Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and an unlikely group of liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans narrowly lost a bid Wednesday night to curtail collection of U.S. citizens’ phone records.
An amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill would have rolled back powers granted to the National Security Agency by the USA PATRIOT Act, restricting the agency’s collection of domestic phone records to “a person who is the subject of an investigation.”
Welch was one of 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans to back the amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). The final vote was 205 to 217.
In the days leading up to Wednesday’s vote, the White House aggressively lobbied against the Amash amendment, dispatching members of the national security apparatus to Capitol Hill to talk lawmakers off the cliff. Though ultimately unsuccessful, this was the first major congressional effort to rein in the NSA’s domestic surveillance powers since former agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified details of the NSA’s wide-ranging phone data collection programs last month.
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Kudos to Welch for taking a principled stand on these matters. Endless war and boundless surveillence are fundamentally anti-american activities.
Welsh was actually a co-sponsor of the Amash Amendment. So more than kudos: deep gratitude for being “old-fashioned” enough to defend the Constitution and resist the state of exception installed by Obama, the former Constitutional professor turned dictator. If seven Congress folk had only had enough integrity to change their votes on the Amash amendment we might be in a position to see Ed Snowden himself testifying before Congress and under its protection. And receiving the Congressional medal that he so richly deserves.
Note today’s news: the Senate Appropriations committee voted to automatically lay sanctions on any country that gives asylum to the heroic Ed Snowden. The vote was by “unanimous consent”. Patrick Leahy is “the senior member” on this committee. So unless Leahy disavows this measure, it would appear that he stands with the fanatic Obama in fighting for dictatorship and against Constitutional government.
(http://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-law…
http://www.leahy.senate.gov/bi…
Of course he stands with Obama… Leahy is a party guy through and through…
If he lets Snowden go unpunished, he will be demonized as weak by the GOP. pretty much everything he DOES will be demonized by the tea party. It’s not easy being in charge. Politics is a rough game, and in the last 20 years, it’s gotten a lot nastier, thanks to truly seditious crap from the Kochs and ALEC. I would also like to commend Snowden, but as far as what the pres should do, regardless of whether he even believes in the freedoms we are suposed to have or not, he has to play it on the hardline side, or else not only the GOP, but the world will start to think the US is in decline.
Personally, if it’s true, it can’t exactly be sedition, and I’m glad we know more about what’s been going on, but damn, people. if you think this stuff is new to BO, you’re seriously misled.
As for the Syrian problem, It’s hard to come up on any side of a conflict like this. Personally, I feel that until we can take care of our own, we shouldn’t spend so much time policing the rest of the world.
Where is Occam’s razor when we need it most? What if it’s not a “game” with clever ploys? What if the suave Obama is really a fanatic on secrecy and a real serial killer when it comes to drone “signature” strikes? Why should we accept the reasoning that we’ll be regarded as “weak” if we don’t slam weaker countries against the wall just because we can? Wouldn’t it more realistic for the US to fear being regarded as psychotic?