Another low point in Obama's career...the surveillance speech.

[koshergrl]

When you didn't think he could get any lower:

"His tone on Friday was inappropriately dismissive, while the substance was misleading at best and mendacious at worst....

'
On Friday, President Obama spoke to us about surveillance as though we were precocious children. He proceeded as if widespread objections to his policies can be dispatched like a parent answers an eight-year-old who has formally protested her bedtime. He is so proud that we've matured enough to take an interest in our civil liberties! Why, he used to think just like us when he was younger, and promises to consider our arguments. But some decisions just have to be made by the grownups. Do we know how much he loves us? Can we even imagine how awful he would feel if anything bad ever happened while it was still his job to ensure our safety? *
By observing Obama's condescension, I don't mean to suggest tone was the most objectionable part of the speech. The disinformation should bother the American people most. The weasel words. The impossible-to-believe protestations. The factually inaccurate assertions."


..."

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you about your evolution on the surveillance issues. I mean, part of what you're talking about today is restoring the public trust. And the public has seen you evolve from when you were in the U.S. Senate to now. And even as recently as June, you said that these -- the process was such that people should be comfortable with it. And now you're saying -- you're making these reforms and people should be comfortable with those. So why should the public trust you on this issue and why did you change your position multiple times?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think it's important to say, Carol, first of all, I haven't evolved in my assessment of the actual programs. I consistently have said that when I came into office I evaluated them. Some of these programs I had been critical of when I was in the Senate.
​

This is jaw-dropping.
Let's look more closely at what Carol calls Obama's "evolution." As a U.S. senator, Obama "co-sponsored a 2007 bill, introduced by Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) that would have required the government to demonstrate, with 'specific and articulable facts,' that it wanted records related to 'a suspected agent of a foreign power' or the records of people with one degree of separation from a suspect," Karen Brandeisky notes at Pacific Standard.
In addition:

In February 2008, Obama co-sponsored an amendment... which would have further limited the ability of the government to collect any communications to or from people residing in the U.S. The measure would have also required government analysts to segregate all incidentally collected American communications. If analysts wanted to access those communications, they would have needed to apply for individualized surveillance court approval. The amendment failed 35-63. Obama later reversed his position and supported what became the law now known to authorize the Prism program.
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There's more:

Feingold's 2008 amendment, which Obama supported, would have also required the Defense Department and Justice Department to complete a joint audit of all incidentally collected American communications and provide the report to congressional intelligence committees. The amendment failed 35-63. The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community told Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Mark Udall (D-Colorado) last year that it would be unfeasible to estimate how many American communications have been incidentally collected, and doing so would violate Americans' privacy rights.
​

And also:

Obama co-sponsored a 2007 measure that would have required the government to tell defendants before it used any evidence collected under the controversial section of the Patriot Act.
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And then there's the fact that:

As a senator, Obama wanted the attorney general to submit a public report giving aggregate data about how many people had been targeted for searches ... Despite requests from Microsoft and Google, the Justice Department has not yet given companies approval to disclose aggregate data about surveillance directives.
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There's even more in the excellent Pacific Standard article. But Obama stands before us and spins, as if his position on this stuff hasn't changed at all. It's one of the most insulting lines he delivered."

The Surveillance Speech: A Low Point in Barack Obama's Presidency - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

 

[OriginalShroom]

As someone I know and respect once said..

Everything Obama says comes with an expiration date.

Sometimes it's just minutes away.

 

[Snouter]

Everyday is another low day for the monkey. His Egypt speech was hilariously ironically hypocritical. AFter all Obama has a 35% approval rating meaning if he was consistent, he would resign yesterday.

 

[ScienceRocks]

I do feel that spying on all Americans the way our government has IS against the constitution. I support spying on our enemies and I don't want that too ever stop.