[Cressi]

That cute cat sig was made by me!

And Adorapiss. Same as you're Cress-seed. <3

Hah, I see <3

[Chromium]

Yeah, why not.
Money is money. I think i'd leak stuff too much though lol.

[Satan]

I have contracted for the NSA, so take this with a grain of salt.

The NSA doesn't pay their regular employees that well. They're on a federal pay schedule. The kickass part is the benefits.

The NSA does do good things. They prevent attacks on US interests across the globe, by monitoring signals intelligence. You might not like the privacy breaches, but I view this as a necessary evil.

Yes, some of the things they do are morally questionable. Most do not shatter any morals, merely bend them, and it provides a greater good.

I don't quite get the whole mentality of "necessary evil". Or voting for the least evil candidate.

If someone believes something evil is needed, they haven't looked hard enough. May be the easiest, but it doesn't make it right. Same with voting for the lesser of two evils, you're still voting for evil. Bending morals is morally questionable. Morals are what you follow and what guides you. If you're bending them, they're not really morals.

Just my thoughts, not trying to start a huge fight about it.

[w00t]

I think killing people is generally wrong, as everyone has the capability to do extreme bad and extreme good at any moment. I'd still kill someone if I needed to if I had reason to believe they were a threat to those around me. Morals need to be flexible, or the bad people learn common morals a society holds and exploit them.

By tapping into communications, we can gather valuable intelligence on what our enemies are doing, what they are planning, and how to counter it. Sure, we might catch civilian communications in there as well, but if they don't have any pertinent data they are promptly discarded. It's also worth noting every other nation does it, and they certainly would publish all information they gathered on civilians if it would further there cause.

[Oni]

It's also worth noting every other nation does it,

Bandwagon approach? I like it.

[w00t]

Yes, pulling quotes out of context has a bad habit of making comments look pedantic. Funny how that works.

[cr33pyguy]

How much would they pay?
I wouldn't, unless they pay an unusual amount

[w00t]

As I said, they pay on a federal pay schedule. The salary isn't great, but you keep 90% of it through retirement( and you can get another job when you retire at 57.

[Satan]

As I said, they pay on a federal pay schedule. The salary isn't great, but you keep 90% of it through retirement( and you can get another job when you retire at 57.

Language Analysis & Intelligence Analysis $42,209
Computer Science $55,293
Mathematics $51,894
Computer/Electrical Engineering $56,375


Starting pay for different areas. Lot more than most people I know make.
Source - http://www.nsa.gov/careers/faqs/index.shtml#ahp_2

[w00t]

A 55k starting salary for computer science is terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible.