Chris
12-19-2014, 06:10 AM
Congress, the Magician! Isn't bipartisanship wonderful!
How a Bipartisan Majority in Congress Shredded the Constitution, Again (http://reason.com/archives/2014/12/18/government-spending-bill-sleights)
When the government is waving at us with its right hand, so to speak, it is the government's left hand that we should be watching. Just as a magician draws your attention to what he wants you to see so you will not observe how his trick is performed, last week presented a textbook example of public disputes masking hidden deceptions. Here is what happened:
Last week was dominated by two huge news stories. One was the revelation by the Senate Intelligence Committee of torture committed by CIA agents and contractors on 119 detainees in the post-9/11 era— 26 of whom were tortured for months by mistake....
The other substantial news story was the compromise achieved by Congress and the White House to fund the government through the end of September 2015....
Hidden in the law that authorized the government to spend more than it will collect was a part about funding for the 16 federal civilian intelligence agencies. And hidden in that was a clause, inserted by the same Senate Intelligence Committee that revealed the CIA torture, authorizing the National Security Agency to gather and retain nonpublic data for five years and to share it with law enforcement and with foreign governments.
"Nonpublic data" is the government's language referring to the content of the emails, text messages, telephone calls, bank statements, utility bills, and credit card bills of nearly every innocent person in America—including members of Congress, federal judges, public officials and law enforcement officials. I say "innocent" because the language of this legislation—which purports to make lawful the NSA spying we now all know about—makes clear that those who spy upon us needn't have any articulable suspicion or probable cause for spying.
The need for articulable suspicion and probable cause has its origins in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which was written to prohibit what Congress just authorized....
How a Bipartisan Majority in Congress Shredded the Constitution, Again (http://reason.com/archives/2014/12/18/government-spending-bill-sleights)
When the government is waving at us with its right hand, so to speak, it is the government's left hand that we should be watching. Just as a magician draws your attention to what he wants you to see so you will not observe how his trick is performed, last week presented a textbook example of public disputes masking hidden deceptions. Here is what happened:
Last week was dominated by two huge news stories. One was the revelation by the Senate Intelligence Committee of torture committed by CIA agents and contractors on 119 detainees in the post-9/11 era— 26 of whom were tortured for months by mistake....
The other substantial news story was the compromise achieved by Congress and the White House to fund the government through the end of September 2015....
Hidden in the law that authorized the government to spend more than it will collect was a part about funding for the 16 federal civilian intelligence agencies. And hidden in that was a clause, inserted by the same Senate Intelligence Committee that revealed the CIA torture, authorizing the National Security Agency to gather and retain nonpublic data for five years and to share it with law enforcement and with foreign governments.
"Nonpublic data" is the government's language referring to the content of the emails, text messages, telephone calls, bank statements, utility bills, and credit card bills of nearly every innocent person in America—including members of Congress, federal judges, public officials and law enforcement officials. I say "innocent" because the language of this legislation—which purports to make lawful the NSA spying we now all know about—makes clear that those who spy upon us needn't have any articulable suspicion or probable cause for spying.
The need for articulable suspicion and probable cause has its origins in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which was written to prohibit what Congress just authorized....