Truth is Stranger than Fiction: NSA Oversight Panel

[Virgil Showlion]

You can't make this stuff up. I guess if "UncaSamAOK55" shows up to spread puppies and rainbows in P&M by the end of 2013, we'll have your tax dollars to thank for it.

Good luck, America.


Obama Picks Cass Sunstein (America’s Goebbels?) To Serve On NSA Oversight Panel - Source

Only under the Obama Presidency, in which every appointment, minor or major, is handed only to the most corrupt, devious crony to be found, can a man like Cass Sunstein be appointed to serve on the NSA oversight panel. Cass is a noted propagandist, who has advocated that government agents should infiltrate groups and discussions that push “conspiracy theories” (read my article on how to know if you are a conspiracy theorist) in order to delegitimize them. But don’t take my word for it. The Washington Post wrote the following a couple of days ago:

The Obama administration is reportedly proposing Cass Sunstein as a member of a panel to review the surveillance practices of the National Security Agency (NSA), among other former White House and intelligence staffers. Sunstein was the head of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs until last year, when he returned to teaching at Harvard Law School.

While at Harvard in 2008, Sunstein co-authored a working paper that suggests government agents or their allies “cognitively infiltrate” conspiracy theorist groups by joining ”chat rooms, online social networks or even real-space groups” and influencing the conversation.

The paper also suggests that the government “formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech.” That sounds an awful lot like the 50 Cent Party of online commentators who are paid per comment by the Chinese communist party to sway public opinion.

This is a great time to watch one of my favorite We are Change videos. The one where Luke Rudkowski corners Sunstein and he tried to squirm away.

[djAdvocate]

anyone who uses Goebbles in a headline for a hit piece is not going to get much attention from me.

[Sum Dum Gai]

You don't honestly think the NSA wasn't already infiltrating certain groups and movements before this guy championed the idea right? They've been doing it since at least the American Nazi party around WWII.

[swamp]

Aug 26, 2013 12:59:58 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

You don't honestly think the NSA wasn't already infiltrating certain groups and movements before this guy championed the idea right? They've been doing it since at least the American Nazi party around WWII.

Where else would you get information about the groups without talking to the groups?  It's not like they put out press releases and publish minutes of their meetings.

[Virgil Showlion]

Aug 26, 2013 12:59:58 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

You don't honestly think the NSA wasn't already infiltrating certain groups and movements before this guy championed the idea right? They've been doing it since at least the American Nazi party around WWII.

They're taking a guy who publishes working papers endorsing Chinese-style propaganda warfare and putting him on the panel responsible for NSA oversight.

This doesn't strike you as a step up from the (admittedly dismal) current state of affairs?

[Virgil Showlion]

Aug 26, 2013 14:59:59 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

I just looked this guy up on Wikipedia (don't judge my sources!)  

The interpretation of federal law should be made not by judges but by the beliefs and commitments of the U.S. president and those around him, according to Sunstein. "There is no reason to believe that in the face of statutory ambiguity, the meaning of federal law should be settled by the inclinations and predispositions of federal judges. The outcome should instead depend on the commitments and beliefs of the President and those who operate under him," argued Sunstein.[18]
Sunstein (along with his coauthor Richard Thaler) has elaborated the theory of libertarian paternalism. In arguing for this theory, he counsels thinkers/academics/politicians to embrace the findings of behavioral economics as applied to law, maintaining freedom of choice while also steering people's decisions in directions that will make their lives go better. With Thaler, he coined the term "choice architect."[19]

This guy scares the hell out of me   

He's America's version of Joseph Goebbels. Call that analogy "extreme" all you like. I've seen nothing that distinguishes their ideas.

[djAdvocate]

Aug 26, 2013 15:10:57 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Aug 26, 2013 14:59:59 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

I just looked this guy up on Wikipedia (don't judge my sources!)  


This guy scares the hell out of me   

He's America's version of Joseph Goebbels. Call that analogy "extreme" all you like. I've seen nothing that distinguishes their ideas.

what a load of horsecrap.  they guy has about as much in common with Goebbles as does Walter Lippman.

edit: i would call this guy pretty much a mainstream small r republican.  guiding the thundering herd with his superior intellect. 

[Virgil Showlion]

Aug 27, 2013 6:14:21 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Joe Goebbels, the guy who dressed his six children up in their Sunday best and killed them.  What a guy.

Considering what happened to other German officials and their families, I'm sure he'd have done it again in retrospect.

He believed what he preached.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Aug 26, 2013 12:50:59 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Aug 26, 2013 12:36:55 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

anyone who uses Goebbles in a headline for a hit piece is not going to get much attention from me.

That's pretty much when I checked out of the thread.......

It was kind of harsh- on Goebbles.  He seems semi-normal compared to Cass Sunstein.