The temptation to cover up a bit of ugliness with the proverbial fig leaf will always be with us.
According to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D‑Calif.), that is just what the U.S. House did when it squashed Justin Amash’s amendment to the 2014 defense bill, replacing it with a weaker measure dredged up from the abyss known as Business As Usual by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R‑Kansas). Though 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats supported the Justin Amash (R‑Mich.) position, the measure went down by twelve votes.
Business As Usual continues its reign in Washington; there will be no reining in of the NSA.
Or, as Amash said before the vote, “We are here to answer one question. Do we oppose the suspicion-less collection of every American’s phone records? When you had the chance to stand up for Americans’ privacy, did you?”
Amash’s amendment would have de-funded NSA’s collection of data of individuals not under investigation. Pompeo’s amendment merely reiterated current law about not targeting Americans in their surveillance — assurances that have as much efficacy as the rules limiting partisanship in IRS activities.
Behind Pompeo, and working against Americans’ privacy, was the Obama Administration, which went to great lengths Tuesday to make sure Amash’s attack on NSA surveillance wouldn’t “hastily” be put into action.
Administration spokespeople continued to press the figgy and leafy line about “welcoming debate” and “continuing to discuss” the issue of homeland surveillance.
Blah, blah, blah. No wonder Lofgren used the term “fig leaf.” The ugliness of Big Government surveillance remains. Congress has done nothing to curtail it.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
9 replies on “The Philosophy of the Fig Leaf”
IDIOTS OR TRAITORS?
“Business as usual” needs to sent down the road. find them here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml
Gingrey apparantly gets to call himself a Republican regardless of how he votes. How do you spell “RINO”?
Doug Collins of Georgia ALSO calls himself a conservative but voted with Nancy Pelosi and the White House. Without even LOOKING at an issue, if Pelosi is in favor of it, it is probably unAmerican
I think the answer to Tjohn is, yes, they are traitors. As much as I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt as being idiots.
The positive we can take from the defeat is the fact of the amendment itself and that the traitors – and patriots – are now on record.
To finish the equation, the number of no Republican votes was 134 and 83 Democrats against. I guess that tell us which of the parties wants the increased surveillance, the Republican “conservatives.”
A person giving up freedom or liberty for security will have neither was a sentiment expressed by Jefferson I believe.
It is also the reason for three branches of the federal government, hopefully the judicial branch will understand the challenge.
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” –Benjamin Franklin
To this day, The Founders still know better…it is a real shame that Congress continues to violate their Oath of Office. Until We The People wake up and fire these creeps, we will continue down the wrong road to destruction. It is all up to the voters in every single district. Will we or won’t we?
Knowing something about data mining, statistics, and computer analytics, I don’t see how the collection of our call records and emails will allow the NSA to find terrorists and prevent attacks. Certainly the failure, after being informed by the Russians of the terrorists, of our government to prevent the Boston bombings should be enough evidence that this doesn’t work.
How exactly can the NSA use such data to find terrorists? For the call records, they need to start with a known terrorist and his phone, and see who he called. But we don’t need PRISM for this, a regular search warrant would do. They can scan emails for words like “bomb, plot, strike, etc.” but then that will still require NSA agents to examine all the hits. And it doesn’t help when terrorists use code words like “turtle” for “bomb”.
IMHO, fighting terrorism is just an excuse to create a government database of citizens in the US, including their political leanings.
While they are setting up to spy on Americans, they wilfully ignored multiple warnings from Russia about the Marathon bombers. While they have been setting up to spy on Americans, they missed all the clues about the recent military attack that broke over 500 senior Al Qaida operatives out of Abu Ghraib, all of whom are dedicated to killing Americans. The only way all the setting up to spy on Americans makes sense if if Americans are enimies of what the government is becoming.