Edward Snowden Gets Sam Adams Award 3361


Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden.  I am delighted.  This from Ray’s account of the event:

In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.

Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.

In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.

Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.

The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.

There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time.  We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody).  The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always.  I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles.  The tabloids would go with that.

There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power.  I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

3,361 thoughts on “Edward Snowden Gets Sam Adams Award

1 69 70 71 72 73 113
  • kedem forever

    This argument over who gets the most young goyim pussy, the six Blackburn pikeys or the host of fake agent/cab driver pot-bellied jews on YouPorn can be best resiolved if Anon and Macky ask Jack Straw to adjudicate.

  • kedem forever

    BTW-the secret of how the DIYs are able to land a rare bit of welsh, like Catherine Zeta Jones, was given away by Michael Demsky, but it involves the risk of throat cancer!

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Macky and several others (re Islamophobia/deportation, etc)

    Just to clarify, if you will: my comment on deporting foreigners convicted of serious crimes was written against the background of one particular child grooming/abuse case but obviously applies to all foreign criminals, whatever their nationality, race or religion convicted for all crimes of equivalent seriousness.

    I’m probably as much au fait with the law as Macky, if not more, and so I could summarise as follows : if such a criminal is of British nationality (eg, by birth) but of foreign origin then deportation is not an option as some have pointed out; if he/she still has his/her foreign nationality and is not of British nationality then he/she should be deported (this actually happens all the time or at least should); and if the criminal is not British born but has acquired British nationality eg by applying for it and having been granted it, then British citizenship should/could be revoked and the person deported (this also is – or should be – current practice).

    I think that the above is perfectly coherent. I note in passing that the majority (I do not say all) of the people involved in the various child abuse cases appear to have been of a certain age, which makes it unlikely that they fall into the first of the three categories I’ve mentioned above, ie they are still foreign nationals or acquired British citizenship other than by having been born in the UK.

    If wrong on any of the above, I stand willing to be corrected.

  • fred

    “Something perhaps you should consider yourself the next time you take offense at a comment & then chose to escalate it to the nth degree.”

    Why? My exchanges are short, sweet and infrequent because they work. I don’t need to spend hours searching google or looking back through old threads either.

    Whereas we have to suffer the Anti-trolls going on and on like Duracell bunnies day in day out because they think they can play the Trolls at their own game. They give the Trolls exactly what they want and turn the blog into a never ending battle ground.

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    Daniel. 12 24am

    “The momentum in the media has already turned our way.”

    Re JVL.

    The ADL did get one thing right. They described JVP as an organization with national impact that recruits grassroots supporters and influences the mainstream public debate about Israel.

    And we do it with a fraction of the $55 million budget that the ADL has to try to bully the Jewish American community into toeing a line that does not reflect our community’s values.

    Ben. 12 29pm

    “Hmm. I wonder how self-awarness factors in their calculations”

    Mix self-awareness with awareness of global issues and what might happen?

    The Horror. 2 23am

    25 Oct, 2013 – 2:23 am

    I’m sure that I have been allotted more disk space at Camp Williams than you, but the developmentally-disabled panty sniffers of the NSA lack the resources to crack much of my burgeoning dossier. They’re on the defensive. Soon they’ll be helplessly at bay.

    Is that on hard discs or fused discs?

    The NSA’s monster lightning machines seem to be making some great fine techno-artwork which has to be cut out and replaced before they can be started up again.

    http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/08/the-nsas-massive-computer-clusters-in-utah-are-failing-due-to-arc-explosions/

    Jemand.4 45am

    Re changing fashions in mandated paranoia.

    1930’s… Germany: “FEAR THE JEWS”

    2000s …World: “FEAR THE MUSLIMS”

    Mary.8 03am

    Thanks for digging out that 1948 open letter.

  • ישראל בכל מקום

    Self-hating Jews getting outraged about our leader’s enthusiasm for settlements. Never mind, Bibi, give us the construction materials, and we will finish the job….

