going to interact with anyone other than his Russian handlers. So, I'm not surprised he's taking the opportunity to keep his brand alive.

It was a condition of Snowden's asylum that he not annoy the USA. He is now annoying the USA rather visibly, and you know that had to be approved?

in the pay of Russia for a long time now.

And he was being circumspect until quite recently.

in that the executive branch may be seriously encroaching on the workings of Congress. If that is the case, we have a huge, huge problem. This is what I have been predicting. If this situation is not the constitutional crisis, the NSA domestic snooping program will eventually constitute a constitutional crisis. This may be a violation of the separation of powers concept which underlies our Constitution. Depends on whether Feinstein is correct in her accusation. I doubt that Feinstein is all that savvy about computers.

If not before.

irrelevant.

could put the issue of the comprehensive spying before the Supreme Court. This could be the way that Feinstein absolves herself and her committee from responsibility for the NSA overreaching.

The reason it could go before the Supreme Court is that tampering with documents in the computers of members of Congress would possibly and I think probably violate the separation of powers doctrine that underlies our entire Constitution. So this would be a constitutional crisis. We need to know more about this.

By the usual 5-4 with some bullshit reason then another part of the constitution is made irreverent.
They seem to be picking them off one by one.

But apparently they had an agreement not to do so. Hardly sounds as earth-shaking as Feinstein is trying to make it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

of Congress or from the computer of Congress. If true, that is a constitutional crisis. It is a serious injury to the functioning of our separation of powers with the executive branch attempting to trespass on the domain of Congress.

...are "off the table."

So the CIA is spying and the NSA is lying...yep typical day for Congress. Probably trying to figure out what they do all day since there is no actual work going on!

If the accusation by Feinstein that the CIA snooped on and possibly took information from computers of members of Congress, we have a constitutional crisis.

That we would eventually have a constitutional crisis related to the Constitution's provision for three equal but separate parts of our government was obvious from the minute I learned about the secrecy of the surveillance.

The temptation on the part of the executive branch to spy on members of the other two branches is just too great for any military leader or civil leader to resist.

This is a scandal way beyond just collecting the e-mail addresses and e-mails of Americans aged 1-106 throughout the country.

And to those DUers who think Snowden was a traitor, you've got some surprises coming. The rapacious desire of the NSA and CIA to know everything that goes on in America will destroy our country if it is not made even more open and public. The darkness is the friend of crime as is excessive secrecy. We've got both now in our intelligence branches. It's not the people in those agencies who are the problem. They mean well. It's the secrecy that is so dangerous and gives rise to temptation.

Secrecy is not the same as privacy. It's secrecy in government that is a poison. A little of it is necessary, but in our government it is way out bounds.

And this is not a critique of Obama. The toxic mentality and structure of our intelligence sector was created over time long before Obama.

He means the "Head of state using a poorly secured phone and multiple countries are listening in" effect?

plea bargaining or any easy treatment. After he has run to Hong Kong and Russia game is on, the needs to go to jail forever.