3 ms·

I've seen it work in real life, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree.

• dllthomas 13y ago
  You've "seen" oversight by elected officials reliably protect against abuses in a secret program? What was your role?
  • wavefunction 13y ago
    Citizen only. I would cite Sens. Wyden and Udall as reliably working within the system to expose the abuses in a strategic manner, knowing how powerful the forces arrayed against them are. Now certainly you can disagree with me and say that they should have exposed everything they knew about the programs to the public, but I think their work over the years has been more productive that that. Had they gone public, they probably would have been replaced by other individuals all too interested in quid pro quo.
    • dllthomas 13y ago
      My point is slightly different - Wyden and Udall have been great in public, on this issue. My point is we have no way of telling whether their walk matches their talk behind closed doors. Hopefully it does, but I am not confident we can count on it. You've not observed it, you've observed what you think and hope is it - it may be, but it's not evidence until we know.