Rep. McClintock Says the US Should Grant Snowden Amnesty

Reason

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) says that the U.S. government should grant NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden amnesty so that he can answer questions without the threat of prosecution. Snowden was recently granted temporary asylum in Russia. 

From Buzzfeed:

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock wants amnesty for former NSA contractor and NSA leaks source Edward Snowden.

"I think it would be best if the American government granted him amnesty to get him back to America where he can answer questions without the threat of prosecution," McClintock said. "We have some very good laws against sharing secrets and he broke those laws. On the other hand, he broke them for a very good reason because those laws were being used in direct contravention of our 4th Amendment rights as Americans."

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Comments

[John]

You fool, we only give amnesty to Central American illegal aliens with felony convictions. We don't give amnesty to American citizens who embarrassed the king.

[Almanian!]

ED! IT'S A TRICK! RUN!

[Fist of Etiquette]

In the words of Mal Reynolds...

[Faceless Commenter]

Tom McClintock wants . . . To Serve Man.

[Sevo]

..."those laws were being used in direct contravention of our 4th Amendment rights as Americans."

And honest statement from a politico? Be still my heart!

[Ted S.]

Technically, we already had those rights; the 4th Amendment merely codified them.

[CE]

No, the 4th Amendment merely guaranteed that the Congress wouldn't infringe those rights.

Now, who do I see about the terms of the guarantee?

[John]

Dear Reason,

If you don't have the technical skill of the bandwidth to run the five hundred different advertising scrips you are running on your page without making your page a memory monster that either won't load or will barely load half of the time, perhaps you should consider cutting down on the number of scripts. Just saying.

[DJF]

But don't get rid of the hot Russian girl or the big boobie t-shirt ads.

You can get rid of the hairy faced guy t-shirt ad.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You try to post a comment at 3:00 Eastern Time and you're going to get bit. It's the Red Hour at reason.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, that explains it. All of the Reason employees go mad for a minute, in a festival of libertine libertarianism, with random sex and violence. Once the minute has passed, all returns to normal.

[Ted S.]

I think it's all the goddamn fucking anti-social networking shit.

I always stop the main page from loading once the text is loaded, but every time I scroll down, as soon as the page gets to a new article and all those "social" networking buttons show up in the viewport, H&R tries to make the browser load them again.

Hell, on individual article pages I'll load them in the background and it looks as though the page is fully loaded, but when I get down to the end of the comments just beyond the comment box it'll try to load more "social" networking crap.

[Ted S.]

I should add I get these problems morning, noon, and night; not just at 3:00 PM ET.

[entropy]

ive hundred different advertising scrips you are running on your page without making your page a memory monster that either won't load

1) Get Firefox

2) add "noscript" plugin

Problem solved.

[Pro Libertate]

He should hold out for total amnesty and a late night talk show.

[Mad Scientist]

"We have some very good laws against sharing secrets and he broke those laws. On the other hand, he broke them for a very good reason because those laws were being used in direct contravention of our 4th Amendment rights as Americans."

This is the TOP MEN mindset right here. Laws are for people who don't have "good reasons" to break them. Everyone else must obey.

[John]

Bullshit. He is saying that just because you broke the law doesn't mean you should be prosecuted for it.

And you are damn right laws should not be enforced where there is a really compelling reason for breaking them.

[Mad Scientist]

If there are reasons why you shouldn't be prosecuted for breaking a law then it's a bad law. Anything else is a morass of TOP MEN deciding who gets a pass and who goes to prison.

[entropy]

If there are reasons why you shouldn't be prosecuted for breaking a law then it's a bad law.

Yes, bad law. Most of them are.

Anything else is a morass of TOP MEN deciding who gets a pass and who goes to prison.

That's what we have now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I asked this before. Who has authority here to grant him immunity from prosecution? It would have to be from all the various statutes and whatnots that crafty prosecutors could find to charge him with.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, there's his lordship, Obama, first of the name. For federal crimes, anyway.

[Eduard van Haalen]

For all practical purposes, they already granted amnesty to the bald perjurer who lyingly denied the existence of the NSA's surveillance program. There wasn't even a pardon proclamation; the executive simply decided to send a huge FY to the legal system-not only declining to prosecute, but letting the bald perjurer keep his lucrative job.

Contrast this high-ranking bald perjurer, who sought to cover up violations of Americans' rights, with the whistleblower who *exposed* those violations. We get to see the real attitude of the government toward its serfs - I mean citizens.

[OldMexican]

MCLINTOCK!

[OldMexican]

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock wants amnesty for former NSA contractor and NSA leaks source Edward Snowden.

It's a trap!

[The Last American Hero]

So Snowden is a Bothan spy?

[MappRapp]

lol, you gotta be kidding me dude, seriosuly?

http://www.AnonTactics.tk

[The Doctor]

Now if this was a current Republican Administration, he would be locked away and no one in congress would say a thing!