I agree. I didn't like any of the analysis about Manning and Snowden. Baker is a smart guy, but he walks the "USA can't do wrong" line. All of them saying that Snowden didn't realize he was giving up his entire life when he went public was just asinine. Snowden has said in multiple interviews that he knew he was essentially throwing away his freedom but still decided to go public.

Baker and them try to marginalize guys like Manning and Snowden's actions by demasculinizing them. (sorry for the rant)

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Yeah, he was WAY off on his NSA analysis. His argument was Snowden broke laws, yes, but breaking laws doesn't always equal a negative result. If we're focusing on laws, it's probably stranger the NSA didn't have to break any to achieve so much spying.

Also, some laws are immoral and need to be broken.

I think he usually comes off as a rah rah 'merica type guy. Kinda douchey hearing Ant get all perked up when he's there and "yea yea" him all the time.

Anthony always agrees with the guests. Last year there was a lady praising Obama for reelection and he rants about how he can't wait for him to get reelected.

Funny bit.

He's a former CIA agent and a lackey for FOX News.

What do you expect? He was a bad-ass CIA agent.

Think he's going to be sympathetic to leakers?

I'm still waiting for Bradley Manning's leaks to be something other than either an example of the fog of war, or catty emails back and forth. Snowden on the other hand, is the fuckin man.

I don't know, I couldn't hear him with Opie finishing all his thoughts for him.

Mike Baker is a cool guy and I don't mind the guys having a different view than mine, but they really need somebody around during discussions like these to break the circle jerk.

One view they all have that irks me a little is their disregard for the mentally ill (I don't mean the mentally retarded, I mean the psychologically damaged ones like the various shooters) and how they should all be "taken out back and shot" like some fucking movie.

I remember Opie saying around the time of one of the shootings/bombings (or maybe all of them) that if you're not for the death penalty, I don't want to talk to you. Then I remembered Penn Jillette, and how he is a huge friend of the show, and is also very anti-death penalty. So part of me would love for them to have Penn on during one on these discussions just so they can have a different veiwpoint heard, and another part of me realizes that sometimes they inflate their opinions because it makes for good radio. And so I think the same might go for Mike, even though I still disagree with him.

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I am more disappointed from Anthony and Jimmy.

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At least Jimmy resented it when Baker called Weiner a sleaze for texting cock.

Well he does make sure to bring up Obama every single time he's in and it's always negative. Unless you're saying Foxnews is his biggest customer?

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Roger Ailes is a paranoid asshole.

I was all in with Anthony on Zimmerman trial! But this story shows how biased he is! Why it always has to be democrat or republican. Can't he see the bigger picture!

for a while i thought anthony was a libertarian who voted republican because it was more visible, but I am slowly realizing that is not the case. He likes the bipartisanship fighting, he likes his "team" because they have more guns and less black folk, and he really doesn't give a shit about personal freedom unless it affects him personally (1st and 2nd amendments). He would love to gather information on the "animals"

it's a shame because i think he's really intelligent and would be a good advocate for libertarian ideas (like a greasier penn jillette) if he wasn't so fucking in love with the ongoing arguments that the media presents.

The first amendment is particularly important to Ant because in his mind it gives him the right to say faggot nigger coon retard etc.

well said! Maybe we give him too much credit.

It's his opinion on the matter. You can have a different opinion. I think he stated his opinion just fine, while admitting that govt is not perfect, he still thinks what they did was wrong. Not sure how this is douchey.

seems like an ok guy, but mike baker = american dad.

well i think that he is ok but if you really listened then you would get the idea of what he is actually saying not just the words coming from his mouth.

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LOL at the boys just saying that you shouldn't be worried about the government anymore, but rather guys that videotape you (re: the Riley Cooper situation)

Their comment was damn hilarious

What did opie say again, 'I laughed at that stupid story, we all just assumed that was always going on'.

