Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor (he put away the “Blind Sheikh” who masterminded the first World Trade Center bombing), makes a strong case that the NSA program is not only legal, important, and necessary, but also that the outrage over these revelations is overblown. Phone records — as opposed to the content of phone conversations — are not private under the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, the “meta-data” collected by the NSA is essential for tracking terrorists’ patterns before they attack.
After every terrorist attack, everyone always asks, “Why didn’t the government connect the dots?” Well, what the NSA is doing is connecting dots. Moreover, McCarthy notes in his National Review Online article, this is no rogue operation. It’s true, every branch of government was kept in the loop. Congressional leadership was briefed. The administration sought these warrants from a judge. This isn’t a scandal so much as it is a controversy over a legal policy. To which I say, fair enough.
For McCarthy, the “problem here is not government power. It is the government officials we’ve elected to wield it.” In the wake of the still-unfolding IRS scandal, the Benghazi debacle, and the myriad failures of the hapless Eric Holder Justice Department, Americans rightly don’t trust these guys to color within the lines, as it were.
Still, I think McCarthy’s missing something. No, I don’t have much confidence in this administration. But I don’t have an abundance of confidence in government generally. That’s one of the things I love about America: The default position is to be skeptical of government, no matter who’s in charge.
Suppose I told you that you need to give me your life savings. It’s very important. I can’t explain why, or tell you what I’m gonna do with it. You just have to trust me, it’s for your own good. Bring it to me in cash – small bills only.
Would you do it? For your sake, I hope not. Knowing me (and I know me pretty well) you would never see that money again.
Let’s just say for the sake of argument that this NSA program really is legal, important, and necessary. How could we implement it in such a way as to ensure that the power and information gained were not abused?
We trust the government with our snail mail, don’t we? There is a lot of private stuff in some of those envelopes. But postal employees wear uniforms, they work out of marked trucks and offices, and there are a whole bunch of special laws against tampering or stealing mail. Most importantly, it’s all public. Not the contents of our mail, but the process.
If I was gonna agree to this NSA program (and I’m not saying I would) then I would have to be assured that the program was tightly regulated to prevent abuse. But I wouldn’t take anyone’s word for it. How can we trust them if they won’t tell us what they’re doing?
The reasons given for all the secrecy are bullshit. The terrorists know we monitor the phones. Any criminal with half a brain (and terrorists are criminals) should assume that their phones are tapped. If you are trying to hide from the government, talking on the phone to your known associates is like sending up a flare.
Even if the terrorists were jabbering away on their phones like teenaged girls that still doesn’t explain why they need my phone data. Or yours.
Obama said he welcomes this debate. Fine. The ball is in your court, Mr. President. Convince me.
But don’t ask me to trust you.
Defenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.
But British and American legal documents from 2010 and 2011 contradict that claim, which appears to be the latest in a long line of attempts to defend secret programs by making, at best, misleading claims that they were central to stopping terror plots. While the court documents don’t exclude the possibility that PRISM was somehow employed in the Zazi case, the documents show that old-fashioned police work, not data mining, was the tool that led counterterrorism agents to arrest Zazi. The public documents confirm doubts raised by the blogger Marcy Wheeler and the AP’s Adam Goldman, and call into question a defense of PRISM first floated by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who suggested that PRISM had stopped a key terror plot.
I don’t make a habit of trusting people who lie to me.
Could this prove Obama’s worse than Bush ?
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/06/07/author-of-patriot-act-says-obama-administration-beyond-anything-allowable-within-act/
Frankly, I don’t need ^that^ to prove to me bronco is worse than Bush. I saw it before 2008 with my own eyes.
It still just burns to know that every little lie from bronco, et al, still means next to nothing to the koolaid slurping obots.
Jack Shafer:
Kimberly Strassel:
Never could understand the left’s obsession with the Koch brothers other than they’re rich, create jobs and rebuild treasured cultural venues. Soros on the other hand ….
I never could understand a President of the United States willfully and publicly humiliating Supreme Court members during a State of the Union address. It was very unsettling.
But I guess we all know those Dem Senators and Congressmen who jumped to their feet , practically pointing at the SC judges and jeering like an angry mob, knew what the DNC talking points were going to be.
It’s disgusting.
