I can't be more clear than this...

I don't know, and frankly, I don't care.

As I've said now (numerous times) I am not convinced that the manner in which the NSA is doing its "job" is either legitimate or right.  Since my original statement (that caused you to be so floored) was my own, personal opinion on a topic I am so utterly disgusted by and frustrated with, I may have stretched how far up a list I'd put Mr. Snowden... but he is a patriot in my opinion, if nothing else.  I'm not going to call him a traitor since I can't see how he waged war on the US, or consciously and purposely aided our enemies.  What he did was hamper the government's efforts... that is certainly true... but directly aiding and supporting?  No.

The NSA was collecting data on 350 million American citizens without cause and with all but no legitimate oversight.  Were they also collecting data on 350 million suspected terrorists at the same time?  Did the release of the information hamper the NSA's abilities as a whole, or did it specifically hamper their ability to collect ONLY foreign intel?  If it was the former, then it was all good in my eyes.  You'll have to prove to me it was only the latter.

Why did he NOT separate the intel release?  No friggin' idea.  Perhaps he couldn't.  Perhaps he didn't want to.  Perhaps he had a principled reason to release it all, and you only have a problem with a portion of his leaks.  I DON'T see the need to separate the two sides of his leaks... his showing the public what was happening domestically more than makes up for what I feel we "might" have lost in terms of foreign intel-gathering capabilities.  Lest we forget... the only people that had an issue with the foreign intel portions of the leak were those directly responsible for the domestic info grab, and I don't care what F Ryan says to the contrary... I don't trust anything those sons of bitches have to say on the matter.  Anything else, including F Ryan's concerns about our foreign intelligence gathering efforts being hampered or compromised is pure conjecture.  Nothing about the domestic surveillance is conjecture.  It has all been proven fact, it has all been corroborated by the highest authorities and it is now undeniably and irrevocably a piece of our national legacy.  Every President since Bush Sr. has known about it in one way or another, and all have signed off on it as part and parcel of their respective administrative policies.

We can still spy on Taliban phone calls or emails.  We can still listen to the German Chancellor as she orders pizza deliveries for her staff.  We can even watch the same porn that the Italian Prime Minister is watching real-time... nothing there has changed, other than the fact that we now know that they were spending 35 thousand times the money, time and effort collecting data on people like F Ryan as they were on cold-blooded killers in Islamabad.