You know how idiots write stupid shit about Apple, and then an Apple writer will go section by section through the idiotic post and show how stupid, and verifiably false, the post is? You know what I am talking about. Well, [Conor Friedersdorf just did that for The Atlantic][1], except the target of his article is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, which might have been shocking a few months ago.
Friedersdorf concludes:
> The surveillance debate is arguably the most important of our era.
> Yet throughout the surveillance debate, the executive branch, including Obama, has lied, obfuscated, and misled the American people in a variety of ways. Before Edward Snowden’s leaks, they could at least tell themselves that the disinformation was serving the purpose of keeping al-Qaeda operates from learning the general contours of our surveillance capabilities. But today, when that excuse has long since expired, Obama is still lying, obfuscating, and misleading the American people. In doing so, he is preventing representative democracy from functioning as well as it might. With the stakes so high, and his performance so dubious in so many places, Friday’s speech has got to be one of the low points of his presidency.
This is a long post by Friedersdorf, but truly fascinating to see the lies, half-truths, and weasel words coming out of the man *we* elected to lead us. Sickening, really.
[1]: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-surveillance-speech-a-low-point-in-barack-obamas-presidency/278565/