New Polls: Americans Decry NSA Spying

[Kowalski]

This sounds more like it:

New Polls: Americans Decry NSA Spying, View Snowden as a Patriot

Contradicting a previous Pew poll which found that a majority of Americans support the NSA spying on telephone records, new surveys find that most Americans decry NSA snooping and view whistleblower Edward Snowden as a patriot for exposing the existence of PRISM.

As we reported on Tuesday, many reacted with shock to a Pew Research Center poll which found that 56% of Americans supported the NSA “tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans,” suggesting that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – who sacrificed his freedom to expose the existence of PRISM, a program under which the NSA is pulling private data “directly from the servers” of major US service providers such as Google and Facebook – had acted in vain.

However,

a new Gallup poll conducted this week finds that “More Americans disapprove (53%) than approve (37%) of the federal government agency program that as part of its efforts to investigate terrorism obtained records from U.S. telephone and Internet companies to “compile telephone call logs and Internet communications.”

“What can one deduce from this discrepancy? Perhaps it is nothing more complex than polling bias, most recently observed during the 2012 presidential campaign, and which shows that sometimes it is more important who is doing the polling than who is being polled and what questions are being asked,”

writes Zero Hedge.

Just as in the Pew poll, more Democrats than Republicans (49% to 32%) are likely to approve NSA snooping, underscoring once again how leftists abandon their concern for privacy and civil liberties when a Democrat is in the White House.

The Gallup poll correlates with a separate

CBS News poll which found that 58% of Americans disapprove of the government “collecting phone records of ordinary Americans.” The Gallup poll also shows that 35% of Americans would be “very concerned” about violation of their own privacy rights if the government had computerized logs of their telephone calls or Internet communications, while 22% said they would be “somewhat concerned.”

From: http://www.infowars.com/new-polls-americans-decry-nsa-spying-view-snowden-as-a-patriot/

Now before anyone starts going off on the fact this was taken from InfoWars.com you might want to check out the places, they are citing:

Gall-up Poll Link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163043/americans-disapprove-government-surveillance-programs.aspx

CBS News Poll Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57588748/most-disapprove-of-govt-phone-snooping-of-ordinary-americans/

In addition, following Snowden’s quote to the South China Morning Post, when he remarked, “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American,”

a Reuters/Ipsos poll confirms that most Americans look favorably on the whistleblower’s actions.

23% of those surveyed viewed Snowden as a traitor, while 31% said he was a patriot. 46% said they don’t know, suggesting that the narrative behind the story has a way to go before it fully unfurls. In addition, 35% said Snowden should face no charges while 25% think he should be charged to the full extent of the law.

Only 6% of those surveyed had no objections to the PRISM surveillance program, while 37% said it is completely unacceptable. A majority of 45% said PRISM was acceptable under some circumstances.

Reuter's Link: http://preview.reuters.com/2013/6/12/more-americans-see-man-who-leaked-nsa-secrets-as

This seems to fit more with what I'm seeing, as most people seem to genuinely be upset about this. Your thoughts?

[Clarakore]

Yet when polls are made the other way some cry and claim that surveying only 1000 people are not legit.

That is not my complaint just pointing out the hypocrisy.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 10-11, 2013, with a random sample of 1,008 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/163043/americans-disapprove-government-surveillance-programs.aspx

[Kowalski]

Yet when polls are made the other way some cry and claim that surveying only 1000 people are not legit.

That is not my complaint just pointing out the hypocrisy.

http://www.gallup.co...e-programs.aspx

:Yawn:

[Clarakore]

That is exactly how we felt when someone complained about the exact same thing before:

Let me get this straight, there are 30 MILLION people in the US, and they poll 1,000 people and call that the majority of Americans?? LMAO

[Clarakore]

While we have plenty in the way of complaint, we have little in the way of consistency among them.

Sean Hannity sure has changed his tune.

The rambunctious Fox News host on Monday lashed into the Obama administration over the revelations of widespread Internet and phone surveillance by the National Security Agency, warning that "anarchy and tyranny will follow."

But back in 2006, when a similar NSA spying scandal was unearthed during President George W. Bush's administration, Hannity wasn't so concerned. He came out as a staunch defender of the NSA then, saying it was "staggering to me we are even debating the use of these techniques in this country even at this time."

*snip*

Sean Hannity Displays Hypocrisy On NSA Surveillance (VIDEO)

Edited June 13, 2013 by The world needs you

[Kowalski]

Actually, Americans aren’t shrugging over NSA surveillance

Two new polls find that a majority of Americans disapprove of the NSA's data-mining programs. The head of the NSA says he's ready to provide evidence they've helped prevent terrorist attacks

At first blush, it seemed, most Americans haven’t gotten too exercised about the revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly tracking everyone’s phone data, in the name of protecting national security.

