Republican leadership works to renew FISA rules that violate 4th amendment
The Constitution is such an inconvenient thing! The House Republican leadership has attached new FISA rules into a bill that will allow the National Security Agency to once again seize the phone records of Americans, without a warrant, in direct violation of the 4th amendment.
The rules would allow the National Security Agency to restart collecting messages Americans send to foreign intelligence targets barely a year after ending the practice. The bill is promising lip-service to the Fourth Amendment by saying “The Attorney General, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, shall adopt querying procedures consistent with the requirements of the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States for information collected pursuant to an authorization…” but CATO Institute policy analyst Patrick G. Eddington called the language complete make-believe.
“It’s meaningless because the AG and DNI are allowed to make up the rules and decide what the phrase “consistent with” means vis a vis the 4th Amendment,” the former CIA analyst told me. “If it isn’t one person/one warrant/probable cause only standard, it’s a sham.”
Americans must continually remind themselves that almost no one in Washington, from either party, is working for the interest of the nation. No, what they are working for to increase their own power, at everyone else’s expense. This is only another example.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Constitution is such an inconvenient thing! The House Republican leadership has attached new FISA rules into a bill that will allow the National Security Agency to once again seize the phone records of Americans, without a warrant, in direct violation of the 4th amendment.
The rules would allow the National Security Agency to restart collecting messages Americans send to foreign intelligence targets barely a year after ending the practice. The bill is promising lip-service to the Fourth Amendment by saying “The Attorney General, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, shall adopt querying procedures consistent with the requirements of the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States for information collected pursuant to an authorization…” but CATO Institute policy analyst Patrick G. Eddington called the language complete make-believe.
“It’s meaningless because the AG and DNI are allowed to make up the rules and decide what the phrase “consistent with” means vis a vis the 4th Amendment,” the former CIA analyst told me. “If it isn’t one person/one warrant/probable cause only standard, it’s a sham.”
Americans must continually remind themselves that almost no one in Washington, from either party, is working for the interest of the nation. No, what they are working for to increase their own power, at everyone else’s expense. This is only another example.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The president has complained about the surveillance of his former campaign manager. Has he spoken out against more general surveillance?
Kirk: As far as I can tell, Trump has not. In this he is no different than anyone else in the swamp.
The sooner Mitch, McCain, Thad, and the rest of the Usual-Suspects, just shut-up, die, and go away forever, the better.
Thad doesn’t know what Planet he’s on, Mitch can barely walk & talk, and McCain, well… “brain damage” long-standing. He couldn’t even beat a Marxist, but boy can he BLOW your grandchildren’s money, till the cows come home.
(really don’t want to hear a bunch of lies about how “great” they were, just want the ‘breaking news-alert’ saying that they are gone and dead.)
And as for Romney– jee whiz, — can’t that guy, ever shut-up?
Maybe we should expropriate all his cash, deport his family to Iran, and he can live in double-wide, on 8-Mile, outside of Detroit.
I have mentioned before that the threat of terrorism will get so great, the majority will accept such surveillance. We have seen how one political party can subvert a needed anti-terrorism tool, to the detriment of freedom. I do not know the balance, but all I am saying is that we will accept such intrusions when terrorism grows even more.
kinetic-typography
“V for Vendetta: Revolutionary Speech”
https://youtu.be/zbmmDAoDugE?t=62
“…How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others (and they will be, held accountable) but again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the Guilty, you need only look into a mirror.”
Getting a warrant is pretty easy and should be the standard.
Robert wrote: “In this he is no different than anyone else in the swamp.”
This is the lesson of the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” They knew back in 1939 (a good year for movies) that Washington corrupts even the most honest and innocent politician. The Senator Paine character was once like the Mr. Smith character, but time spent in Washington corrupted him.
This is a very hard lesson to get to sink in. In 1994, a new class of Republicans had been elected to the House for the express purpose of cleaning up some of the corruption; they called it their “contract with America.” When they first arrived in Washington, someone showed them “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” in order to warn them of the dangers of eventual corruption. Despite the lesson, most or all of the class of ’94 who stayed in office too long eventually became corrupted, too. It is a problem of ‘following the Washington way,’ which is a way of corruption.
Having the good intentions of Mr. Smith, a young Senator Paine, or the House class of ’94 does not help, because that is the paving material of a certain road that we do not want to take. Good intentions without clear, deeply held values and principles set one on that road in quick order. It looks like the values and principles are not enough to save those who go to Washington from the corrupt culture that permeates that swamp. (Washington was built on a literal natural swamp. It was drained, so one would think that we could drain the human swamp that exists there now. The Clintons and Lois Lerner would be a good start.)