[wmeredith]

“When you get the package every morning, it puts steel in your spine,” said David Plouffe, the president’s longtime adviser. “There are people out there every day who are plotting. The notion that we would put down a tool that would protect people here in America is hard to fathom.”

That's the whole problem. The NSA spying is being sold as if it stops terrorist attacks. It does not. They have not cited a single incidence.

[jasonlotito]

I'm agains the NSA spying as well, but saying they haven't cited anything isn't the same thing as proving they haven't stopped terrorist attacks.

Please don't read more into this than what I said.

[wmeredith]

The NSA existing in a state that doesn't stop terrorist attacks is the status quo (it's the same as them not existing at all). It doesn't need proving.

If they want to spy on everyone in the world all the time and their reasoning is that it makes Americans safer, then the burden of proof is very much on them.

[gbhn]

Not to mention that terrorists aren't the only thing the president is charged to protect citizens against.

[sliverstorm]

the burden of proof is very much on them

But who do they have to prove it to? The public, or the people they actually report to?

[wmeredith]

They're salaries are paid in tax dollars. The public is who they report to.

[sliverstorm]

Indirectly, yes, but you are oversimplifying.