White House Rejects End to NSA Bulk Collection because the Task Force Report was too "Liberal"

[KoKo]

Rooting For The Laundry: The Absolute Insanity Of Decisions About The NSA Being Made Based On 'Liberal' Or 'Conservative' Ideology
from the up-is-down,-left-is-right dept--Mike Masnick

Geoffrey Stone, one of the members of the White House task force which suggested that the President needed to end the Section 215 bulk collection of phone records, has said that he was told that the White House rejected that plan because they viewed the report as "liberal."

“And instead of our report being truly understood as a middle ground, based upon taking into account all of those perspectives on both sides of the spectrum, I think the White House got moved by thinking of our report as a liberal report,” Stone said.

God forbid a supposedly "liberal" President actually do something he considers "liberal." And, indeed, it seemed that his non-proposal in which he pretends to reform NSA surveillance was predicated on not pissing off the hawkish conservatives who tend to support the surveillance state.

So... what happens now that the supposedly conservative, hawkish, surveillance state-loving Republican Party has agreed that the program is unconstitutional and should be shut down?

To some extent, it really does seem to go back to the corruption of power. Those in power always seem to trust themselves not to abuse that power -- and unthinking automaton partisan hacks seem to flip their position based on whether their guy or the other guy is power.

There's been an insanely stupid debate over the past few weeks as to whether or not folks like Ed Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange were somehow "ideologically pure" enough to be supported by liberals -- which highlights the monumentally asinine level of political discourse in the country these days, further highlighted by President Obama rejecting the task force's opinions as being "too liberal."

More at:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140125/22205125986/white-house-rejected-task-forces-suggestions-as-too-liberal-just-as-republicans-make-same-proposal.shtml

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Oops. You forgot the link to the Onion.

I hope to God you forgot the link to the Onion.

[tblue]

14. Maybe The Onion is the real world, and this one is the joke.

All in all, how much worse could it be?

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Hopefully we won't find out how much worse it can be.

Although I suspect we'll at least get a good taste of it.

[Doctor_J]

2. Like the Bushes, Obama uses Liberal as an insult. Will he change parties?

And the BOG wonders why people aren't excited about voting for Dems.

Go ahead, Barack. Kiss up to Limpballs and Fox "News". I'm sure they'll welcome you

[randome]

3. Read past the misleading headline. Obama did not say this. This is an interpretation.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[Doctor_J]

8. This is a member of the WH task force quoting the WH

and, it's not at all surprising.

Cheer up! We can look back and say yes, we killed the party, but we did it on the high road!

[rhett o rick]

24. So are you saying the interpretation is wrong? What's your interpretation?

I notice that those that have no arguments of their own, simply rely on attacking other poster's arguments.

[sabrina 1]

29. Does he have no control over what his staff says? I expect we will see that staff member fired

and will get a clarification from the President then?

The same we got an apology for the insult to Liberals and to those who supported him, hurled by his Chief of Staff who told them their ideas were 'retarded'?? I don't recall anything from Obama after that.

Seems the Third Way which has taken over this party thinks they don't need Liberals, except at election time. Well I think if they don't need them or their 'retarded' ideas AFTER the election, they don't need them at all and maybe it's time to let them start depending on their Third Way and Moderate Republican buddies to keep them in power.

[awoke_in_2003]

44. the buck stop

over there, somewhere.

[Marr]

42. Denial to the bitter end. /nt

[Eleanors38]

25. I think A party change for Obama may be in the offing...

The greatest threat to the corporatist Democratic Party is anyone to the left of Jimmy Carter, followed by the fulminating far right. He may change while in office; he may change after he's out. This may depend on any viable threat by Warren, who would challenge the Party's grasping attempts to displace the GOPers as the storefront for our corporate state. Obama already considers himself an 80s Republican. I agree with His assessment.

[reddread]

4. I Pledge Allegiance to the Security State

God Bless Saudi Arabia...

[Laelth]

5. Sigh.

I need to learn more about this subject before I jump to any rash conclusions. k&r for exposure.

-Laelth

[OnyxCollie]

6. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[riderinthestorm]

7. Oh FFS!!

[Scuba]

9. Dear Base, fuck you.

[840high]

10. What you said.

[woo me with science]

22. It says, "Dear America, Fuck you."

The swipe at liberals is merely the, expected by now, cherry on top.

[tridim]

47. Nice quotes around your non-quote woowoo

Woo me with bullshit.

[frylock]

11. they had no problem accepting our "liberal" votes..

what gives?

[tblue]

16. and $

Being barely employed, my measly little $ didn't amount to much, but I definitely spent more on t-shirts and buttons than I could afford, as my way of contributing $. And I spent many long days volunteering at the local Dem campaign office, not unlike many DUers. But I didn't do any of that to get this result. I don't feel like I demand a whole lot in return. Just be a true Democrat. Just stand by our core principles. Is that too much to ask?

[questionseverything]

27. this is not about being a true democrat

it is about being a true American, defending the Constitution and Bill of Rights

that is any presidents first duty

[zeemike]

17. What gives?...We give.

And they take...and if we don't then it is the crazy people that win.
It is bad cop or bat shit crazy cop, so who are you going to support?

