
Ron Paul Launches Snowden Clemency Petition - ghosh
http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/13/ron-paul-launches-snowden-clemency-peti
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staunch
I'm unreserved in my support for Snowden getting a blanket pardon. He should
literally get a medal. He's the American of the decade as far as I'm
concerned.

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RankingMember
I agree, but now you've got me thinking...who do you think was the American of
the previous decade?

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staunch
Well, that one is easy: Bill Gates (Foundation). Literally saving millions of
people's lives on your own initiative and out of your own pocket. Amazing.

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vehementi
Whenever I think about how to contribute to the world, nothing I can think of
holds a candle to the effect I would have if I somehow improved the
effectiveness of the Gates Foundation by like 1%.

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awj
That may be true, but there's a long tail to this too. Most of us can't help
optimize the Gates Foundation's activities, but all of us doing our own little
bit can still be a great force for societal improvement.

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alexeisadeski3
Great to see the Democrats out in front on this one!

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primelens
That was my thought as well. I hate to see how most democrats have reacted on
this issue, goose-stepping with the administration.

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wavesounds
Californians need to unite to vote Dianne Feinstein out of office. We can't be
the worlds technology leader and keep re-electing the biggest proponent of
using that technology for government surveillance.

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bitskits
Without serious campaign finance reform, I'm not sure how likely that is. I'm
all for it, just don't see it happening, sadly. The chances of someone on the
right beating here are very low, but they're better than someone on the right.
Sad state of affairs out here.

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alexeisadeski3
What does finance reform have to do with that?

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bitskits
The barrier to entry for a non-incumbent candidate is so high because of the
amount of money incumbents are able to raise. Therefore, a new candidate
entering to pose a real challenge is pretty unlikely, and it shouldn't be.

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WizzleKake
Is Ron Paul taken seriously in the American mainstream media?

Honest/serious question.

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jtbigwoo
Three things hurt him with the mainstream media.

First, he's not as savvy at manipulating the media with soundbytes as people
like John McCain and Newt Gingrich. He always has a provocative answer to
questions, though, so he's a regular on some news shows.

Second, his supporters are extemely loyal, but he's not that influential in
his own party. In Republican presidential primaries, he rarely rose above 10%
of the vote. His supporters lean libertarian and haven't traditionally been
able to elect their candidates like the social conservatives and business
conservatives have. He's probably not in the top 20 most influential people in
his own party. Just off the top of my head, he's behind Limbaugh, Hannity,
McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, O'Reilly, Perry, Cruz, Rubio, Gingrich, Santorum,
Jindal, Rand Paul (his son), and Cornyn. He's probably also less influential
than folks most people have never heard of like John Thune, Jim Lankford, Roy
Blunt, Jan Brewer, Reince Preibus, Rick Scott, Sam Brownback, and John Kasich.

Third, his newsletters from the 80's and 90's are pretty racist and nasty.
(The newsletters called Martin Luther King Jr. a pedophile among other
things.) He has said lately that he didn't write or review those newsletters
and has disavowed them.

[http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/98883/ron-
paul-i...](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/98883/ron-paul-
incendiary-newsletters-exclusive)

Edit: I meant Roy Blunt the U.S. Senator, not Roy Blount the humorist.

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jessaustin
Are you really talking about the _Wait, Wait -- Don 't Tell Me!_ guy, or do
you mean Roy _Blunt_?

I'm just asking because when I was in high school I shook Roy Blunt's hand at
some dumb "geography bee" or whatever. b^)

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jtbigwoo
Oops, good catch, thanks.

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D9u
Claiming that Snowden has aided al Qaeda et al is as ridiculous as the notion
that if you smoke cannabis you're funding _terrorists!_

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threeseed
Of course Snowden has assisted al Qaeda. It's ridiculous to argue otherwise.

The free release of information will always help the "good" and "bad" sides.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

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acdha
> Of course Snowden has assisted al Qaeda. It's ridiculous to argue otherwise.

That's definitely the official party line but there's no reason to believe
it's true. For a decade before his death there was a constant stream of news
stories talking about how he and other top al Qaeda leaders used disposable
phones, had trusted family members hand-courier messages, used code/slang to
make messages harder to understand, changed locations frequently, etc. because
they knew that the US had the ability to intercept their messages, as did
anyone who had read a newspaper or watched a movie made in the last few
decades.

The only news in the Snowden leaks was that these capabilities were being used
on such a wide scale and that the NSA was willing to weaken everyone's
security to make such large-scale wiretapping earlier. That came as a surprise
to many in the tech industry because it was both risky and unnecessary for
traditional targeted intercepts but it shouldn't have been for anyone who'd
been paying attention in the 90s when things like the Clipper chip or other
mandated government key access schemes.

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winslow
What is Snowden's plan if he isn't granted clemency/pardon by the US and his
asylum by Russia ins't renewed? Does he face the force of the US gov't, does
he continue to run, or are other countries offering asylum (assuming he can
safely travel there)?

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the_cat_kittles
While I support the stated idea, this petition seems weird because I can sign
it with a throwaway email from guerilla mail- are we sure this isn't really
just an email harvester in disguise?

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eli
You know that these petitions are legally meaningless regardless of how
they're signed, right?

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x0054
Legally, yes. But it does demonstrate the will of the people. Next election I
will vote for any candidate that will promise to pardon Snowden if elected.
Somehow I am guessing my vote will be wasted, but so be it.

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adamnemecek
Why is this getting flagged?