Amen
The problem with secret programs:
These defenders of PRISM – how do we know they are not being blackmailed into support by info gleaned from PRISM?
That’s the thing. Secrecy destroys trust. Always. And THAT is more harmful to the country, long term, than even a terrorist attack would be.
THIS
Good point.
(My uncle told me that joke)
Love this, too…..this guy is a piece of work….
Definitely can’t stand to listen to him and now it is hard to even look at him…yes, Your Fraudulence!
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/06/08/Obama-Illegals-Must-Learn-English-Go-to-Back-of-Line-for-Citizenship
“Dear Obama’s favorite media hack-loyalists:”
****
They have already dug up the “fact” that Glen is (gasp) “very” Gay and lives in Brazil with his spouse/boy friend or what ever.
The Progs will do/say anything to destroy opponents. They will be just as nasty, racist, homophobic, sexist as they need to be, all while proclaiming their “support” for those groups.
They have one overriding principle: their own growing power. All the rest is convenient lip service to keep those votes.
They must have cracked Wikipedia for that deep dark secret.
Here’s a little sugar, Rand Paul, to go with your morning cuppa ….. from July,2012 …..
Data mining is a supremely bad way of preventing a terrorist attack. The volume of data is too big to create connections. It can only reveal a trail of evidence, something that can be done by a subpoena of specific records the telecoms keep after the fact.
While policing is important, punishment is the cornerstone of adherence to laws. For example, if the US had nuked (or used fuel air bombs that have the same, non-radioactive effect) a blanketed area where bin Laden was and killed tens of thousands of Afghans, the middle eastern government tacitly supporting AL-Qaeda might have ended their relationships. It also would have ultimately saved lives compared to the number of deaths in the War on Terror.
As much as we would like to prevent crime even domestically, harsh sentences are what keep people from considering crimes.
For your second cuppa, a little Sunny.tv – “a liberal’s view of Obama”
Everybody remembers that we’re building the largest building complex in history for our Homeland Security Headquarters. Did you know who got the 1 billion dollar IT contract for it? That would be General Dynamics.
http://publicintelligence.net/general-dynamics-wins-867-million-dhs-it-contract/
Hopefully, this will help them offset the fine they received in 2008 –
” On August 19, 2008, GD agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the US Government claiming a GD unit fraudulently billed the government for defectively manufactured parts used in US military aircraft and submarines”.
http://beta.fool.com/daveharvilicz/2012/08/29/largest-crowdfunding-project-history/10822/
General Dynamics, and their Crown family, go way back with Obama. They’ve been bankrolling him since Chicago.
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/02/194141.php
General Dynamics is the one that Ayers father sat on the board. It is also the company that was in charge of “updating” passport security systems at the time of that curious passport tampering incident. The one where the guy ended up dead.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obama-used-general-dynamics-corp-to-tamper-with-his-passport-records-tom-ayers-is-board-member/question-330829/?link=ibaf&q=general+dynamics+obama
I think we need to get rid of DHS not make it stronger. TSA can easily be privatized, Fema needs to go back to being a cabinet position and all those other groups under that umbrella should go back to where they came from 😀 Jnap is filling all her positions with unqualified women and minorities per instruction from Obama so his voters have jobs to make money to donate to him. It’s a sham. <——-NSA should already know this !
Obama is not smart enough to do all he has done. He was hand-picked and groomed from the get go. If the press had dug into Chicago background instead of going all swoony, that would have become clear.
For whatever his faults, Clinton overcame the Kennedy/DNC establishment and “won” the Presidency. Obama was selected because he is a corrupt, sociopathic, fraud.
Obama isn’t the real problem, it’s the people who selected him. Obama is the headache, when the problem is a brain tumor.
Yep.
HONK
Agreed. Obummer, and other Dinocrats, and Reptilians as well, are only the servants of the Malefactors Of Great Wealth.
Have been saying that for a long time. For a guy who is supposedly brilliant how come he can never say anything cogent without his teleprompter. Look at the other day in California, he fumbled and bumbled when his teleprompter misfired and the ‘smartest man ever’ had to wait until an aide brought him ‘his speech.’ Must have made Soros and Ayers proud of their man.
I agree, Obama is a well groomed and chosen puppet of someone who couldn’t win an election.