    “The settlers and their advocates in the Israeli government know better, and they’re so emboldened by the current state of affairs that they’re shouting the truth, and proclaiming their success, from the rooftops (including some who will likely play an outsize role in the next Israeli government). For once, Peace Now and advocates of Israeli settlements are in agreement: settlements are and have always been about preventing the emergence of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And while for the past four years, Netanyahu has never tired of insisting that he really, truly wants peace and does support the two-state solution, if only the Palestinians were ready to make a deal, his track record indisputably tells a different story. ”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/laying-bare-the-facts-about-netanyahu-and-the-settlements.html

  • ישראל בכל מקום

    There was a 70 percent increase in new construction starts in settlements during the first six months of 2013. But you idiot goyim didn’t hear about most of them:

    “The catch—which few understood—was that under current Israeli planning rules, a great deal of settlement construction doesn’t require tenders. In this manner, fully 86 percent of the construction started between January and June 2013 went ahead without any tenders needed.

    In short, Netanyahu had his cake and ate it too. He got credit from the U.S. and international community for showing “restraint” by voluntarily refraining from issuing new tenders for the first half of 2013, while allowing settlement construction to swell on his watch.

    This little-known settler-friendly idiosyncrasy of Israel’s building regulations is even more important given last week’s news that a top aide to Netanyahu is pushing to change West Bank construction rules, such that ALL construction in settlements can proceed without tenders. Haaretz, commenting on the plan, explains succinctly: “The goal is to reduce the diplomatic pressures that results from publicizing such tenders.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/21/two-blockbuster-new-reports-on-settlements.html

    What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve about, so why worry.

  • Macky

    Jemand: “Macky, I’m expecting an apology from you”

    Have you provide convincing rationale as to why you are not the most likely suspect by far given the known factors & circumstantial evidence ? My view is that you are indeed responsible for this frame-up, so unless anything comes to light to indicate otherwise, don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology.

    You don’t seem so hot for ever apologising for your the long track record of your obnoxious behavior here, the latest being to continue trying to associate Mary with the StormFront frame-up by calling her “StormFront Mary”, and then your hateful insistence to continue doing so when she repeatedly asked you not to.

    BTW your attempted support for the Habbu-Clown’s Islamophobia is hardly surprising, and is a nice example of further inadvertent condemnation.

  • John Goss

    Angie Nickson asked the Cabinet Office how many times had the UK declared war since 1990. I was rather taken aback by the answer. I recalled the Gulf War, Bosnian War, War in Afghanistan, War in Iraq, War in Libya and War on Terror (sorry Islam).

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/178649/response/442558/attach/3/FOI318445%20reply.pdf

    I was surprised to discover that we have not declared war since 1990. So does that mean that the above wars were executed illegally?

  • fred

    “The weather presenters, not meteorologists AFAIK, love using expressions such as ‘piling in’ of weather fronts, ‘pumping down’ of rain, etc etc. Is there an agenda to keep us all in a state of fear and worry? ”

    The presenters are qualified in either meteorology or a related subject.

    The video I saw on this subject was this one linked to from the Mail web site.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3rDk1XM5M

    The presenter is Peter Gibbs.

    “After graduating from Newcastle University in 1979 he spent two years living and working in the Antarctic as a meteorologist with the British Antarctic Survey.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/about/19113364

  • Macky

    Habbu-Troll: “I think that the above is perfectly coherent. I note in passing that the majority (I do not say all) of the people involved in the various child abuse cases appear to have been of a certain age, which makes it unlikely that they fall into the first of the three categories I’ve mentioned above, ie they are still foreign nationals or acquired British citizenship other than by having been born in the UK.”

    You can wriggle & back-tracked as much as you like, but your original comments condemn you;

    “be deported to the country(countries) whence they or their forefathers came so that they could practice their bestial predilections on young girls of their own country and religion?”

    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/01/uzbek-cotton-slavery-campaign/#comment-389572

    Yes “forefathers”, implying you are referring to those being British Born, and contra to your latest wriggle that most of those convicted were of a certain age, those convicted in the Oxford case that you were citing, are all young enough to be 2nd or 3rd generation British born men.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=oxford+child+exploitation&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=kcz&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=JTVqUp-dFoKO0AWE64CIAQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=641

  • Macky

    Fred: “Why? My exchanges are short, sweet and infrequent because they work. I don’t need to spend hours searching google or looking back through old threads either”

    Your recent exchanges with Juteman extended those threads pointlessly as they consistent just of insults & abuse, and my own experience of being abusively “flamed” by you lasted weeks & spanned over several threads. So hardly “short” or “sweet”, and only infrequent because most people now avoid debating anything properly with you.

