The respected Foreign Policy magazine details how the recent close vote on the NSA warrantless surveillance program was heading to a victory for privacy when the White House called in Nancy Pelosi. With heavy pressure from Pelosi, the White House was able to get just enough votes to kill privacy. Even with her ignoble role in this vote (and prior work to reduce civil liberties), many democrats are still supporting Pelosi in what is now a robotic form of politics. As their leader takes an axe to privacy, Democrats are again adopting the mantra that the other guys are worse and she is still good on other issues — making privacy just another item to trade off as part of the blue state/red state paradigm maintained by our duopoly of government.
Rep. Justin Amash came close to stopping the NSA with a 205-217 with many Republicans joining Democrats to fight for privacy. THe White House put on a full court press to block the effort. However, it came down to Pelosi to deliver the death blow for civil liberties — establishing once again that she is entirely untethered to any principle beyond blind loyalty to Barack Obama and the continuation of her own political ambitions. Roughly 60 percent of voters would get rid of all of the incumbents but we have a system that perpetuates the power of politicians like Pelosi. It does not matter that the public hates Congress or that people like Jimmy Carter have said that we no longer has a functioning democracy. The Democratic operatives just hold up some conservative nut case on YouTube like a shiny thing to distract the public from another blow to civil liberties by Democrats.
Think of it. Here is a representative from San Francisco (one of the bastions of civil liberties) fighting to cripple privacy as the California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, leads the fight to expand warrantless surveillance and shield the security state from review. Their public roles against civil liberties shows how successful the Democratic party has become in convincing voters that they have to continue to support them because the Republicans are worse. It is the ultimate expression of the relativism that has taken hold of the party. With Congress at a record low in popularity, the incumbents continue to be reelected because they have convinced voters that it is all a matter of red states and blue states — not abstractions like due process or privacy. It is the easiest concession to make: you do not have to take a principled stand in opposing people like Pelosi so long as you can point to bad people in the other party. It is the sharks and the jets and you have to “stick with your own kind” even if you can’t quite remember what that kind is. You just can’t let the other side win even if our politicians are cleaving off fundamental rights and protections.
I also must confess to some suspicions about the closeness of the vote. Often when Congress is doing something shameful, leadership will engineer a close vote to allow members to vote on the right side in districts that are vulnerable. I expect Pelosi worked to allow as many Democrats to vote for privacy while the result was locked in by the White House. These members can now return and assure voters that they fought for privacy even though they did nothing for years despite prior reports of such surveillance. The security state gets to keep its massive surveillance system and Pelosi gets the continued support of President Obama as leader of her party in the House. Everyone wins accept the public, but they hardly matter.
Source: FP
Here are the 35 finalist of over 600 groups of people that entered the contest.
I find the ones I’ve viewed interesting because it shows me what they seem most concerned about.
You could invite some friends over & view a bunch of them together.
http://www.infowars.com/paulrevere/
Jill.
Notice above no one here condemned the poster using racist slander.
I feel sorry for them resorting to such despicable tactics.
I think they’d feel better about themselves if they presented views in the manner that people I like to associate with present their views.
ie:
“When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.” … Frederic Bastiat
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Source – The Declaration of Independence
Jill,
I knew JT was promoting Freedom/ Liberty & the Bill of Rights long before I heard of Jones’ infowar team & I still continue to use JT as a source of comments on issues & his arrangement of words as I’d like to choose in how the info presented.
As with JT I believe infowars site is a reliable source.
I have hundreds/thousands of other sites I read & could/sometimes use but Jones has the clearest/easiest view of the complete architecture of the problems we all are facing from a now corrupt/hijacked authoritarian govt.
If you find something related to topics on Common Dreams/Counterpunch please post them.
Keep in mind though this site like most others have far more people viewing the material/comments then it has people actually posting.
I believe in letting the readers judge for themselves what they wish to read or to skip over.
Yes, I realize infowars makes a few feel uncomfortable, maybe they’d like someone like Dennis Kucinich if he is still keeping with this growing mess?
OS,
Classic material from Mark Twain!
Also, what Mark A. said. I can’t imagine that a for profit corporation can successfully hide behind a religious claim.
Oky1,
You could immediately help this thread from being about infowars instead of the original post by JT if you would be willing to post the same info from another source which people are likely to approve of.
I would suggest something from Common Dreams, etc. with the same information. I think it is on Counterpunch. I believe people most people accept that site as a reliable news source.
