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Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

thehill.com

91–100 of 146 posts

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#91
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there good grounds for thinking it was ever much more "by the people for the people" than it is now? Teddy Roosevelt's national parks.

Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting.

That was populist pandering based on some sensationalist fictions. Getting personal political gain by capitalizing on outrage ginned up through the activities of several yellow journalists. Some of the worst (not the only!) behavior in the name of progressivism in our (American) history.

For the record, I used to really like this guy, until I read more about the era from some real (not high-school) history books and analysis pieces.

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#92
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

better solution: comprehensive campaign financing reform (e.g. all donations must be done by an individual, strict limits on the amount of financing, limits on the amount of advertising and type that candidates are allowed to do, public disclosure of donors, amounts, and campaign spending etc...)

The fungibility of money and nature of speech makes this hard to do without limiting free speech in some way.

I disagree. Since when is money classified as free speech?

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#93
post #86

Our government is broken. It is no longer by the people for the people. Politicians are skipping out of their responsibilities. Politicians spend much of their time in office fundraising for re-election. Politicians raise much of their election financing from corporate interests, not the people, and thus have a diminishing obligation to the people.[1] A vast minority of people elect our politicians because 50% of eli…

So what's the solution? Get celebrities to run for office. (Seriously.) Over 60% showed up to the gubernatorial elections won by Schwarzenegger [a] and Ventura [b]; you know, the former body builder and the former wrestler, who co-starred in Predator ... Wasn't George Clooney born in Kentucky? He might be a "rich old white man" at this point, but do you think Mitch McConnell (or any incumbent, for that matter) would…

Another advantage is that celebrities, by definition, aren't in politics to acquire fame and fortune. This has the potential advantage that they might be less able to be bought off.

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#94
post #66
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Politicians spend much of their time in office fundraising for re-election. Politicians should be disallowed from consecutive terms. They can run only when they're not already in office, preventing them from spending all their time on reelection, and (hopefully) leading them to fight for what the people want.

With term limits, you'd end up with an even more powerful bureaucracy.

Why not term-limit the bureaucracy?

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#95
post #85

Our government is broken. It is no longer by the people for the people. Politicians are skipping out of their responsibilities. Politicians spend much of their time in office fundraising for re-election. Politicians raise much of their election financing from corporate interests, not the people, and thus have a diminishing obligation to the people.[1] A vast minority of people elect our politicians because 50% of eli…

We can't do better within our current system; it's optimized. Congress must agree to fixing it (with instant run-off voting, to allow competition) but they certainly won't work against themselves to do it. So we're stuck. The president or a member of Congress can largely disserve you with impunity.

(fyi: approval voting is simpler, comparably effective, and probably easier to accomplish)

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fungibility of money and nature of speech makes this hard to do without limiting free speech in some way.

I disagree. Since when is money classified as free speech?

Where can do you draw a line between supporting a cause and supporting a candidate?

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#97
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think it's time to take action more than just normal protests.. Which are useless.. We need to find a way to get more than just the minority to revolt. Think about how many straight up stupid things are happening.. We make jokes about politicians and theyre decisions (see daily show) but i dont think its funny anymore. We need to change. I'm thinking about making some sort of political website, I can't dec…

Create a list of representatives and mine all their data that is available on the internet and put it on your website. I think that would allow us to easily form a picture of who that person is and what he stands for, whether he's being influenced by certain corporations etc... EDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1geg2t/senators_skip_c...

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Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#98
post #43

In a normal scandal story, the appropriate committee would grant immunity to Snowden, have him testify, then bring up Clapper, have him testify, and compare notes. Preferably publicly. Here they bring in one side of the story for a secret Powerpoint presentation, no doubt with a high degree of spin to it, and publicly call Snowden a traitor. Then they complain that nobody shows up. This isn't a bake sale or a dog and…

I honestly think it's time to take action more than just normal protests.. Which are useless.. We need to find a way to get more than just the minority to revolt. Think about how many straight up stupid things are happening.. We make jokes about politicians and theyre decisions (see daily show) but i dont think its funny anymore. We need to change. I'm thinking about making some sort of political website, I can't dec…

What I've been wishing for recently is a site that has a superficially simple interface: a grid whose rows are members, and columns/subcolumns show votes cast or not cast. The votes wouldn't be just bills, but every action that they voted on, including their working arrangements.

For legislation, the columns would have gross bills, whose embedded decisions and regulations could be broken out at will. For example, the Clothing Improvement Bill could be shown on its own (great, my guy voted to improve clothing), and its internals could be broken out to show that, for example, one effect is that citizens and residents of Canadian descent are only allowed to wear red socks (oh, feh, my guy hates Canadians).

You could also ask for just the breakouts from all bills that are concerned with socks, for example.

Which would be hard, because big bills have lots of individual effects. But it would show exactly what your guy supported, on purpose, unknowingly or as a compromise. Heck, they might even like to see that, they could learn what they voted on after the fact. I'll bet a lot of them still don't know in total what they voted for in the Affordable Care Act.

Each vote would also indicate things like if the member had more responsibility than just being a member, like on the relevant committee. A no-show here should be embarrassing. Or if the vote specifically impacts his region.

Bonus points to do this analysis all the way back to the beginning of the Republic.

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#99
post #73
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch Glenn Greenwalds twitter (@ggreenwald) over the next few days/weeks. He alleges to have several more bombshell stories to release, and it looks like he's waiting for the government to lie themselves into a corner before dropping them in the limelight.

>looks like he's waiting for the government to lie themselves into a corner before dropping them in the limelight. He's that good? Knows the `infinitude' of time? Chess gambit(@)? I like him. (@)The word "gambit" was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Spanish priest Rúy López de Segura, from an Italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone).

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambit

Re: Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home

#100
Same article was linked on Reddit; the top thread there points out that the meeting must have intentionally been scheduled to make this happen. It's common knowledge in DC that Congress is in session from Monday afternoon to Thursday morning, because Congressmen and Senators have duties in their home districts (listening to constituents bitch at them) that they have to take care of on Friday/over the weekend, and it takes them at least an afternoon's flight to get home.

Don't blame the reps for not being there, at least not too harshly. Blame the asshats who WANTED the meeting to be underattended to provoke exactly this reaction rather than actually letting their arguments speak for themselves.

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