Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Obama Threatens to Veto Intelligence Oversight Reforms — House Passes Watered Down Version With Few Reforms

The Obama Administration has succeeded in watering down any reform of the intelligence oversight system — fighting to retain the same powers based on the same rationales as the Bush Administration.

The Obama Administration is threatening to veto any serious reform of the intelligence oversight system that led to the torture program and other abuses. House Democrats have responded by gutting the reforms and retaining the same broken “Gang of Eight” process. It is yet another example of how Obama abandoned promises of change and has morphed into his predecessor on intelligence and military issues.

For an excellent posting by Gleen Greenwald on this issue, click here.

36 thoughts on “Obama Threatens to Veto Intelligence Oversight Reforms — House Passes Watered Down Version With Few Reforms”

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  3. SM and Buddha: I agree that Obama’s been overwhelmed in some way by the “national security state.”

    One name comes to mind, immediatedly: John Brennan

    In an old salon.com article, Marcy Wheeler, wrote:

    “Glenn (Greenwald) was right…, to oppose John Brennan for CIA Director. But in his current role as Deputy National Security Advisor, Brennan has not only sustained the Bush’s domestic wiretap program, but he seems to be pushing a homeland security strategy that completely ignores civil liberties protections while constructing this massive, abusive — and not terribly effective — network of spying on American citizens.”

    John Brennan’s dangerous national security advice (8/14/2009)

    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/08/14/domestic_spying/index.html

  4. Buddha Is Laughing

    “You could ban corporations from donating money to anyone at any level of government thereby forcing the morons in Congress to listen to their citizen constituent voters instead of their K St. sugar daddies. You know – representative democracy the way the Founding Fathers meant. What a novel idea!”

    =================================================================

    I’m with Buddha.

    Also:

    I know several tea baggers and none of them agree with each other about anything except taxes but then they completely disagree on how to fix the tax situation. Some of them got into the movement a long time ago via Ron Paul and some of them are recent converts from all sorts of conservative groups and in that disorganized way they look a lot like democrats.

  5. Change I no longer believe in.

    A good friend of mine, an ultra conservative who put a great deal of faith in Obama’s win, emailed me today:

    “What has been going on in D.C. over the last 4 years has pushed us, politically, closer together. The problem now is that we have no where to go.”

  6. FFN:

    that was a great video, Noam Chomsky telling the Tea Partiers to jump on board the bus (socialism) that caused the problems we have had since FDR and his New Deal. Noam isn’t living in the real world but I do admire his chutzpah.

    It is like the fox telling the chicken not to worry, he [fox] has the hen house secured.

  7. Smom,

    Editorial suggestion: “captured” perhaps should be “purchased”.

    Just a thought.

  8. I do not think this was Obama’s agenda in 2008. My opinion is that he has been captured by the national security state.

  9. I must say, many of us in Canada were thrilled to watch the victory that the Obama administration won a little over a year ago for soooo many reasons. Although technically a different country, we also felt some of the the pain brought on by the Bush era…certainly not the the same degree as our American friends, but it was definately felt. There were people who placed bumper stickers on their cars in support of Obama, and many many people here watched in suspence as the election numbers poured in. In fact, there was evidence that more Canadians were interested in that American election than any of our own in recent years.
    What a disappointment to his Canadian supporters…I can’t even imagine the lost hope that many Americans must be feeling now that the true agenda is coming to light.
    My condolences!

  10. I had so hoped that the truth about what is going on domestically would be exposed, once Obama learned about it. Either he really doesn’t know, in which case we’re all in very serious trouble. Or he knows, and is letting it continue. I’m not sure, at this moment, which is worse.

    Oversight is our last and only hope, it would seem. Hope is fading…

  11. Duh: “It is always extremely hard to abandon procedures that were put in place for the purpose of increasing safety and security. It’s like saying that you recognize a problem but have chosen to ignore it. If we look at this in terms of product liability, I think it is much easier to see why it becomes hard to undo what has already been done.”

    Given that the procedures in question are in direct violation of the Constitution, you can deem the removal of said procedures as subsequent remedial measures by the current ‘owner.’

  16. Buddha,

    They’re not suggesting the elimination of taxes, they’re suggesting the implimentation of something along the lines of a “fair tax”.

    “You could ban corporations from donating money to anyone at any level of government thereby forcing the morons in Congress to listen to their citizen constituent voters instead of their K St. sugar daddies.”

    I’m on board with that. I think it would take an Amendment to do it, but I’ll support it. I hate lobbyists. I would like to see all donations limited to those from individuals and in limited quantity.

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