It's not the leaks that are reprehensible

From the New York Times:

The top intelligence official in the United States condemned as “reprehensible” leaks revealing a secret program to collect information from leading Internet companies and said a separate disclosure about an effort to sweep up records of telephone calls threatens “irreversible harm” to the nation’s national security.

Funny how times change.  I can remember when the fashion was to consider it reprehensible for governments to spy on their own people.  That the Soviets did this and we didn't was one of the things that made Us better than Them back in the day.  That the North Korean government does this and ours doesn't is one of the things that... oh, wait.

You know what I consider reprehensible?  Hypocrisy.  Bald-faced lies.  A blatant disregard for the rule of law in the name of national security.  Forgetting that government is supposed to serve the people and not the other way around.

Way back in 2009 I wrote that Barack Obama is becoming increasingly indistinguishable from George Bush.  Today the transformation is complete.