The more I see of the antics of congresscritters, the more I’m reminded of Mark Twain, who had them sized up rather well more than a century ago:
Test
Should I post the actual videos again of some of Clintons, Bushs & Obama’s teams committing murder of innorcent people/reporters such as Brady Manning released?
** Obama DHS Planned to Kill Peaceful Protesters in Sniper Attacks
This is how they create an army of killers-feds, contractors and police prepare sniper death squads
Alex Jones and Julie Wilson
Infowars
July 25, 2013
**
**……revealing that the “FBI was aware of an organization, possibly a local police department or private security company, that had plans to assassinate peaceful protesters during the Occupy Movement.”
The classified document released by the FBI read:
An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin,Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.
“According to journalist David Lindorff, the FBI planned to assassinate the leaders of the now moribund Occupy movement ‘via suppressed sniper rifles,” a follow up report by Kurt Nimmo confirmed.
The following is a transcript of Alex Jones spoken analysis: more……….
**
http://www.infowars.com/obama-planned-to-kill-peaceful-protesters-in-sniper-attacks/
NSA surveillance critics to testify before Congress
Democrat congressman Alan Grayson says hearing will help to stop ‘constant misleading information’ from intelligence chiefs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/26/nsa-surveillance-critics-testify-congress
As Jill has noted, Glenn Greenwald has been invited to speak “via video-link”.
Should I post the actual videos again of some of Clintons, Bushs & Obama’s teams committing murder of innorcent people/reporters such as Brady Manning released?
** Obama DHS Planned to Kill Peaceful Protesters in Sniper Attacks
This is how they create an army of killers-feds, contractors and police prepare sniper death squads
Alex Jones and Julie Wilson
Infowars.com
July 25, 2013
**
**……revealing that the “FBI was aware of an organization, possibly a local police department or private security company, that had plans to assassinate peaceful protesters during the Occupy Movement.”
The classified document released by the FBI read:
An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin,Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.
“According to journalist David Lindorff, the FBI planned to assassinate the leaders of the now moribund Occupy movement ‘via suppressed sniper rifles,” a follow up report by Kurt Nimmo confirmed.
The following is a transcript of Alex Jones spoken analysis: more……….
**
http://www.infowars.com/obama-planned-to-kill-peaceful-protesters-in-sniper-attacks/
JT, I have my suspicions about the vote as well, but this isn’t over. There are upcoming bills. Glenn Greenwald and other opponents of NSA are testifying to those in Congress who care to listen. More importantly, people are angry about surveillance.
We have had two great problems in our nation: 1. a large number of completely corrupt/complicit politicians destroying the rule of law and 2. a large number of complicit citizens who supported these people no matter what.
Like you, I do believe there is a cult of personality around Obama. Some of the most ardent citizen supporters of the police state have been partisan Democrats. However, I have noticed that many citizens in both the Republican and Democratic party are starting to question their unwavering support for their leaders. I am certain the govt. is trying very hard to propagandize people back into the fold, but so far, they have not been entirely successful.
Further, I do think that some of the people who tried to block the funding were sincere in their conviction. How many? I don’t know. Still, there seem to be both more people in the political class and the population at large who are taking a stand on principle.
As I said before, I don’t take the league of war criminals and their supporters lightly. The league has private armies and all manner of ways to ensure they are not challenged. Even so, I sense fear in their multiple overreaction to this amendment, to Snowden and to other whistleblowers.
I sense people are waking up to what is really going on.
justateacher:
You might check this post: http://jonathanturley.org/2013/03/25/the-corporate-veil-meets-the-first-communion-veil/#more-62100
Or this: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/13/contraception-and-separation/#more-45312
I am aware of the 10th Circuit’s opinion in the Hobby Lobby case, but I remain relatively confident that ultimately the Free Exercise Clause will be found inapplicable to non-religious, for-profit entities.
We might as well just change the name of Congress to Tammany Hall and be done with it.
“Everyone wins accept the public, but they hardly matter.”
Strong ending, and I completely agree, but “accept” should be “except.”
I’m sure that someone would be happy to make corrections to your postings. Uncorrected, these sorts of errors undercut your message, IMVHO.
Read about Prism, the NSA’s surveillance program. “It’s existence was leaked by Edward Snowden”. So that means that the CIA, which is the parent agency of the NSA, violated the Privacy Act by not disclosing the existence of the Prism system. The existence of the Prism system was kept secret.
The NSA is part of the CIA.
