A Friday Rant!

It's been quite a week! Almost exhilarating since Project Greenwald was finally implemented. For months, the activist, claiming to be a journalist, has been quietly sifting through thousands of classified documents. Classified documents that were gathered in a dragnet executed by one Ed Snowden. Snowden turned over the product of his indiscriminate data capture program to Glenn Greenwald. Glenn performed the arduous task of searching the vast amounts of data for information relevant to his cause, or as we often call it, "evidence". Hmm, that sounds a lot like the alleged activities of the NSA, nothing surprising here folks. In the spirit of transparency, Glenn is withholding most of the data.

Okay, I've had my fun, but there is a nagging point in there. In all fairness, the WaPo has untold amounts of data unreleased as well. That privacy stuff is catchy, huh?

I'm going to link an article that I find most pertinent. Please share the link on Twitter from the source. But before I do that, I want to say that Chris Hayes is not an "evil-doer" nor is he a willfully ignorant hipster enamored with the ideal of a civil liberties Utopia. I like Chris, I can tolerate his show and I apologize to tweeps for using him as a punching bag through the week. There are two issues that I find repulsive, however. One is this new movement to blur the lines between activism and journalism. It's a movement with many players, but among the leaders "du jour" are Scahill, Moore and Greenwald. Fine, they want to play that game, but when Chris Hayes lends them credibility on MSNBC? I find it repulsive. I get tired of the one-sided coverage of a one-sided "debate". And by one-sided debate, I mean to ask, "Why are you letting Corporations get away with "secret" data mining?" Data MINING, not a data search based on known quantities or defined parameters or warranted legal concerns. Data MINING or even espionage by Corporations is apparently fine and dandy, if my only source of news is MSNBC. While Rachel Maddow has also focused on the one side, at least she has made the decision to drop Project Greenwald from the "top stories" into the "updates". Ultimately, my point is to say that activism is NOT journalism and we can do better, MSNBC can do better. The second issue is much more complicated, but it can be summed up with one word, "Obamabot". this word is filled with so many repulsive implications it is astounding that ANY legitimate Pundit or Politician would associate themselves with Greenwald on this issue alone. And who can forget the infamous "Nun rape" incident? By the way, "Obamabot" implies subhuman intelligence...think about it. While Ron Wyden may be struggling and stumbling in his zeal to attract a younger demographic, he's been careful to keep a distance from Project Greenwald. However, Merkley and Ellison wanted "all in", until it's revealed they both CHOSE to miss the briefings on these programs. I'm pretty sure their schedules are suddenly too full for attention-getting interviews on the topic for at least a little while. There...my rant is done. Thanks for your time. Now, here's that link I promised:

PRISM isn't Data Mining