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Yes, but honestly that's OK. It's a small step, but for the president to have to come out and say, "I recognize that a significant number of the American people
by austenallred 13y ago
Yes, but honestly that's OK. It's a small step, but for the president to have to come out and say, "I recognize that a significant number of the American people support this man who is convicted of espionage, but..." is a pretty novel thing.
- yannis 13y agoYou mean "suspected" of espionage.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- meowface 13y agoI'm sure he does realize it already, as does the DoJ and NSA. It doesn't matter to them. If you leak Top Secret material it better be something as damning as the assassination of a politician or anything along those lines, else you won't be shown any mercy by the government. It's really just a matter of "50 years, or life without parole" at this point.
- austenallred 13y agoExactly. Which is why the petition matters - it forces a response from the White House. (Obama promised to respond to each petition that reaches 100,000 signatures)
- betterunix 13y ago"Obama promised" After all that has happened, it amazes me that anyone would put any value on a promise made by President Obama.
- maratd 13y ago> it forces a response from the White House. It doesn't force anything. They don't have to respond and they usually don't, when it's not convenient for them. It's just a user-created poll on their website.
- ashleyblackmore 13y agoObama promised a lot of things (and didn't act upon those promises)!
- pavanred 13y agoAnd was awarded a Nobel prize..
- mkr-hn 13y agoOne-line posts rarely contribute anything. This is an off-topic jab with no support. Even examples and support for each would not make this post appropriate since this submission is about the petition, not the progress Obama has made on his promises.
- serf 13y agoand you're doing such a good job of policing the rest of the thread , too! The petition site was implemented by Obama's cabinet. It was made as a way to make it seem as if his cabinet was more technologically savyy than others(along with "THE FIRST PRESIDENT WITH A SMARTPHONE!"), and allowed for people to think that the platform would increase transparency in governance. Obama's cabinet decides how to respond to petitions. I think the parent of your reply, although simple in its' phrasing, is pertinent to the discussion at hand. Ones' history does play out in the judgment that people make, and the fact that the President has broken OTHER promises is probably good reason to suspect his intentions in the future (such as the promise of a real reply@100k)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mscarborough 13y agoThese petitions don't really seem to matter -- there are plenty without a response. Previously, the administration "promised" to respond to all w/ 25,000 signatures. Now it's 100k. What policies have been affected in any way by these things? Takes about 5 seconds to sign one once you have an account, so the results seem to be pretty close to the effort it requires from the public. Voted for Obama twice but he's just as much of a liar as any other politician.
- thenewkid 13y agoThe petitions are a good way to gather a list of names for analysis at a later date... just saying!
- betterunix 13y ago"Voted for Obama twice but he's just as much of a liar as any other politician." Then why did you vote for him? You had a lot of other options: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_third_party_and_independent_presidential_candidates,_2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_third_party_and_...
- mscarborough 13y agoNot to be off-topic but because you asked... Because the only other real options for P/VP in 2008 and 2012 were even scarier to me each time, and I live in a swing state. I also wasn't wowed by the third party candidates (but have voted for third party candidates before).
- melling 13y ago100,000 isn't a significant number of people. You are living in a HN echo chamber. I'm not sure most Americans care. I'd love to know exactly what the NSA is doing. There needs to be some sort of oversight, of course, but they certainly have a job to do. I recently heard former President Clinton talk about it and he was somewhat convincing that there are certain restrictions. At any rate, aren't we venturing into politics and opinions?
- coldtea 13y ago>At any rate, aren't we venturing into politics and opinions? Because politics and opinions are something they do in Washington and they don't affect our lives / the tech scene?
- general_failure 13y agoBecause most people in tech, talk about politics without good understanding.
- mpyne 13y agoWhat else is HN supposed to be for, tech startups and self-improvement tips?
- melling 13y agoHN doesn't have tags and filters. Isn't reddit a better forum? If we fill the front page with "NSA stories", politics, opinion pieces, etc., it will drown everything else out. As a community we can be anything we want it to be. The majority will decide.
- jedberg 13y ago> I'm not sure most Americans care. And of those that do care, a majority feel that he committed treason and needs to be brought to justice. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/17/cnn-poll-majority-give-snowden-thumbs-down/ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/17/cnn-poll-maj...
- comefrom30 13y agoI'm not sure you have to be an American to sign these petitions.