[EastHarlemGayDude]

31. The point is, I think,...

that voting is no longer the answer. Massive, peaceful protest is. Will we, as Americans, do this? Doesn't seem we are up for it.

[zeemike]

33. You may be right.

And welcome to DU...

[EastHarlemGayDude]

37. Thank you.

I need to underscore that I don't make that assessment lightly (and it is, frankly, not original). At its core, that assessment means that our "democracy" is, in fact, dead and that the thing that makes a democracy a democracy (voting) is nothing but a show.

[zeemike]

40. I tend to agree with that.

And I don't say that lightly ether.

[sabrina 1]

30. Maybe they don't want Liberal votes anymore? They sure have been sending plenty of messages.

And how many Progressives are in this Administration? I know there are plenty of Republicans but I have a hard time thinking of any Progressives in this administration's cabinet.

[woo me with science]

12. Deeply, deeply corrupt. We are staring fascism in the face.

How long until the country resists?

[Logical]

20. Only people like us know about this. The rest watch American Idol. n-t

[Eleanors38]

26. The economic stink has to worsen to penetrate hand-held reality.

[frwrfpos]

13. absolutely disgusting

too liberal? what in the fuck has our country become

[liberal_at_heart]

15. I am sick of being treated like a second class citizen by the very people I vote for.

No more. Never again. I will never again vote for a democrat who has such contempt for liberals and liberal policies.

[Doctor_J]

28. sadly we don't find out until it's too late. The president campaigned as a

liberal and I believed him. Now it's too late.

[DeSwiss]

18. WHITE HOUSE REJECTS WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE REPORT THAT WHITE HOUSE ASKED FOR.

- As with the old defense lawyer's adage that you should never ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, the next time the White House forms a task force they should ask them the questions before they'll let them be on it.

K&R

[KoKo]

46. well..you DO..make a good point, there..

I wonder what "they" would think of that...if yu could get close enough to ask the question:

As with the old defense lawyer's adage that you should never ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, the next time the White House forms a task force they should ask them the questions before they'll let them be on it.

[BlueCheese]

21. As Stephen Colbert said...

"Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

[jsr]

23. Dam Nosy Libruls

[Joe Shlabotnik]

32. K&R n/t

[polynomial]

34. That portion for the middle class is too small

So America is doomed to work in a sweat house of terror fear mongering, with retribution and retaliation. It’s just a good dose of Charles Dickens Oliver Twist only this is the royal society of America, Please sir Mr. President can I have another bowel of porridge after a hard day in the workhouse.

Middle America is left with dirty watered gruel the soil so fractured the corn whisky Kentucky makes is tainted with carcinogens that’s hard to sell. But they ditched it to the Japanese for a couple of billion. So Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul have a deep pockets for the next free speech election.

What would really be cool is to declassify the whole shooting match. Yep, make all that metadata stuff free to public like a refreshed weather report, only now Americans get the newest and greatest news about terror. Wow now that’s liberal. Common if your going to scare everybody do it right. It’s with a laugh and chuckle to say that because so few get to know so much.

Metadata gives a panoramic view of what is going on in the economy. Cecil B. Demille’s would drool to be able to have such resources. Such as, material flow transactions, political mapping to gerrymandering, or just plain voting corruption, plus the latest idea of industrial spying; who is purchasing what material from whom. Knowing the bulk rail road traffic is very insider stuff, that transportation indicator leads the economy.

Or better witness the metastability in the system to better systems secretly designed to swindle Americans. For the science and economist that is the derivative with the infamous natural logarithm. The secret complex domain Wall Streeter’s get to play, the trillion dollar back room secret deal gamers the electorate is convinced to hail to the chief and bail to the CEO.

The natural logarithm of swindling is the game being played in the Federal Reserve our Treasury and the few the proud the military industrial complex, and can’t forget the subcontractors. Booze Allen should stand alongside Halliburton, it figures Bush and Cheney strike again but the mainstream media will not talk about that.

[blackspade]

35. Well...Crap.

[frwrfpos]

36. k and r

Ive become numb to the complete infiltration of the party. And its evident the rot goes right to the top

[Lifelong Protester]

38. Wow. Just wow.

from one of those 'bottom of the barrell' teachers that Arne talks about . Didn't hear any 'clarification' of that. I guess I know where I, and my colleagues, stand.

[solarhydrocan]

39. Why the surprise?

How much more clear does it have to be?

Does he have to land on an aircraft carrier in front of a sign that says
"Mission Accomplished"?

Even then people would call those that don't get excited about mandating
everyone to buy corporate insurance or embracing 24/7 surveillance
or agreeing with intensified drone strikes "Racists".

Sad, really. Some of us don't bend our principles around lying politicians.
Never have, never will.

[okaawhatever]

41. I CANNOT believe someone would put that dishonest report here on DU. It's sickening and pathetic

to think someone would promote this sort of agenda against their fellow Democrats. Of course, you aren't concerned that the individual never said the quote came from Obama or even that he was told it directly. NO, someone told him that's what the White House said. You have the intellectual honesty of Fox news.

[GoneFishin]

43. It's a well established fact that truth has a liberal bias.

When was the last time the white house dismissed a republican idea on the basis that it was "conservative".

It is extremely telling when a Democrat president feeds the meme that "liberal" is a bad thing.

[Demo_Chris]

45. Amazing yet so predictable. nt