Remember how they tried to market Michelle as the Hillary replacement to women voters. They started banging out twice a day fashion bulletins as if regular women give a rats ass about fashion or consider the First Lady to be a women’s representative or role model. It was a typically stunning miss by an ad campaign aimed at women by men.
I was really offended by the “Michelle is soooo much like Jackie Kennedy” narrative. Srsly.
Mary, I was deeply disgusted by the “Obama reminds us of our , brother/father,President John Kennedy. ”
Imagine even saying that never mind actually thinking that.
OT . I am sure that NSA is already fully informed ; but for those of you who might wonder why I am MIA , I am enjoying a wonderful weekend at my daughters home . My grandaughter’s High School Graduation was Friday , I am so proud of her . it was a very small class , because her school is new and her class is the first graduating . It was so lovely and well done , and as small as it was , less than 300 ; the event itself was a real study in American families. I am enjoying myself thoroughly , spending time with my family , but am popping in from time to time to read and catch up . I miss posting but , I am reading and so very grateful to know you and be a part of this blog!
Enjoy, these moments are precious.
Have fun!
Congrats to the GD & have fun!
congratulations to your grand daughter. Enjoy the time spent with your family. look in the mirror and say damn I did good
Enjoy, 🙂
this may seem off topic
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/07/Report-Growth-in-Homeschooling-Outpacing-Public-Schools
growth in home schooling outpacing public schools
more people are waking up and want their kids educated not indoctrinated. that is a good sign for the future of this country
their is very little trust in any government program today
Home schooling is very popular in Washington and there are some very strong networks of people who support it. I’m sure those networks will come in handy at some point in the future.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/06/neil-cavuto-goes-off-on-annoying-liberal-pundit-julian-epstein-cut-his-mic-video/
Neil Cavuto and his awesome smackdown of julian epstein
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/07/mystery-deepens-are-tech-behemoths-participating-in-prism-voluntarily/
mystery deepens are tech behemoths participating in prism voluntarily?
my grand daughter calls me electronically challenged so I do not understand the nuts and bolts of this program and could it be do without the cooperation of the tech behmoths
I would guess the tech behemoths are doing it anyway for marketing reasons.
Obama’s gift to the Chinese guy …..
Read this comment on reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/1fv4r6/i_believe_the_government_should_be_allowed_to/caeb3pl?context=3
thank you for this comment. I stole it . I really hope people read it and pay attention to it. this is what people from communists countries told me years ago. What they came to this country to escape
We have Potemkin protests like OWS. They were never a threat to TPTB (despite what they think about themselves). They were a way to blow off energy in a way harmless to the establishment.
The Tea Party OTOH, was a danger to TPTB so they had to go.
True story.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/06/when-everything-is-a-crime-government-data-mining-matters/
when everything is a crime government data mining matters
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/06/08/congress-members-seek-to-increase-safeguards-of-nsa-collection-of-data/
even the dems are for it now
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55766
Data Mining ‘America, SuperPower of the Covert Spy World’
just had a F-15 Eagle doing figure 8s over my house.
backtrack is in Palm Springs and I live about 30 miles from there. What a feeling of freedom it must be to fly like that. Cloud dancing
my neighbor told me what kind of plane it was
My uberconservative ED and clan live about 50 miles past PS, but that F-15 can relax bc they’re traveling in Tx.
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2013/06/08/who-will-investigate-the-government-leaks-to-david-axelrods-pals-at-the-chicago-tribune/
there are leaks then there are leaks
Tweeted.
that should get the obots started. have fun with it
http://www.today.com/food/make-dad-drool-beer-ice-cream-more-fathers-day-food-6C10244866
for father’s day
BEER ICE CREAM
just because we need a short break
That’s a great idea. Maybe a road trip to Portland is called for to pick up the ice cream. Some of those Voodoo doll doughnuts might be nice too.
We need stuff like THIS:
criminal investigation into NSA leaks to start. going after whistleblowers and the press
Justin Raimondo of Antiwar-dot-com on “Police-State ‘Progressivism'”:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/06/06/police-state-progressivism/
I don’t agree with everything JR has ever said–he considers FDR a villain and thinks US participation in WW2 was unnecessary–but I agree with him most of the time.
A question Have we ever had
An American POTUS with a dozen foreign siblings before this one?
do not think so
Is Obama losing the Libs? 🙂
http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/obama-loses-the-left/