    Fred: “Whereas we have to suffer the Anti-trolls”

    You make it sound like Trolls, and having their poison going unchallenged, are both are a good thing !

  • fred

    “I was surprised to discover that we have not declared war since 1990. So does that mean that the above wars were executed illegally?”

    We haven’t declared war since 1939, nobody declares war any more, the UN made wars illegal except in self defence. The only official war we’ve been in was the Falklands War and Argentina declared that.

    Now they just call it something else.

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    Mackey.

    PS. You know Dad has nightmares about those eyes but he secretly admires your dress sense. He’ll never admit it though.

  • Mary

    @ Fred in denial that weather presenters are not meteorologists.

    LOL He found one who was.

    I just switched on BBC News 24 and there was a Nick Miller giving it large for Monday’s storm – amber warnings, wind speeds approaching 90mph, graphics, large white arrows depicting the strength and direction of the wind, etc etc

    He and dozens of others are just autocue readers.

    Nick Miller (weather forecaster)Nick Miller is a British weather forecaster (born in York), working for the BBC. He joined the team at the BBC Weather Centre in London in January 2007, and can now be seen presenting on BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Radio 4 and BBC One. He appears regularly on the BBC News at One the BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten.

    In 2012 he was the reporter on a BBC One Inside Out Special about the drought. His report was networked across all regional versions of the programme. In December 2012 he also provided a networked report in a BBC One regional special shown in England, Wales and Northern Ireland about the weather of 2012.

    He also reports for BBC News including a report on the 25th anniversary of the Great Storm in which he interviewed Michael Fish about his infamous broadcast.

    Prior to joining the BBC national weather team he was a weather presenter on BBC South East Today. He presented weather bulletins for Kent and Sussex from October 2003 until January 2007.

    Nick has also worked for BBC Local Radio across the UK including BBC Radio York, Lancashire, Nottingham and Southern Counties, and spent some time working as a weather forecaster in the United States from 1999-2003 at KRTV in Great Falls, Montana.

    On March 15, 2013, Nick became the final weather forecaster to present the last full national weather forecast, from the iconic studio TC7, at BBC Television Centre in London, on the BBC News at Six bulletin, which was presented by newsreader Sophie Raworth.[1]

    ~~~

    The BBC’s hottest weathergirl.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Kirkwood

    There are dozens and dozens of these weathergirls who would not know an isobar from their elbow. Probably think that’s the name for a piece of gym equipment.

    This was funny. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/watch-bbc-weather-girls-sunny-2018118

  • Phil

    “Now they just call it something else.”

    Sometimes it’s called humanitarian intervention

  • fred

    “Your recent exchanges with Juteman extended those threads pointlessly as they consistent just of insults & abuse, and my own experience of being abusively “flamed” by you lasted weeks & spanned over several threads. So hardly “short” or “sweet”, and only infrequent because most people now avoid debating anything properly with you.”

    Most people avoid making personal attacks against me.

    As I said, it works.

    So long as this blog focuses outwards at the events in the world it is safe. When the focus of attention turns inwards at the blog and the contributors themselves it is lost. That is what the Trolls want and you seem determined to help them all you can.

  • Miss Anne Thrope

    We are firmly on the slip-road to the firm road of recovery, just over the horizon there. Look, you can see it shimmering away in the galring sunlit uplands of propsperity, just next to that crock of gold at the end of that rainbow. By the mushroom clouds there, can you see? Everything is going to be fine, just like Japanese sushi.

  • AlcAnon

    Mary,

    All the BBC national forecasters are fully qualified Met Office employees. They are supplied to the BBC. It was the Met Office, for example, that took Shafernaker off the air for a couple of years. Not the BBC.

1 69 70 71 72 73 113

Comments are closed.