano]

9. You omitted this part:

<<Make no mistake, though I openly advocate for him to come home and stand trial, the verdict I’d hope for would be an outright acquittal. In the end he still did this country and indeed the world a service by confirming, if not truly exposing the programs he did. Maybe we all kind of figured this was how our government behaved after 9/11, but Edward Snowden did us all the favor of forcing us to deal with reality. >>


This column seems a little dated. The flurry of speculation about Snowden (the man) and where he will find asylum appears to have died down... especially since it looks like Russia is his only possible option for the time being. The focus (in the U.S.) has shifted to Congress. And in Germany, Brazil (etc.) the focus is also on the implications of the revelations, not the man. So... I think he has at least partially accomplished his mission. (We'll have to wait to see who prevails now that the debate is finally being waged.)

[CakeGrrl]

10. The title nails it.

If it TRULY isn't about him and he doesn't have the cojones to face the consequences of breaking the laws he broke, then go off grid and live in Russia.

I doubt he'll do that. It was never only about the nobility of exposing U.S. overreach.

And the hysterics over a post that doesn't lick Snowden's shoes will continue, as even-handed as this article truly is.

[msongs]

11. yes let's ignore your hero's spying on everyone and executing people around the planet ok? nt

[1awake]

12. well....

He bolted to countries that have just as bad, if not terribly, terribly worse human rights violations on the books as we do.

Well.. all other issues aside, countries that would not extradite him in a hot minute upon being pressured by the US government are not that many. I personally think it's hilarious listening to the people criticize Snowden for the countries he has been in without realizing his limited options. And no... I would not wish he had stayed to bravely face charges mainly because I do not think he would/could ever get a fair trial.


edit: spelling

[Safetykitten]

13. Come on down Eddie, you're the next contestant in "The Tourture's Right!"

[Bonobo]

14. That's like "Eat avocados or watch 'Dancing with the Stars'".

A stupid, unrelated statement.

What on Earth does him returning have anything to do with the price of pimentos in Ecuador?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Siimple solution. Call off the dogs and give him his passport.

[backscatter712]

17. GOLDSTEIN!!!

[treestar]

19. He didn't find anything really that big

The collection of metadata is just too boring. But he knew he could get some attention.

These pathetic attention whores should not be the ones decided which classified information is revealed.

[Mojorabbit]

27. No matter how many times you all say this, it still is not true. nt

[Luminous Animal]

20. Stupid article. He's only once talked to the press in the past 2 months.

And the Guardian has released two videos of their interview with him.

How more quiet can he be.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Two minutes of hate time I see.

And predictably it is working smashingly well..

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

24. Edward Snowden is a modern day Paul Revere with a thumb drive full of news that Tyranny is coming!

Edward Snowden is a modern day Paul Revere with a thumb drive full of news that Tyranny is coming!

Edward Snowden's Dad Calls Him 'Modern Day Paul Revere'
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/edward-snowdens-dad-calls-modern-day-paul-revere/story?id=19554337

Hmmm... who knew who influential a DU meme could be

[AgingAmerican]

25. And the NSA still spies on us

nt

[Scurrilous]

29. K & R

[Cha]

30. And, Putin is saying Shut up Eddie or you can't have Russia has your

new home.. temporary or otherwise. What's a whiny hacker/leaker blowhard to do?

mahalo babylonsistah

[cali]

31. right. In no way does his clearly expressed HATRED of Snowden

effect his opinion here. bwahahahaha. fucking ridiculous. talk about cognitive dissonance.

What shite. the author seethes with hate. Pathetic.

More garbage.

[malaise]

32. Better the distraction than not knowing what they're up to

Rec

[reusrename]

33. This is about as shallow an analysis as one can make.

Nothing wrong with giving him a fair trial. Nothing at all.

He should get in line right behind the perjurers, banksters, and war criminals.

One of the charges against him is actually a property crime.

The Bill of Rights in the Constitution makes it very clear that he should get a pubic trial by jury.

He has the right to confront his accusers.

Let me say this again: He has the right to confront his accusers!

I honestly don't think that's possible now, under the current circumstances. There is just no way in hell that either he or his lawyers would be free to speak out if he were to find himself in US custody. He would be immediately and permanently silenced.

It's hard to believe there are members here who don't get it. They can't even face up to that simple fact. The fantasy world they live in is just surreal.

I'd love to be talked down from this viewpoint, but it would take a lot more than some recast promises about hope and change to convince me.

The whittling away of our civil rights is something that should be important to folks that participate in political discourse.