It so desperately disappointing when a man who was elected largely for his understanding and respect for the constitution turns out to have been systematically dumping over it for the last few years. Like so many people, I expected better of Obama. He's not the man I thought he was.
And then one year later Obama, the Nobel prize for peace winner, gave the 'freedom medal' to Merkel praising her:<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/07/remarks-president-obama-and-chancellor-merkel-exchange-toasts" rel="nofollow">http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/07/remark...</a><p>"Told by the communists that she couldn’t pursue her love of languages, she excelled as a physicist. Asked to spy for the secret police, she refused."
This just shows he is willing to lie to get his way. Again can't be trusted. He told Merkel that if he knew, he would have stopped it. That's the smoking gun. Proves he lied.<p><a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/26/breaking-report-obama-lied-to-angela-merkel-he-personally-ordered-the-bugging-of-her-phone/" rel="nofollow">http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/26/breaking-report-obama-lie...</a>
The only good thing about the mess that is Obama's presidency is that people might finally learn that it generally doesn't matter who you elect, most presidents and politicians will act similarly. Politicians tell the country what they think >50% of them want to hear, then do whatever they want in office. While the things Obama and his administration (and Bush's!) have been doing are awful, I've enjoyed watching the public outcry. Hopefully it lasts.
It isn't like the world didn't have any interest in German policy 3 years ago. Not when Angela Merkel was deciding whether to continue with bailing out Greece, create massive changes in EU fiscal policy or otherwise use Germany's new found place as the dominant EU player for other ends.<p>Quite why Germany's intelligence services let her use "an old Nokia" is beyond me anyway - it isn't just vulnerable to the NSA spying on her, it's vulnerable to all sorts of people, let alone states, spying on her.<p>All this talk on here of the need for digital security, random people talking of needing to deniably encrypt hard drives and not being able to trust Lavabit and the German authorities couldn't, or didn't try, to persuade their elected leader to use something more than an old phone.
Most people expect and accept "007-style" spying for security purposes. But exactly what kind of threat are Germany, France and Brasil to the US? The general suspicion in these countries is that the main motive behind the overzealous NSA activities is state sponsored industrial espionage, which is completely unacceptable.
If you want to understand why Merkel - and people from all political leanings - are so upset, just watch "The Lives of Others" - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_iLOp6IhM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_iLOp6IhM</a>