The stupidity of the US Senate

[SmarterthanYou]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...rt-challenge-to-fed-tracking-americans-calls/

Paul wants to lead Supreme Court challenge to fed's tracking of Americans' calls, emails

Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he wants to mount a Supreme Court challenge to the federal government logging Americans’ phone calls and Internet activities.

Paul, R-Ky., a leading voice in the Libertarian movement, told “Fox News Sunday” he wants to get enough signatures to file a class-action lawsuit before the high court and will appeal to younger Americans, who appear to be advancing the cause of less government and civil liberties.

“I’m going to be asking all the Internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join me in a class-action lawsuit,” he said. “If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...o-fed-tracking-americans-calls/#ixzz2Vjjq1O2b

what a moron. the USSC is not going to take a case where they have no jurisdiction. They have rejected this many times. You would THINK that the legislative branch would know better, but I guess it's more important to feign concern to the american people by declaring that the courts are too cowardly to take the case instead of actually trying to impeach or charge someone in the higherups.

 

[maineman]

Japan has Kabuki. We have Washington politicians prancing in front of the media.

 

[tekkychick]

I heard a piece on NPR this morning; an interview with Gen. Michael Hayden, discussing the phone records collection and PRISM. He was interviewed by Rachel Martin. The segment doesn't seem to be online yet; when it is, it's called "Ex-NSA Head Hayden: Surveillance Balances Security, Privacy"

Now since he used to be head of NSA, he may have a somewhat one-sided perspective, but he had some interesting points. I'll try to remember the main ones:

> when he was at NSA under Bush, they also collected phone records; he feels like the laws passed in 2008 authorizing this kind of surveillance gave it a better basis than the order Bush issued.

> He said he couldn't just mine the data; but if he got a probable cause event - for example, they raid a terrorist cell, and one of the people had a cell phone, he could run that number through the database to see who all called it or who was called by the phone

> He stressed this all was approved and passed in a bi-partisan vote

> In regards to Prism, he stressed it was for investigating non-Americans. If someone from Yemen was talking to someone from Iran in an AOL chat room - the server might be in the US, but that was the only "american" thing about it. He said the NSA would check the chat and, if it looked like it was actually Americans, stop investigating it.

From the way he presented it - if the NSA follows all the rules and regulations - the program is generally fine. Definitely legal.

Of course, we all wonder if NSA is really following the rules; who is watching the watchers?

At any rate, if you get a chance to listen to it, probably worth it.

 

[tekkychick]

Here's a link to the NPR page with the recording of the interview I mentioned:

http://www.npr.org/2013/06/09/190081216/ex-nsa-head-hayden-data-surveillance-balances-security-privacy

 

[Billy the Great Khan]

The NSA is another on a long list of agencies that needs to be disbanded.

 

[DamnYankee]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...rt-challenge-to-fed-tracking-americans-calls/



what a moron. the USSC is not going to take a case where they have no jurisdiction. They have rejected this many times. You would THINK that the legislative branch would know better, but I guess it's more important to feign concern to the american people by declaring that the courts are too cowardly to take the case instead of actually trying to impeach or charge someone in the higherups.

I agree this is grandstanding by Paul. Or maybe he thinks this is the only way to get around the Democrats, who control the Senate. They won't vote to weaken The Obama's power.

 

[Howey]

The NSA is another on a long list of agencies that needs to be disbanded.

Glad it didn't happen twenty years ago. I'd be out of a job.

On the other hand, you think we don't need national security?

 

[tekkychick]

On the other hand, you think we don't need national security?

I was wondering about that... isn't that one of the purposes of a federal govt? to provide national security?

I could understand saying it needed better oversight or it needs changes to its missions or it needs to be re-organized or it needs a different person leading it... but disbanding it?

 

[Billy the Great Khan]

I was wondering about that... isn't that one of the purposes of a federal govt? to provide national security?

I could understand saying it needed better oversight or it needs changes to its missions or it needs to be re-organized or it needs a different person leading it... but disbanding it?

Yes disbanding it. We have the FBI. We can get rid of the ATF, NSA, large parts of the CIA, all the DEA, and so on.

 

[DamnYankee]

Yes disbanding it. We have the FBI. We can get rid of the ATF, NSA, large parts of the CIA, all the DEA, and so on.

I agree. We don't need all these feds watching us. Besides, the biggest threats to this country are all elected officials, and these agencies don't have the balls to go after them.