Watch out for conservatives using the myth of NSA purity to distract and deflect...

[pragmatic_dem]

Conservatives will proclaim the purity of NSA and use right-wing talking points like - "if you use email, certainly the government has a right to confiscate it, since clearly there is no mention of email in the constitution".

Here's the impact of NSA spying - a rotten, stinking, festering bucket of oppression.

- A free press investigating government corruption and abuse is no longer safe because the government is spying on them.

- Whistle blowers are now unable to report criminality and corrupt government practices because the government is spying on them.

- Environmental groups, human rights groups unable to organize protest against projects and practices that "conflict" with the best interests of a politician or political party because the government is spying on them.

- Stock market/banking activity can easily be abused by government insiders with exclusive access to trading information.

- Political opposition spied on to protect a rich and powerful incumbent.

- That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Free speech, freedom from search and seizure, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, right to fair trial, have all become political tools to be dispensed with whenever it is convenient to meet some short term gain.

For those fighting against injustice and corruption there is nothing but pain. For the perpetrators of abuse, nothing but rewards.

This spying shit is one of the most serious abuses of government power since formation of the USA. It allows the government to literally micromanage the public in order to protect itself from the accountability and justice necessary for a representative democracy.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Wrong year, wrong person in the WH

I expect the polar opposite in this election year: conservative rants against the big, bad gummint spying on citizens under the leadership of a virtual dictator. Mark my words.

[randome]

2. By 'Conservatives', I'm guessing the OP is referring to fellow DUers. Perhaps I'm wrong.

So far, the closest to Congressional conservatives weighing in on the NSA is Rand Paul, who briefly saw an opportunity to establish some street cred.

That didn't last long.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[Cirque du So-What]

3. By election-year standards, it's still early

I expect a big roll-out this summer, considering that the national attention span has an extremely short half-life. If conservatives *don't* pick up that meme and run with it, they're bigger fools than I imagined. It's a gift, wrapped in shiny paper & topped with a fancy bow.

[questionseverything]

4. since typically the alphabet agencies

do the bidding of the 1% ,it will be difficult for the right wingers to come out against the nsa (altho having a dem in charge helps them)

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I don't see the difficulty

All they really need to do is squawk and grumble without actually doing anything; they're good at doing nothing, after all. They're masters of empty rhetoric and meaningless promises, so the 1% doesn't have to fret.

[MineralMan]

5. Who is mentioning "purity" in association with the NSA?

I haven't seen anyone doing that. Some have mentioned that it does have a role in foreign intelligence, which is its reason for being in the first place. We don't know what that entails, because it's quite naturally classified. The CIA, DSA, and military intelligence agencies also have a role in that.

The FBI, on the other hand, is specifically charged with internal intelligence and criminal investigations, and they do a great deal of that, yet we don't hear much about what they're up to.

The NSA's original tasking is still ongoing. Is it needed? I think it probably is. Should it be involved in domestic intelligence gathering? I don't think it should. Is it involved in that? Yes, to some degree that remains unclear.

But there's no purity involved with an of those agencies. A lot of secrecy, but no purity.

[SidDithers]

6. Is that a scent of pine that I smell?...

Why yes, yes it is.



Sid