The Privacy Act is here:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/552a
(j) General Exemptions.— The head of any agency may promulgate rules, in accordance with the requirements (including general notice) of sections 553 (b)(1), (2), and (3), (c), and (e) of this title, to exempt any system of records within the agency from any part of this section except subsections (b), (c)(1) and (2), (e)(4)(A) through (F), (e)(6), (7), (9), (10), and (11), and (i) if the system of records is—
(1) maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency;
So you see the CIA can’t exempt itself from
(e) Agency Requirements.— Each agency that maintains a system of records shall—
(4) subject to the provisions of paragraph (11) of this subsection, publish in the Federal Register upon establishment or revision a notice of the existence and character of the system of records, which notice shall include—
(A) the name and location of the system;
(B) the categories of individuals on whom records are maintained in the system;
(C) the categories of records maintained in the system;
(D) each routine use of the records contained in the system, including the categories of users and the purpose of such use;
(E) the policies and practices of the agency regarding storage, retrievability, access controls, retention, and disposal of the records;
(F) the title and business address of the agency official who is responsible for the system of records;
The CIA can’t exempt its officers from
(i)(2) Any officer or employee of any agency who willfully maintains a system of records without meeting the notice requirements of subsection (e)(4) of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000.
A federal judge could appoint a special prosecutor….. Fine a 100 CIA employees $5 K each and a lot of them will lose their jobs and /or their law licenses for having a criminal record even if it is only a misdemeanor. None of them will go to jail, just pay $5 K but it still allows an evidentiary procedure. Maybe there were more than 100 CIA employees who willfully maintained the PRISM system without meeting the notice requirements of 5 USC subsection (e)(4).
Here’s one example of what lack of rule of law brings to your society. Choices must be made about this because there are real and horrifying consequences to supporting politicians who break with the Constitution.
“Yesterday, closing arguments began in the trial of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. But even as the prosecution’s arguments in the courtroom may have an enormous impact on journalism, another disturbing issue of press freedom was unfolding in the media center: reporters covering the trial were being intimidated by members of the military, who seemed to be surveilling what they were writing and doing on their computers.
Boing Boing editor (and our board member) Xeni Jardin has the most comprehensive rundown using tweets by reporters on hand, including journalists Alexa O’Brien and Kevin Gozstola, two mainstays in the press room. They indicated reporters were yelled at by the military police and searched for electronic devices multiple times. Most disturbingly, armed military police continually peered over the reporters’ shoulders at their screens as they were trying to report, instructing them to close various windows they had open on their computers.
Apparently, the strict conditions were put in place because of “repeat violations of the rules of the court both in the courtroom and the media operations center” though no evidence was given for those violations and there have been no known leaks from the courtroom since the pre-trial period, which was months ago. The New York Times described the scene in the media room like this:
While [military prosecutor] made his arguments, reporters watched the trial on a close-captioned feed at the media center. Two military police officers in camouflage fatigues and armed with holstered handguns paced behind each row there, looking over the journalists’ shoulders, which had not happened during the trial. No explanation was given.
Huffington Post reporter Matt Sledge characterized the feeling in the media room: “I’ve covered civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts (including a terrorism trial), and the Manning court martial for eight months, and I haven’t run into an atmosphere quite as tense as today.” Late in the day, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage tweeted that one of the armed military policemen who had swept the reporters multiple times for cell phones and aircards—because they’re banned—was on his iPhone.”
If you don’t want a police state, then don’t support one.
Citizens should not seek to accommodate to those who engage in illegal actions against our Constitution. Pelosi does need to resign as does Holder, Obama and so on. We need people in office who will uphold the rule of law.
For now, many are easily taken in with promises that their favored politician will keep abortion sort of legal, gay rights sort of on board and a few crumbs of civil rights. Oh, we must keep them on, or we are doomed, such people wail! This argument mistakes being given temporary favors for rights.
Rights come from and are enforced by the rule of law. Once you support those who do not support the rule of law and you are only left with temporary “gifts” from your “superiors”.
It does not matter if that person is from the Green, Libertarian, Republican and Democratic party. It only matters that they are destroying the rule of law. Pelosi is one such person. Boehner is another.
justateacher, The only politicians i recall Prof Turley praising are Ron and Rand Paul. I do not recall any any kind words Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, the leaders of the Progressive Democratic Caucus.
Pelosi should resign if the story is true.
So should Holder for his enabling of military spying on Americans.
Can’t think of any thing but this song after I read the article….
http://youtu.be/3rYoRaxgOE0