That was the take-away from a Washington Post/Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday. But two new polls out Wednesday – one by Gallup, another by YouGov taken for The Economist – paint a difference picture. Both find that a majority of Americans disapprove of the NSA data-mining programs.

In the Gallup poll, conducted June 10 and 11, 53 percent of Americans disapprove of the programs, while 37 percent approve. YouGov found that 59 percent disapprove of the programs, and only 35 percent approve.

Americans are also skeptical that the snooping is doing much good. Per YouGov, only 35 percent say it’s likely the information has prevented a terror attack, while 54 percent doubt it has. And while President Obama insists that “nobody is listening to your phone calls,” it turns out only 17 percent of Americans think that’s true, according to the YouGov poll, taken June 8 to 10.

“Reading your emails, listening to your phone calls, examining your phone or computer without a warrant – those are intrusions rejected by large majorities approaching the 93 percent who insist on seeing a warrant, subpoena, or national security letter before they'd consent to allowing government to enter their homes without permission or probable cause,” YouGov says in its report on the poll.

In another small hint at how some Americans are reacting to the data-mining stories, Bloomberg News reports that sales of George Orwell’s book “1984” have spiked on Amazon.com. The 1949 classic, a staple of high school reading lists, depicts a dystopian society marked by near-saturation surveillance at the hands of Big Brother.

Others have taken to putting their name on a “We the People” petition at WhiteHouse.gov. As of 3:41 p.m. Wednesday, 63,532 people had signed on to a petition demanding the pardon of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who says he leaked top-secret documents about government surveillance programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post. The petition needed 48,000 to merit a White House response.

“Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs,” the petition reads.

Mr. Obama prides himself on running a transparent government and says he welcomes a public debate about where to draw the line between protecting public safety and safeguarding civil liberties. But given that the antiterror surveillance programs remain largely secret, it’s not clear just how much will be debated in public.

From: http://news.yahoo.com/actually-americans-aren-t-shrugging-over-nsa-surveillance-213542995.html

[Ashotep]

They aren't going to debate anything in public because they know what we want and they have no intentions of doing it.

These polls just give you an idea what people are thinking. If they polled everyone in the US I think they will find a vast majority of people don't like what is going on. We are the United States not China.

[Dark_Grey]

Others have taken to putting their name on a “We the People” petition at WhiteHouse.gov. As of 3:41 p.m. Wednesday, 63,532 people had signed on to a petition demanding the pardon of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who says he leaked top-secret documents about government surveillance programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post. The petition needed 48,000 to merit a White House response.

WOW - this gives me hope in a lot of ways, the greatest of which is that Americans can still come together for a national cause. Well done. (Kowalski - what are the latest figures on that "get Odrama out of the WhiteHouse" poll you posted a day or two ago? It was at 20,000 signatures at the time?)

[Kowalski]

WOW - this gives me hope in a lot of ways, the greatest of which is that Americans can still come together for a national cause. Well done. (Kowalski - what are the latest figures on that "get Odrama out of the WhiteHouse" poll you posted a day or two ago? It was at 20,000 signatures at the time?)

Yeah, it's at 21,938 signatures at the moment....

Link: https://petitions.wh...resign/sTtJndXm

BTW, the petition to pardon Snowden is at 68,500 signatures! Wow!

Link: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

Edited June 13, 2013 by Kowalski

[Kowalski]

They aren't going to debate anything in public because they know what we want and they have no intentions of doing it.

These polls just give you an idea what people are thinking. If they polled everyone in the US I think they will find a vast majority of people don't like what is going on. We are the United States not China.

Yeah, they just give people an idea of what people are thinking. What is infuriating though, is when Reporters on MSM, start going "The MAJORITY of America..." You only polled 1,000 people! And a lot of the results depend on who they are polling....

That's why I take any polling they do with a grain of salt....

[Clarakore]

From: http://news.yahoo.co...-213542995.html

The same author who wrote that article also wrote this one:

Verizon phone-snooping flap: why Obama won't be harmed

News that Verizon has been forced to turn over millions of phone records to the US government feeds the narrative of Big Brother-ism in Washington. But concerns over national security are likely to mitigate political fallout.

At first blush, the news report about the US government tracking data from Verizon about millions of phone calls, in the name of protecting national security, looks to be potentially explosive and politically damaging.

After all, it fits the narrative of Big Government run amok, fueled lately by revelations that the Justice Department has been accessing reporters’ phone records and the Internal Revenue Service has been subjecting tea party groups to extra scrutiny.

But since Wednesday night, when the British newspaper The Guardian posted the story, the flood of reactions from political players demonstrates both bipartisan support for and bipartisan opposition to the classified program. Instead, the split in opinion is centered more on where to draw the line between defending national security and protecting civil liberties.

