domestic spying

Paul Ryan sold the Omnibus by promising the radicals in his conference a much harsher attitude-- complete with much harsher actions against working families-- next year, which is-- buried beneath the silken, inspiring tones-- trumpeted in the very slick video he released yesterday (above). It looks like every member of the Freedom Caucus voted NO anyway, even if it was just a carefully choreographed little dance that was done for the sake of whomever is taken in by this kind of bullshit.

Several of the GOP's Deep Bench were on the network gasbag shows yesterday advocating doing away with whatever small amount of constitutional authority to prevent domestic spying on American citizens is still left. After all, they argued passionately, we're in mortal danger from evil Eurasia, I mean evil Eastasia... oops... no, no... ISIL or ISIS.

Alas, not enough restrictions to make it worth voting forYesterday, the House voted overwhelmingly to give NSA the right to unconstitutionally spy on American citizens. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (H.R. 4127) passed 364-58, majorities in both parties voting to sell us down the river. Only 36 Democrats and 22 Republicans stood firm for the American people toward.

Officially, the NSA's "authorization" to to collect so-called "metadata" by a massive domestic surveillance program ended yesterday at midnight. And they say they stopped moments before the deadline. Do you believe them? They never actually had the authority to spy on American citizens and the "new program" that started at midnight... who knows how much less spying that will be doing anyway.

Today, while Trey Gawdy's absurd and failing witch-hunt was playing out on TV-- all eleven gruesome hours of it-- Alan Grayson sent out a message to his supporters that says, in part

The 40 or so far right-extremists and libertarians who topped Boehner and denied McCarthy the speakership and are now deciding Paul Ryan's fate, are easy targets because they are generally misogynistic, homophobic racists. Some are neo-Nazis and even more are Confederates. But does that mean they're always wrong about everything? And, more to the point, what does that say about the bottom-up congressional rebellion they're leading against the House leadership rules now?

Thursday, Congressman Ted Lieu posed an interesting question on Twitter: "What happens if the Patriot Act expires?" He wasn't trying to panic anyone; he was trying to reassure everyone: "Americans start getting our Fourth Amendment rights back."  Utah Tea Party radical Mike Lee is leading the fight in the Senate to reform that horribly flawed legislation so hated by Americans of all political flavors.

Thursday morning the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the highest court for Connecticut, New York and Vermont, unanimously ruled the bulk collection of megadata by the NSA unconstitutional.

Just under a year ago, the House had a rare victory over a U.S. spying and surveillance establishment that has no effective oversight and that has long ago run completely amok.

Looking down the rabbit hole of U.S. domestic politics,where everything you thought you knew, you don't;click to enlarge (source)by Gaius PubliusThere are more ways to think about this news than I can count, so I'm just going to present it with more questions than comment afterward.