[thetabyte]

I find it amusing the the Guardian seems to position this article in such a way that it is meant to disparage the Obama administration. While the administration is far from above criticism, and a variety of other Guardian reveals do justifiably criticize the President, my personal takeaway from this is a sign that the administration did at least attempt to curb some Bush era privacy invasions—though perhaps to a pitiful extent. Funny how the article doesn't seem to put it that way.

[shill]

The NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years and the FISA court renewed collection orders every 90 days.

So the Obama regime didn't curb anything until after the eight or ninth renewal of the program. Pitiful indeed.

[thetabyte]

Are you under the impression that you can review the entire federal government, decide which programs to get rid of, and shut down every one of those programs, during your first year on office?

Because if so, please, run, I'd like to see it happen.

By pitiful, I meant that this shutdown seems minuscule among the variety of other privacy violations—but that hardly justifies the Guardian using this specific reveal as an attack piece.

[shill]

> Are you under the impression that you can review the entire federal government, decide which programs to get rid of, and shut down every one of those programs, during your first year on office?

No, I'm not. But I do believe that we were all given the impression that ending unconstitutional wiretaps was going to be near the top of Obama's to-do list.

[thetabyte]

I agree. That's a problem for which he deserves more than a little criticism. But that's not what I was discussing, at all.