How many senators and congressman (conservative republicans in particular) are thinking "oh shit, i hope grindr uses eliptic curve crypto" right now?
Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
61–70 of 77 posts
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congress is exempt from insider trading laws and many forms of arrest. A quick google search will reveal this.
Not anymore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act
Except they then later repealed a major portion of the act - public disclosure.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/04/16/177496734...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/12/usa-congress-secur...
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it very depressing that semantics and definitions of fairly common-sense words are at the center of this particular set of weaseling.
Lawyer talk and double speak. Bill Clinton got away with the Monica comment about sex and so will the next bunch about something different.
If you call impeachment getting away with it.
Side note: his predecessor had a long-time mistress that was well known to beltway insiders. The Right changed the rules once they were out of power.
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Which means Obama may effectively be a puppet Effectively? Nobody gets the backing of a major party for his nomination, donations, etc, without being thorougly screened and vetoed that they'll "do the right thing" to continue supporting several interests (partisan, financial, political, etc). It's not like parties do all this gerrymandering and political games to then allow some loose canon President to realy chang…
The difference is that when the puppetmasters are two political parties in competition to each other, they have adapt their positions to popular opinion or else their puppets loose power and become worthless. When the puppetmasters are the NSA, then they do not need to adapt their posistions, because regardless of the election, they still have puppets.
"two political parties in competition to each other"
Where can we find these parties? When last I checked, we had two parties that share a common high-level agenda and which generally agree on the majority of issues (to the point where people have basically forgotten that there could even be any debate on such things).
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that when the puppetmasters are two political parties in competition to each other, they have adapt their positions to popular opinion or else their puppets loose power and become worthless. When the puppetmasters are the NSA, then they do not need to adapt their posistions, because regardless of the election, they still have puppets.
"two political parties in competition to each other" Where can we find these parties? When last I checked, we had two parties that share a common high-level agenda and which generally agree on the majority of issues (to the point where people have basically forgotten that there could even be any debate on such things).
>to the point where people have basically forgotten that there could even be any debate on such things
Exactly. The problem is that the public accepts the status que as correct on numerous issues. If their were an issue where a significant portion of the voting public had a different view, then I would expect a one of the political parties to adopt that view to gain voters from the other.
I agree that a two party system is far from ideal. The main problem is that if every one who disagrees with the current position on issue X is already firmly committed to their own party for unrelated reasons then their is no pressure. The traditional solution to this problem to focus on primary elections. Unfortunately (for me), a group of Republicans have recognized this, and managed to affect significant change by focusing on the getting their views through in the primaries. In the long term (I hope) this will self correct as it damages the Republicans in the main election
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#66IMO, this is something tax dollars should pay for. Don't use tax money to spy on citizens, use it to spy on members of congress so they have incentive to behave in a less corrupt way. I personally don't mind that elected officials should have to transparently have their lives monitored. If I was an elected official, I wouldn't mind either. I'd rather it be the reason I was voted into office in the first place.
If members of the legislative branch are transparently spied on by another branch (in this case executive) of the government, it should keep corruption down, no?
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#67This is brilliant. This is how we'll get legislation passed reigning in the NSA. Elected officials will wake up and ask "Wait, you mean they're spying on ME?!"
I guess he didn't get the memo. It's a dragnet, senator, they spy on everyone.
That's the point. He knows very well the answer is "Yes".
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#68This is brilliant. This is how we'll get legislation passed reigning in the NSA. Elected officials will wake up and ask "Wait, you mean they're spying on ME?!"
In fairness, spying of congress (and the president, judges, etc) does seem much more concerning then spying on most citizens, as it would allow them to break the checks on their power that those bodies should provide. In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians.
Erm, we live in a democracy. Almost anyone in the country over the age of 30 could potentially become a member of congress in 2 years or less. Being able to discourage someone from running for office is potentially just as distressing as being able to influence someone already in power.
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lawyer talk and double speak. Bill Clinton got away with the Monica comment about sex and so will the next bunch about something different.
If you call impeachment getting away with it. Side note: his predecessor had a long-time mistress that was well known to beltway insiders. The Right changed the rules once they were out of power.
Times have changed its no longer acceptable to have a mistress no matter what position you're in.
Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
So then, how is having an answer on record going to be useful?
If the answer is yes, > Acknowledgement that it has collected the communications records of American lawmakers and other officials is likely to make it harder for the NSA to argue that it needs such broad collection powers to defend against terrorism. If the answer is no, > The letter’s authors include surveillance skeptics like Sensenbrenner as well as those who voted against an earlier curtailment of NSA authoritie…
You are saying that an answer of "no" is just not credible. I agree with that.