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
This really is a sad statement from Holder about what the USA has become: “The US has told the Russian government that it will not seek the death penalty for Edward Snowden should he be extradited, in an attempt to prevent Moscow from granting asylum to the former National Security Agency contractor.
In a letter sent this week, US attorney general Eric Holder told his Russian counterpart that the charges faced by Snowden do not carry the death penalty. Holder added that the US “would not seek the death penalty even if Mr Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes”.
Holder said he had sent the letter, addressed to Alexander Vladimirovich, Russia’s minister of justice, in response to reports that Snowden had applied for temporary asylum in Russia “on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty”.
“These claims are entirely without merit,” Holder said. In addition to his assurance that Snowden would not face capital punishment, the attorney general wrote: “Torture is unlawful in the United States.” (guardian) As people pointed out they didn’t promise not to torture him and that’s what we have extraordinary rendition/gitmo for anyhow. Besides, why would anyone believe something Obama and Holder said.
Wasn’t Agnew run out of office because of cash payments?
But then again, that was the era of responsible accountability.
Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
BY DAVID KRAVETS07.26.13
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/?mbid=social10181434
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
So, help us God. We need it to rid ourselves of the treason.
November 30, 1804
Senate Tries Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
Anon posted,
“The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in 122 percent more money from defense contractors than those who voted Wednesday to dismantle it.”
thank you for this insight. I appreciate it.
Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
By David Kravets
07.26.13
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/?mbid=social10181434
Excerpt:
The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the house voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.
That’s the upshot of a new analysis by MapLight, a Berkeley-based non-profit that performed the inquiry at WIRED’s request. The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in 122 percent more money from defense contractors than those who voted Wednesday to dismantle it.
Overall, political action committees and employees from defense and intelligence firms such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Technologies, Honeywell International, and others ponied up $12.97 million in donations for a two-year period ending December 31, 2012, according to the analysis, which MapLight performed with financing data from OpenSecrets. Lawmakers who voted to continue the NSA dragnet-surveillance program averaged $41,635 from the pot, whereas House members who voted to repeal authority averaged $18,765.
Of the top 10 money getters, only one House member — Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia) — voted to end the program.
I think most informed citizens care very much about privacy….. Blouise….. It’s all a dog and pony show coming out of Washington….
Good luck on the house sale Swarthmore!!
http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=infowars&x=0&y=0
Oky,
I’m aware of InfoWars original “reporting”.
It sucks.
Blouise, I am no more hopeful about this than I am about Voting Rights.
Blouse, My new rep here is good on privacy but bad on gay marriage, creationism, guns, gay marriage, healthcare, women’s reproductive freedom the social safety net, etc. He was challenged in the primary by someone even more to the right so I voted in that primary. It is pretty much republican dominated here. There are more contested races in South Texas.Signing the papers today to put the house on the market. Won’t be voting here again.
Blouise, I don’t know about that. Most districts are so gerrymandered these days it doesn’t matter how they vote. Is privacy going to be a big issue in 2014? I think it remains to be seen. It certainly wasn’t in 2012.
Oky1
Iceland has come to their “leaders” to get stuffed. To me, that’s a really good idea!
SwM,
“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 … ” (JT)
I am certain that is exactly what happened which is why I am not hopeful. It’s backroom …
Oops
3 hours a day/replayed 24/7 radio show
Gene H,
Infowars is far larger then just an news aggregator. 3hrs a day, mostly all original other the reruns. There’s a bunch of reporters there/original reports, Prison Planet TV/news, original documentaries, etc…
Blouise,
Progressive Democratic Caucus killed itself when it adopted the Neo Cons playbook/programs.
JT attempts to point that out it in his above comments.
Iceland had to run their leadership off 3 times before they got some that started to listen to the people a bit.
We just have to keep trying to run them off until we get some that listen to us.
The democrats have to man-up, if you will, and stand firm against the Administration on this issue as the republicans certainly won’t and there is literally no libertarian, independent, or other leader out there attracting the numbers necessary to wield the club of clout.
The Progressive Democratic Caucus is gaining strength each cycle but I am not hopeful.
“As with JT I believe infowars site is a reliable source.”
You are probably overstating the case and you are neglecting that InfoWars was merely the aggregator where the story was found, not the source. The source of the Carter story was Der Speigel.
Glenn Greenwald To Testify Before Congress
Tom Kludt 2:18 PM EDT, Friday July 26, 2013
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/glenn-greenwald-to-testify-before-congress
A congressional hearing next Wednesday on the National Security Agency’s surveillance efforts will include testimony from critics, including the journalist who first reported on the programs.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) told The Guardian that he’s working with other lawmakers to spearhead the hearing in order to rebut “constant misleading information” from the intelligence community. It will not be a formal hearing, but will feature rougly (sic) a dozen lawmakers from both parties.
Grayson said that The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, who reported on the surveillance programs based on information provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, has been invited to participate in the hearing via video conference from his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Greenwald indicated over Twitter on Friday that he will participate.