First Draft of History: Edward Snowden

How should American view Edward Snowden?

Using the following resources to support your opinion (and feel free to use others, but please link them so others can check your source if they intend to comment), post your feelings about how Americans should view Edward Snowden.

The New York Times has an entire page dedicated to this debate, with several links to each perspective.  The Week has an article that also deals with both sides of the debate.  PBS Newshour, handled this question by hosting a debate between Daniel Ellsberg and Michael Mukasey.

Jeffrey Toobin contends that Snowden is no hero, while the ACLU considers him an important whistleblower in calling attention to the government overstepping its rights by invading the privacy of American citizens.  Daniel Ellsberg, the man famous (infamous?) for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times during the Vietnam War, naturally relates to Snowden and considers his actions to be service to the nation.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

An excellent story for teaching about congressional agencies... one day too late.

As NPR reports, the CBO's projection of Obamacare's impact on jobs is not pretty.  Remember, the CBO's job is to project the cost of legislation Congress has passed or is considering.

As we have discussed in class, both parties have a tendency to use their own numbers to support their claims.  What this story also highlights is that even the CBO numbers -- which, despite coming from a non-partisan, official congressional agency -- are often politicized.

Its interesting: While Republicans have recently had a tendency to dismiss the CBO numbers (or outright attack it), they will surely be using these new numbers in their 2014 campaigns.  Likewise, while the Democrats have recently been using CBO numbers to claim Obamacare victories, the White House is now downplaying and disputing the recent report.

Of course, while "non-partisan" and "official" numbers are often better than the alternatives, that doesn't mean they are always correct.

Farm Bill Expected to Pass

I recommend checking out this NPR story and this CBS story on the farm bill that is expected to pass.  As we talked about in class, the 5-year farm bills are often "christmas tree bills" full of earmarks.  This one will be no different.