I stopped by Der Spiegel's English language site this morning and found a raft of articles about the NSA spying scandal. The Germans are apoplectic. Here's a partial list.
Merkel Furious at US Spying
Friends or Foes?
How the NSA Targets Germany
Experts Warn of Trans-Atlantic Ice Age
Obama Owes His Allies an Explanation
German Prosecutors to Review Allegations of US Spying
So far, it looks like the Obama Administration's defense is, "Hey, we all do it. Calm down." While I'm sure that's true to some extent, it's not the sort of thing that's going to fly, especially in a German election year. Merkel is out to show she's not Obama's lap-Schnauzer, so she's going to make all the political hay she can in front of a population of Germans predisposed to catch the vapors when government agents are found to be (digitally) infesting their homes.
Then there is the sheer magnitude of the thing. While everyone bugs each other's embassies, I don't think anyone else was filling every hard drive at Fry's with captured data from the entire planet. It's mind-boggling.
I guess the scope of this shouldn't be a big surprise. I've argued before that Obama is a Juan Peron fascist - a fellow who believes in unlimited power for the government in pursuit of social justice. It's hard to have unlimited power without unlimited vision.
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