PRISM

[Undertoad]

Watching that guy's interview made me cringe a little. And then I read this Slate article which kind of firmed up why:

If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?

Edward Snowden sounds like a thoughtful, patriotic young man, and I’m sure glad he blew the whistle on the NSA’s surveillance programs. But the more I learned about him this afternoon, the angrier I became. Wait, him? The NSA trusted its most sensitive documents to this guy? And now, after it has just proven itself so inept at handling its own information, the agency still wants us to believe that it can securely hold on to all of our data? Oy vey!

According to the Guardian, Snowden is a 29-year-old high-school dropout who trained for the Army Special Forces before an injury forced him to leave the military. His IT credentials are apparently limited to a few “computer” classes he took at a community college in order to get his high-school equivalency degree—courses that he did not complete. His first job at the NSA was as a security guard. Then, amazingly, he moved up the ranks of the United States’ national security infrastructure: The CIA gave him a job in IT security. He was given diplomatic cover in Geneva. He was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton, the government contractor, which paid him $200,000 a year to work on the NSA’s computer systems.

He believes this has so much seriousness that he is now an enemy of the state, on the lam, hiding out... and giving interviews to major media, where is announces where he is. He's in a country with rule of law and an extradition treaty with the US. Not too bright.

The other curious thing I noticed about PRISM is that it was funded for $20 Million. After a certain amount of zeroes, a number isn't fathomable, but this isn't enough zeroes. The last Powerball winner got many times that in cash. $20M isn't enough to house half a floor in a minor building in DC, and when you overpay them ($200K!! That little fucker!) it doesn't even fill a room. That's six cents for every American, so what are we supposed to be royally freaking out about?