Ron Paul Starts Snowden Clemency Petition
Source: Associated Press
Former GOP congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has started a petition drive to pressure the Obama administration to grant clemency to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is charged with espionage over leaks about the government's surveillance programs.
Paul's push for clemency would have to be granted by President Barack Obama. Earlier this week, Paul's son, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, filed a lawsuit against Obama and other top administration officials to stop the surveillance programs, which Sen. Paul contends are violations of 4th amendment constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.
Ron Paul said in a video post that he wants Snowden to return to the U.S. without facing prosecution before the accused leaker's amnesty in Russia is due to expire at the end of July.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=22516456&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fhl%3Den%26redir_esc%3D%26client%3Dms-android-att-us%26source%3Dandroid-browser-type%26v%3D133247963%26qsubts%3D1392396717338%26q%3Dsnowden%2Bron%2Bpaul%26v%3D133247963
Zorro
(15,753 posts)Thanks for the laugh.
diverdownjt
(703 posts)I believe you meant asylum...............
Historic NY
(37,458 posts)Apparently Ron Paul thinks Snowden is guilty.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)I'm thinking that's what would have to happen, Prez Obama would have to pardon Snowden.
mimi85
(1,805 posts)I'm sick of hearing about Snowden. I wish his 15+ minutes was up.
Gerhard28
(59 posts)It isn't just fifteen minutes. Glenn Greenwald, bless his heart, will dribble those NSA documents out for a long, long time.
mimi85
(1,805 posts)I wish GG would take his narcissistic self and disappear as well. Sigh, I know it won't happen, but I (and many others) are tired of the whole fiasco.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)Gerhard28
(59 posts)It's normal.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Julian already has. I'm expecting him to finally turn himself in to get another media storm.
Glenn is probably working on a new person to put to the forefront.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)Snowie & his puppetmaster fear irrelevance the most. I think the POTUS' speech on surveillance took a lot of "steam" out of Snowie's "revelations" and GG's upcoming book sales. Their biggest fear, at this point, is that the American people just really aren't that into 'em.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)beyond the slightest shadow of doubt that Snowden didn't share the information with foreign powers...As far as I know, the answer to that question still remains unclear...
itsrobert
(14,157 posts)Figures. This is just an orchestra mess to embarrass our President by Snowden, Beck, Paul, and the rest of the teabaggers.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)snowden is a hero to Libertarians.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)and his Brillo headed ejaculate. This statement is not an indictment on Snowden, just a curse toward the Pauls.
Gerhard28
(59 posts)These comments about sex with Ron Paul are a gross-out.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)another_liberal
(8,821 posts)When he chose to keep the NSA on a basically business as usual footing. He could have scored huge points with everyone who cares about the right to privacy by shutting down meta-data collecting entirely. Turning storage of our records over to the phone companies means nothing will change. A complete restructuring of our intelligence gathering systems is what was needed, not a whitewash.
Now Rand Paul (with his dad assisting) is going to ride this issue like a birthday pony all the way to the GOP's nominating convention, and beyond.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)Both Ron and Rand Paul are domestic terrorists. They are supporting a man, a foreign agent whose mission it was to disrupt our meta data collection capacity and disturb relations with friendly nation partners. It has already come out that Snowden had help just like I wrote when this story first came out. However, I said there were two people who helped Snowden. The second Snowden helper has not yet been identified.
Gerhard28
(59 posts)This is exactly how the charge of "terrorism" can used to stifle freedom and suppress the truth.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Welcome to Democratic Underground. We need many more just like you.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)Good luck with that.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Do you mean the other NSA contractor who gave him a password to use? That hardly makes a case for calling Edward Snowden a "Foreign agent." I personally think the man is a genuine American hero, forced into exile by his stance against the wholesale violation of our Constitutional right to privacy.
As to the father and son team of Pauls being domestic terrorists, that is much more accurate. I tend to think of them more as unprincipled, self-interested opportunists, but domestic terrorists fits pretty well too.
Gerhard28
(59 posts)Moreover, President Obama didn't just keep the program. He expanded it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-administration-had-restrictions-on-nsa-reversed-in-2011/2013/09/07/c26ef658-0fe5-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html
Hekate
(90,978 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)QED
Look forward.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)but, I you are a libertarian (right or left), then you are a "nutjob."
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)You might want to walk that one back, given that a decent chunk of civil libertarians are likely responsible for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)It's not about whether the Constitution, the document upon our entire country rests, means anything anymore. That's arcane stuff that only pointy-headed types care about.
It's all about Ron Paul and Edward Snowden. Or didn't you get the memo?
By the way, I think we should abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. It was proposed and signed into law under Richard Nixon, so it absolutely, positively must be the very incarnation of Evil.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)such as the Clean Air Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Ocean Dumping Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Fuck all those Nixon-loving tree huggers!
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)libertarianism is a political philosophy, concerned with political relationships (i.e., how the government relates to the citizen); thos responsible for the Civil Rights Movement(s), were/are concerned with how people relate to people.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)They are, after all, civil libertarians. It's right in their name!
