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Commentaries


Commentary

Ho hum. Government screws up. Again.

Ho hum. Government screws up. Again.

Leadership is making mega mistakes. Is that really 'news' to anyone?
  • Written by Erin Greer
  • 9th July 2013

Nothing shocks me anymore.

When Edward Snowden came forward with “news” that the U.S. government has been monitoring phone calls and emails to astonishing degrees, the nation reacted with the to-be-expected, exactly appropriate levels of outrage. “Our civil liberties are being violated!,” cried every overly-made-up anchor from his/her respective national news pulpit. “Injustice!,” decried protesters. “Big Brother is watching you!”

Well of course He is.

And how is this news? In an era when private companies can, for a fee, access your personal Tweets to better target your business, how is anyone, anywhere shocked that our government – one of the most powerful entities in the world – also has access to (and uses!) geospatial social media mapping?

Ho-hum.

If you wanna impress me, you’re gonna hafta do better than that, Snowden. Give me something I can use, buddy. Because the feds monitoring my gmail? Not raising my eyebrows.

Here in Fulton County, Atlanta, our school system cheating scandal has made nationwide news. In neighboring DeKalb, the County CEO Burrell Ellis has been indicted on 15 counts, including extortion, theft, and fraud for threatening to withhold government contracts from those companies that refused to contribute funds to his political campaign. Ellis, of course, maintains his innocence.

In South Carolina, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister to Comedy Central phenom Stephen Colbert, lost her congressional election to the state’s scandal-stained former governor, Mark Sanford.  (Stephen can rally the nation to slap his name on a bridge in Hungary, but I guess when it comes to familial congressional campaigns the Brother Colbert gets a Wag of the Finger.)

And did I mention that Anthony Weiner is running for office again?

So yeah…

It’s not the first time we’ve caught the government, pants down, with its foot in its mouth and its hand in the cookie jar.

You want to surprise me?

Show me the opposite.

 

Tags: Commentaries Commentary

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