NSA-Curbing Amash Amendment a Wash

Are you worried that the United States is becoming a surveillance state? Would you like to see measures put in place to curb the civil government’s access to your private information? Do you think the civil government should be held accountable? If you answered yes to these questions, then you’ll be pleased as punch to hear that Representative Justin Amash proposed an amendment to a defense spending bill that would have effectively defunded the NSA’s phone record metadata collection. “Would have?” you say … Yes. You’ll be gravely disappointed to find out that the amendment was narrowly defeated in the House.

According to the International Business Times:

 The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), would have limited spending on phone surveillance to court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court against those who are the subject of an investigation. Essentially, it would have completely defunded the NSA’s controversial programs to collect telephone metadata on domestic calls placed by Americans.

That would have been nice. The fact that it was defeated means that there are still a huge number of officials and government interests dead set on an unfettered civil government free from all accountability. Obama chimed in, of course, against the amendment:

This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment . . .

But the current approach of the surveillance state is, on the other hand, obviously the product of an informed, open, and deliberative process. Yeah. There was tons of open and transparent Congressional debate on how many of our civil liberties the NSA should be able to destroy in secret. As Alex Wilhelm said,

Naturally, the irony of [Obama’s] specific complaint resonates: The intelligence programs in question were not enacted with any of those forms of debate. To ask that their rescinding be held to a higher standard than their enacting is hubris of a real sort.

The silver lining is that the bill was only narrowly defeated. Perhaps there is a considerable amount of bi-partisan momentum building against the perceived excesses of the civil government’s surveillance state.

This battle is far from over. The Amash amendment was tame compared to Democratic Representative Rush Holt’s plan to repeal the PATRIOT Act. But unless more people start waking up and holding their representatives to the fire, his bill will probably also go gentle into that good night.

5 responses

  1. Can someone tell me what is wrong with the Negroid in the White House?  Now he states that the Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh was inspired by the founding fathers of the US?????  Is this fuc_ing azzhole on drugs, just plain stupid or a complete moron?????  This guy is COMPLETELY off his rocker and doing his damned best to destroy America.  How much longer will the Republicans put up with his stupidity?  Are there no politicians with BALLS anymore???
    We are truly headed for a civil war and there is no stopping it……..We have a COMPLETE FUC_TARD in the White House!!!!

    • SilasDoGood Um, before you open your mouth, you might want to do some reading, Obozo is right when he talks about Ho Chi Minh using our founding fathers words, and that they were inspired by it, THIS IS JUST A FACT, Now you must also remember that even the devil uses scripture, Just like Obozo does when he quotes our founding fathers.

  2. YET another FUC_TARD in Washington
    The http://www.nteu.org/NTEU/, which represents employees of the IRS and several other federal agencies, is http://capwiz.com/nteu/issues/alert/?alertid=62634726&type=CO&utm_source=Illinois+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=7790111647-0613_ecompass&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0f5a22f52c-7790111647-10830129 objecting to H.R. 1780, a new bill proposed by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., which would compel federal employees, including the president, Congress and IRS, to participate in the health plans and health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
    “I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act,” the form letters state. “The primary purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to provide a marketplace for the sale and purchase of health insurance for those who do not have such coverage – not to take coverage away from employees who already receive it through their employers.”

  3. Let us pray this kind of vote does not preclude our losing the House in 2014.  The Democrats are buying a lot of votes with other people’s and printing press money.
    See The Two Minute Conservative via Google or: http://adrianvance.blogspot.com and when you speak ladies will swoon and liberal gentlemen will weep.

  4. Check the voting record to find out who was responsible for defeating the Amash Amendment!  RINOs will pay for their treachery!

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