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)YYou might want t look deeper into the ACLU, its history and the suits they have brought.
Individual members of the ACLU might care about people's relationship with other people (as most humans do), but organizational, the ACLU only cares about people's relationship to the government ... where the government is not involved, neither is the ACLU.
And, Libertarians (right or Left) couldn't care less that Black people couldn't eat at the Woolworth lunch counter, as Woolworth is a private enterprise; however, the ALCU brought suit I bus cases, because the bus companies were a part of government.
The ALCU couldn't care less that my neighbor yells daily racial comments; but cares deeply that the government not restrain the yellers voice.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Calling all civil libertarians "nutjobs" still doesn't make sense, though.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)and shouldn't have made the nutjob comment.
But I stand by my comment that civil libertarianism had very to do with the Civil Rights Movement(s) and libertarians of all stripes are only concerned with the governments relationship to the people and couldn't care less of that same exclusionary conduct is performed by a private entity ... ask either Pauls about their libertarian stand on Civil Rights.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)The opposite of Libertarian is Authoritarian.
Not Left. Left/Right is on a different axis. Thus, one can have LeftLibertarians (i.e.civil libertarians, concerned about civil rights) and Right Libertarians (e.g. the Pauls, concerned about property rights).
Just like one can have Left Authoritarians and Right Authoritarians.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)but therein lies there commonality, both abhor authority (i.e., Government infringement).
The Libertarian-right care that government not infringe on their property rights; libertarian-left care that government not infringe upon civil rights ... but neither care (ideologically) about private conduct between individuals.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)It's about public policy.
In general, when politicians base their policies around private conduct of individuals very little good comes from it.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)75,000 dollar a year jobs are worth more than Constitutional rights. If being a civil libertarian puts me at odds with people, so be it. I seek to ensure freedom for all Americans, not just ones that agree with me.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I have said no such thing, ever.
Have at it ... Bang away in your mission to make the world safe from you former and current employer.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)that has no problem with jack booted thuggery.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)that knows nothing about me.
But whom others can read that I didn't say what you claim ... they can read that the only one talking about jacks, boots, or thuggery is that same person that wrote that he/she worked, and continues to work, for the IC (the Intelligence Community, as you explained to me) ... well at least until he/she gets a better paying gig.
IOW, others will say you for the situationally-ethical, false information providing (read: hypocritical liar), that the IC breeds.
lark
(23,182 posts)Must be noon or midnight?
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)Unfortunately Chez Paul is making hay with their best Benghazi ever and have no reason to stop since the checks keep rolling in.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)[IMG][/IMG]
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)"Take a look on Democratic Underground
They have the gov't paid trolls out, trying to limit the outrage & rebellion on there.
If that is the reaction of hard core Dems to the news stories on the NSA, I want to stoke up some more of it.
Lots of traffic on DU.
It's the most popular Dem internet site, except for Huffy Po - where everything meaningful gets censored".
http://www.dailypaul.com/288556/clapper-and-feinstein-get-caught-lying-big-time#comment-3103138
mimi85
(1,805 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Easy to see who's on what side....
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)Wow. I have not been to that site for ages. They pretty much black-balled me prior to the election.
Unless some of those folks are some of us, some of those folks actually think like us.
It is time to unite. For Freedom, for Liberty.
If you have an account and you are accepted there, can you sneak in some of Julie Borowski? I think that she will do the trick
FUCK the PAULS and their admirers! and double fuck GG and Snowden, just for good measure. The lying, scamming idiots.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)TheMathieu
(456 posts)No sirree.
Renew Deal
(81,895 posts)It's not just the Snowden stuff. Bitcoin is another example. So is the one world government stuff being thrown around.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)It is possible to recognize and support a just cause even when it comes from an execrable source.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)gets news coverage these days...
I'm guessing if someone went back to research all of Paul's legislation against the NSA, it would be a scant list...
LeftishBrit
(41,212 posts)Cha
(297,935 posts)And fuck the broken clock defense of ron paul and his stupid clemency for the hacker-runner-leaker-putin puppet.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)won't name names but the point was....if you hate ALL Democrats....perhaps you should look at Rand Paul.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)considered for the position. Wonder how many more ties he needs with Snowden, looks like they approve of each other.
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)The OP was about Ron.
Rand has said he wants Snowden to spend a couple years in prison.
Though I agree neither should be president.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Rand will have a new story by next week. It comes with his brand, sorry, not confusing the two.
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)He has said that Snowden and Clapper should share a jail cell.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)I would guess since he has started a petition it just may mean he is for clemency for Snowden. Of course next month he may be wanting to sit down with Clapper and have a beer.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)idendoit
(505 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Can't trust that Obama on anything - Eddie'll be disappeared as soon as he gets back. Bet on seeing comments like that before the thread is over.
anasv
(225 posts)i was happy to sign it, although Ron Paul is a nut. Snowden is a hero.