Boom. The hundreds of millions of words the dumb media has attributed to it should be dumped down the toilet and replaced with one word: Duh.

I laughed so hard when Jimmy did his baby mocking voice making fun of all the internet twat stains who think it's some huge deal haha.

I hated how he tried boiling down what Snowden did to a "me me me" attention wanting attitude. The entire country was under surveillance. anyone who doesn't see that it's wrong, even if it stops a terrorist attack, is insane. Sacrificing every citizens privacy on the off chance you MIGHT save a fraction of a percent of them is horse shit.

That's how I feel about him, and Manning and Assange. I can't really argue with that assertion, considering how they've acted. Snowden basically made it about himself when he leaked the documents.

All three of the aforementioned have a cocky attention-seeking needy attiude. Manning bragged about leaking his documents to online forums, Assange is a cocky ass who hides in an embassy while challenging "the man" and daring them to capture him for his alleged child abuse, and Snowden is just a dick who ran from the United States and taunts the US Government from aboard.

I would have more respect for these individuals if they weren't so damn arrogant.

Your simple mindedness is amazing, and encouraged in this country. Congrats.

You're welcome :D

Eight in the morning when that street clock bust

The whistleblowing nonsense is just that, nonsense. "If this gets out I bet the government will try to cover it up" yeah because the media is stupid and expects everyone else to be stupid. It's mostly non-stories that are made into stories because the government doesn't want idiots to make them into stories. Very little real substance. So if you have any common sense at all you'll ignore and have contempt for these wannabe martyrs.

What Snowden revealed is a non story? You are a fucking idiot, plain and simple.

In another life most of these wikileak characters would be shooting up schools or movie theaters. They've all got that chinless, socially dysfunctional, why won't the world listen to me, I'm important, look at me, look about them. Fredo Corleones the lot of them.

Nut jobs and pipsqueaks, they'll show mother she was wrong. (or at least be found dressed-up as mother).

The Manning/Assange sum contribution to society thus far is to show that shooting for Al-Reuters is risky business, and that B-1s do an awful lot of brutal damage, and to achieve that he had to dump as much random paper as he could find, caring not what was contained in any of it, the bigger the splash the better. This was about self-aggrandisement, not concern over illegal activity.

There exists significant protections in US law for first amendment speech, and beyond that extensive and robust protections for whistle blowers. If he was genuinely concerned that these protections would not shield him, he would have dumped only the relevant files related to the airstrike and Granai bombing ... the collateral damage consequence of Manning's egoism and reckless mass-dump (fnarr, he said dump) will likely be an assault and diminshment of these whistle-blower protections. Someone with legitimate concerns of wrongdoing will now find it that much harder to make the evidence public.

Mike Baker may or may not be a douche, but I presume over the years he's seen enough of these social inadequates and beta-male weaklings up-close to make a somewhat realistic determination of how many hugs they required.

Again, I haven't had the chance to listen to Baker, and I probably won't listen to the interview, but it was nice to see the show actually discuss Snowden and leaks instead of skirting the issue as they had done for weeks.

This case seems to inspire a lot of passion and division amongst people. To me, I just think Snowden is a cocky snitch who taunts the US government through the internet. I honestly do not see how he gets worship status in this country.

That whole community is full of smug assholes. Assange and Snowden both have that cocky "Come and get us" vibe. Not a fan of either of them.

LOL . That guy just parroted everything the zilch Baker said in the interview.

Who me? I didn't listen to Baker, skipped pretty much all the Troy = cunt segment, zipped past Dana 'zzzz' White, and heard 10seconds of some actor broad.

But now you've indicated to me that he was probably talking some sense, I'll maybe go back now and listen to the download. Cheers half-slice.

cool story bro

Last-word freak, eh? Go on, have it ....

cool story bro

Has he or is his company extremely involved with the NSA shit? Likely.

Government bias

Unfortunately I missed the interview but I don't have any sympathy at all for Manning or Snowden. Snitch bitches

Again, government bias here.

