A Snitch in Time

By Bill Maher

 On Easter Sunday Pope Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine, so that should take care of that. Mission accomplished. Because if there's one thing that scares Vladimir Putin, it's prayer. Putin also changed a law to make it easier for Russian-speaking people to become citizens, which means that Putin's planning to annex Ukraine and Glendale.  

I'm beginning to think that Edward Snowden is pretty dumb for a smart guy. The coverage of Snowden's leaks garnered a Pulitzer, and the guy did get the feds to fess up and try to change some of its data collecting policies. Plus, he escaped the long arm of the US government and had a hot girlfriend despite the Google glasses. But then Snowden appeared via video on a Russian town hall-style TV show with Vladimir Putin. He asked Putin, "Does Russia intercept, store or analyze, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?" Putin replied, "Our intelligence efforts are strictly regulated by our law. We don't have a mass system of such interception and - according with our law - it cannot exist." And he nailed it on the first take without laughing. Even Larry King was left thinking, "Talk about a softball." And for a guy who hates lesbians, Putin certainly likes softballs. 

According to The Huffington Post, "Fifty-three percent of Americans...say the public has a right to know about the surveillance programs that became public knowledge as a result of Snowden's actions; only 24 percent said those programs should have remained secret...though, only 31 percent believe Snowden's leaks were 'the right thing to do,' and 33 percent think they were 'the wrong thing to do.'"

Why can't Americans warm up to Edward Snowden? Is it the jocks versus the nerds thing? What is it with Americans and whistleblowers? We have laws to protect them. We make movies of the week about them. But we don't like them.

I guess it's true. Nobody likes a snitch.