Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Surveillance breeds conformity.
Fearlessness can be its own form of power.
The bottom layer of the right-wing noise machine.
It's common to go from 'crashing the gate' to guarding it.
Terrorism': the word that means nothing, yet justifies everything.
I don't have a 'side'—I'm responsible for what I say and nothing else.
Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations
My nature is that when I see abuses of power, I want to expose those abuses.
You can't have a pristine house with ten dogs, and I'd rather have the ten dogs.
American political culture quickly and always outpaces any attempt to satirize it.
I'd like to vote for the candidate similar to the one the Right absurdly claims Obama is.
A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one.
The more fear confrontational activism can put into the heart of the political class, the better.
When you cheer for the erosion of Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs rights, you're cheering for the erosion of your own.
Secrecy is the linchpin of abuse of power, . . . its enabling force. Transparency is the only real antidote.
Terrorist', noun: 1. Someone my government tells me is a terrorist; 2. Someone my President decides to kill.
Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else.
I have nothing but the highest regard for 'Salon' and its commitment to independent and provocative journalism.
When journalists are 'accused' of being 'advocates', that means: challenging and deviating from DC orthodoxies.
The purpose of whistleblowing is to expose secret and wrongful acts by those in power in order to enable reform.
Of all the views that are detached from reality, the most delusional is that Christians are persecuted in the U.S.
Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.
He's the President—it's the responsibility of every citizen to criticize aggressively when they think it's warranted.
The hallmark of an authoritarian idiot is yelling TERRORIST-LOVER! at anyone questioning the definition of Terrorist.
It's so much easier to debate people when you can pretend that they hold moronic position that they don't actually believe.
Government and businesses cannot function without enormous amounts of data, and many people have to have access to that data.
They're called 'facts', and my role is to amplify those, not cheerlead. And I don't care at all what you think of my motives.
The same president who has insisted that core moralism drives him has brought America to its lowest moral standing in history.
Only In America can a renowned and devoted terrorism supporter like Peter King be the arbiter of national security and treason.
If establishment journalists were to replicate actual stenography, it would be an improvement on most of the work they produce.
I know it's a really hard concept to process, but the fact that Govt accuses someone of being a Terrorist doesn't mean they are.
The government usually announces it killed a Big Terrorist 5 or 6 different times before they're dead - they're almost like cats.
As always, imagine how great the press corps would be if it devoted 1/1000th the energy to dissecting non-sex political wrongdoing
Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else.
[I]f you want instant, reflexive support for the US government's police and military powers, MSNBC is the place to turn these days.
The Obama administration says we only destroy the privacy of non-Americans. That is not true. The government is spying on Americans.
There are few things more dangerous in a democracy than allowing a President to wage secret wars without the knowledge of the country.
The key question: will the NSA continue to monitor hundreds of millions of people without any suspicion? Under Obama's proposals: Yes.
The ultimate test of a society's freedom is not how it treats its good, obedient, compliant citizens; it's how it treats its dissidents.
For those suggesting criticisms of drone kills should wait until the election: that'd be reasonable if he stops killing until the election.
It's hardly news that the Obama administration is intensely and, in many respects, unprecedentedly hostile toward the news-gathering process.
Many of the most important stories in the history of modern journalism have come from sources who have taken information without authorization.
Obama supporters pretended that his 2008 campaign was some sort of populist uprising even as Wall Street overwhelmingly supported his candidacy.
I think that - not just as a journalist but as a human being - I have the ethical responsibility to avoid actions that can harm innocent people.
The American Right has an amazing ability to lionize leaders whose lives are the precise antithesis of the political values that define their image.
Nobody really even knows with whom the US is at war, or where. Everyone just knows that it is vital that it continue in unlimited form indefinitely.
What state surveillance actually is is best understood by the NSA's own documents and own words, which I think as you know I happen to have a lot of.
Even when influential political and media figures vehemently complained about the criticisms I wrote, Salon's editors unfailingly stood behind my work.
It’s just simply the fact that the NSA does not think anybody should be able to communicate anywhere on the Earth without them being able to invade it.
It's hard to imagine a more potent sign of a weak, declining empire than having one's national 'credibility' depend upon periodically bombing other countries.