I'm not saying our government is all perfect and shit, but it seems to me that these guys had better options than just throwing files up on WikiLeaks.

I've worked in the government before and I'm highly familiar with security procedures, so to see these two guys break protocol irks me. Especially when a coward (my opinion) like Snowden flees the country instead of staying in America.

And I know what he said. I know he said the government will track him down. I know why he's fleeing. I just think it's a pussy move. And then he complains that the US Government shut down his passport. No shit, you leaked secrets.

I'm not saying you have to agree with the government, plenty of people don't. But did he really have to release all those files? He had to know what was coming. If you don't agree with the government or the army, you don't sign up. Snowden signed up for the NSA with the intent of leaking those secrets. And even if he did have the balls like Ellsberg to release the files, why run away out of the country? Why not stay in America and face justice like a man? You mess with the US Government and you run away like a coward to Hong Kong and Russia? To me, he is just a cocky, smug asshole who is too scared to face justice like a real man.

I recently read an article about the differences between Snowden and another leaker. Daniel Ellsberg worked in a government capacity too, and he also leaked secrets (The Pentagon Papers). It was pretty interesting. Also, side note, Ellsberg didn't run away to Russia either.

Long story short: I have a lot of opinions on this case, highly biased with my work with the government and IT, and I can tell you, he had better options to do than to leak this as some sort of "superhero", when in my opinion, he is nothing but a cocky prick who taunts the US from overseas. That's just my opinion.

When Ellsberg leaked, we had a much different social tone and a more engaged public. The couldn't have railroaded him the way they can Manning & Snowden. The state wasn't the only growth sector back then, either.

I give him credit for not running away. Manning didn't run away either, although I think he did brag about it online. Assange, Manning, and Snowden are just arrogant dicks IMO who think they can fuck over the system.

I've got nothing against whistleblowers, and they can feel free to whistleblow all they want when corruption goes down. Just don't run for your life when the government gets pissed off.

And a final point: All this discussion on whistleblowing reminds me of an old O&A adage whenever conspiracy kooks call up. The boys will discuss 9/11 conspiracies, then Jimmy says, "If the government is so malicious that they'd do something like 9/11, how come nobody leaked it?"

It's a fair point to stay and face judgement, but also remember Ellsberg wasn't some low-level guy. Many people would notice him gone or dead, as he was as elbow-deep in Vietnam as the rest of the Nixon gang.

If Snowden didn't go to the news first, I feel confident that we wouldn't have known his name until 10 years into his secret prison bid. Mother Jones would get the scoop, circiut the blogs, get a mention by Maddow or Judge Napolitano, and die. Pure speculation, obv.

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You keep saying he is a coward, not a real man, made a pussy move, etc like any of that means anything? Who cares if he "isnt a real man"? What does that even mean? I would probably do the same thing. If that make me a pussy, fine. Ill gladly be a pussy if that means I wont be spending the rest of my life in a federal prison.

Why did he say he was the one who did it? Ego. He escaped to Russia and then taunted the US like a bitch.

He doesn't want to go to jail? Don't leak secrets. Or just do what normal people do, and quit the agency. The feds aren't people you want to get mad.

It's the same with Assange. He hides in the embassy and leaks secrets and blasts the US while evading child abuse charges allegedly. These are not good people! I fail to see why so many treat these scum as idols.

oh you think thats fine but its no good the them goverment come knocking on your door in the middle of the night overstepping the boundry line in our private lives is not ok and not part of our rights that e have and should be protected fom generation to generation otherwise the gverment will invade in our private lives and over step the boundry line into our private lives.

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What did opie say again, 'I laughed at that stupid story, we all just assumed that was always going on'.

Boom. The hundreds of millions of words the dumb media has attributed to it should be dumped down the toilet and replaced with one word: Duh.

I laughed so hard when Jimmy did his baby mocking voice making fun of all the internet twat stains who think it's some huge deal haha.