Even though plenty of liberals are unhappy with the Obama administration over this and other actions taken in the name of national security (see drone strikes abroad), they are hardly ready to abandon him. And across the political landscape, the continuing threat of terrorism is likely to mitigate any damage to the president’s job approval.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0606/Verizon-phone-snooping-flap-why-Obama-won-t-be-harmed

The same camp who has been complaining all along can do so louder but those who have supported the administration all along will continue to do so.

They will not be swayed by conspiracy theories, sensationalism, scandal mongering, and they definitely will not be swayed by anyone using terms such as "Odrama". That is elementary name-calling and not credible or constructive criticism.

We still have an America that is roughly divided evenly. One side can come to terms and want to compromise, meet in the middle, or they can continue obstruction and name calling. It will not sway the half of America who chooses to remain on the side of our government. As long as the economy is OK that is all that matters to some, not to me, but this is how the populace works.

[Sweetpumper]

We are the United States not China.

Not yet anyway.

[Clarakore]

Not yet anyway.

Sensationalism and fear mongering.

[Sweetpumper]

Sensationalism and fear mongering.

Yeah, I'm sure my three words on a mysteries forum are sending millions screaming out of their houses.

[SHaYap]

You guys do know that none of this is going away no matter what don't you ? Its just going to shape shift into another form of an 'organization' and disappear into the background again once things have quiet down ...

I was flipping through James A Michener's Centennial this evening ... reading about Jim Lloyd getting a basic elementary education because he wanted to court Levi Zendt's daughter ...

Centennial is a novel by American author James A. Michener, published in 1974.

Centennial traces the history of the plains of northeast Colorado from prehistory until the early 1970s. Geographic details about the fictional town of Centennial and its surroundings indicate that the region is in modern-day Weld County. Since the novel was written, the Denver suburb of Centennial has been incorporated, although its location in Arapahoe County is far from Michener's fictional town of the same name. Much of his book was based on the Weld County town of Greeley.

wiki link

.... when I came across the line 'the rich just gets richer and the poor gets poorer' which was what the teacher taught about the predicament of the poor American farmers .... it never disappeared ... things never changed ... we just thought it did.

YOu see ... the power has always been in the hands of the people, but when the people doesn't care or know of the power they wields ... then this power is very easily siphoned into the hands of the few with the vested interests of a very small group. All they have to do is channel the minds of the people to move along the lines that most profits themselves instead of the common population, all it does is to make the people move like a beast of burden do to move forward, not knowing from where or even caring towards where at times.

All it needs is a bit of nudging and maybe a whip now and then.

As long as and unless 'the people' starts thinking as 'of a people for the people and knowing what by the people' means... nothing will ever change.

I don't see this NSA going away, all it will do is just change the way it looks ... a little cosmetic make over ... and it will still carry on.

And there will be people happy that it will carry on, happy that the 'safety' that it offers as a compromise will include them ... being on the 'good' side of the 'winning team'

After all ... isn't that what was promised and said purpose with all these cloak and dagger operation ?

How did Mr Orwell put it ?

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others

Then the commandments

The original commandments are:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
   
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
   
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
   
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
   
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
   
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
   
7. All animals are equal.
   

Later, Napoleon and his pigs secretly revise some commandments to clear themselves of accusations of law-breaking. The changed commandments are as follows, with the changes bolded:

1. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
   
2. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
   
3. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
   

wiki link

not yet .... at least

~

[Clarakore]

The Time poll found that 48 percent approve of the PRISM program while 44 percent disapprove.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/305279-poll-majority-supports-snowden-leaking-surveillance-programs#ixzz2W6tUcChS

President Obama's approval rating in the most recent Rasmussen poll is 47%, which falls within Rasmussen's normal range. Meanwhile, his 48% approval in the Gallup poll is the same as it was before the Verizon story leaked last Wednesday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2013/jun/10/edward-snowden-revealed-as-nsa-whistleblower-reaction-live

Of course it is not going away but it is not going to get any bigger than where it is at now among the half of the country caught in complaint. We are still evenly divided: compromise or complain are the only two options.

[Heru]

Hmm i remember while surfing on yahoo, there was an article about how 60% of americans are fine with the nsa spying.

[Bama13]

Of course it is not going away but it is not going to get any bigger than where it is at now among the half of the country caught in complaint. We are still evenly divided: compromise or complain are the only two options.

No one should ever compromise their principles.

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” - Thomas Jefferson

[minera]

Not yet anyway.

getting there fast though..........

[SHaYap]

getting there fast though..........

there may be a chance ........ somehow .... some where

~

[Kowalski]

there may be a chance ........ somehow .... some where

~

I always love the stuff you post third eye....

[SHaYap]

I always love the stuff you post third eye....

Always a pleasure and nice to know its all appreciated and I appreciate the appreciation ...

~