Well they're doing just as fine as the USA is right now. In the USA, if you don't like an election result and it is close enough, take it to court:
Florida Election Recount
Really? Is that your response? "They're doing just fine"? You're even more uniformed than I imagined.
123 Russian journalists have been murdered since Putin came to power. I'm sure their loved ones will be delighted to hear that they're "doing just fine."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia#Under_Putin_.28incl._2nd_Chechen_conflict.29Oh, and the relevance of the 2000 vote tally in Florida is?? And what do you suppose the fate of a journalist who broke such a story in Russia or China would be?
Then to make it harder for the poor and disadvantaged to vote, you introduce new measures such as requiring ID:
Help America Vote Act
You really do have an attention span problem. Again, your response is completely off-topic.
Then if you don't like people exercising their freedom of speech outside your office, you introduce legislation telling them where they can exercise their freedom of speech (somewhere not in the public eye):
Freedom of speech zones
Snowden's actions went far beyond free speech. He willfully broke the secrecy oath he signed and tried to damage the U.S.
... do you want me to go on?
Only if you have something to contribute. But judging from your input so far, that doesn't seem likely.
Political interference from the USA.
More than likely they've been told to stay out and that if they in any way assist (i.e allow Snowden to fly over their country) then they'll be considered accomplices. Thus other countries want to stay the hell out of it and do not want to be in any way seen to assist.
What political interference? What evidence do you have? Nothing! Tell us exactly which countries would be so intimidated by the United States that they would deny someone with a just cause from traversing their skies. I'd really like to know, because there are ZERO European nations who would hesitate to tell the U.S. to "f*ck off" about anything else they care about.
No, he's quite brave because he's willing to make a stand for what he believes in.
Sure. Right. That's why the first thing he does is run to that bastion of freedom and tolerance called China and then Russia.
NSA denies eillegal spying
DNI Clapper Says Statement to Congress about NSA data collection was erroneous
Would you like me to find your more evidence of the NSA saying one thing but in fact does another?
What do you mean by "more evidence"? Because there's nothing but unsubstantiated allegations, hearsay and guesswork in the first article you provided and nothing at all in the second one.
No, rather the evidence from your post makes it quite clear that your own personal life is much more important to you than the rights and freedoms upon which the USA was founded.
Give me a break. The NSA looking at your international phone records is not an attack on anyone's "rights and freedoms". Assuming, for the moment, that you're even an American, tell us what rights and freedoms have been taken away from you?
And what happens when metadata isn't enough?
What happens if you get a brain?
Does the boundary get expanded to include phone call contents?
You wouldn't have to ask that question if you had even a cursory understanding of what Prism, or the NSA, is here to do.
Where does it stop, when the terrorists are all caught?
Now there's a truly idiotic question for you.
You do realise don't you that catching all terrorists, before they carry out terrorist attacks, is impossible don't you?
I assumed wrong. You're not an American. And now that you've inadvertently tipped your hand, it's clear that you have no vested interest in my country and therefore no moral authority in this discussion.
But to continue our previous thread...you are completely, thoroughly clueless. As a binary thinker, I wouldn't expect you to understand the value of preventing even one attack. Your insistence of an all or nothing justification for a program like Prism betrays an adolescent and self-centered perspective. If Prism prevented even one attack it would be well worth it. But as a matter of fact, through the efforts of the U.S. intelligence services, hundreds of attacks have already been thwarted. But I would
gladly trade all the metadata on the planet to save just one life.
Once you let the government in just a little bit it is really hard to get them out because they'll keep wanting more.
Which government are you referring to--yours or mine? I'm sure mine is having a big laugh looking at your phone bill right now.
What is at stake here is a whole lot more than the privacy of a phone bill.
If there is, you've made no case for it whatsoever. You've offered no evidence, only the kind of moronic platitudes that one finds on paranoia factories like 4chan.
And how do you plan to prove that PRISM would have been the only thing that could have saved their lives?
Only thing? You haven't been paying attention.
PRISM didn't stop what happened in Boston, so what makes you think it will stop anything else?
Again, you display a total ignorance of what Prism does. If you don't have even the most basic facts there's no point of discussing the matter with you further. Come back when you've done your homework, kid.
In short, this is likely something that can never be proved one way or the other, so this is a rather pointless statement.
Let me put the shoe on the other foot and say that if you don't value your privacy, why don't you go and live in China?
LOL my privacy here in the U.S. is just fine, thank you. Why don't you follow you buddy Snowden to Russia and see how the privacy is over there?