Should Snowden Pardon President Obama?

Paul Jacob /Townhall Columnist

Much has been said and written about Edward J. Snowden, from bloggers to prize-winning journalists, from TV talking heads to the presidential candidates of both major parties. A diversity of opinion, sure, but the facts are not really in dispute.

As a former CIA employee and then Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, Snowden took classified material from the National Security Agency and gave it to journalists — thereby alerting Americans that their personal phone, email, social media and bank records were being illegally seized by the federal government.

Pulitzer prizes have been awarded to both The Washington Post and The Guardian of London for their reporting on NSA surveillance, reporting only made possible by the material Mr. Snowden risked all to hand-deliver to them.

On Friday, Oliver Stone’s movie Snowden opened in theaters across the country. If one hesitates to experience Stone’s sometimes fast-and-loose-with-the-facts sense of history, no problem: there are a number of excellent documentaries available, including the film Citizenfour, winner of the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Popcorn: The New York Times Had A Total Meltdown Over Missouri Constitutional Carry Law

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet

It’s now law. In Missouri, you no longer need a license to carry a firearm in public. They’re the 12^th state to adopt such a law known as constitutional carry; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) represents a state with such a law. To those who love freedom and the Second Amendment, it’s a great day for the expansion of constitutional rights. For anti-gun liberals, it’s a day for hysterics, which was perfectly captured by the editorial board of The New York Times:

The measure has drawn no great national attention, but it certainly provides further evidence that gun safety cannot be left to state lawmakers beholden to the gun lobby. 

Democrats opposed to the Missouri bill called it a “perfect storm” of lowered standards for the use of deadly force and an invitation for people to be armed without responsible controls. The measure was enacted by the Republicans, despite strong public opposition and warnings about the threat to public safety from the state Police Chiefs Association. 

Everytown for Gun Safety, one of the groups fighting the gun lobby, noted that stand your ground laws result in disproportionate harm to communities of color. […]

Trump: “People who warn about radical Islamic terrorism are not Islamophobes”
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

Trump is challenging the sacred dogmas of the political and media elites in a way no candidate has in decades. That is why he so frightens and enrages them. “Trump says Clinton’s bodyguards should ‘disarm immediately’ and ‘see what happens to her,'” by Sean Sullivan and Jenna Johnson, Washington Post, September 17, 2016: …At the […]
 
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VIDEO: Moment of IED Explosion at W 23 St & 6th Ave in Manhattan

 Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

If you are having trouble viewing, click here.

Fox News reporting that sources have said the second device is a pressure cooker. And that it, too, was found in a dumpster.

Mayor de Blasio:There is “no threat against NYC from any terror organization.” And yet he’s calls it “an intentional act.” An intentional bombing is terror. Clueless and complicit.

Reuters Top News:
MORE: Device found blocks away from explosion had wires attached, connected to cell phone, sources tell CNN

More:
Secondary device has been located at 27th Street, 6th – 7th Avenues
IED Explodes in NYC at 23rd Street, 26 Injured
Video thanks to NYC Alert

     

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