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Ron Paul: NSA Spying Ruled Illegal, But Will Congress Save the Program Anyway?
Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
This week the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NSA’s metadata collection program was not authorized in US law. The PATRIOT Act, under which the program began, was too vague, the court found. But the truth is the Act was intended to be vague so that the government could interpret it in the broadest possible way.
But this is really more of a technicality, because illegality and unconstitutionality are really two very different things. Even if Congress had explicitly authorized the government to collect our phone records, that law would still be unconstitutional because the Constitution does not grant government the power to access our personal information without a valid search warrant.
Even though the court found the NSA program illegal, it did not demand that the government stop collecting our information in this manner. Instead, the court kicked the ball back in Congress’ court, as these provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire at the end of the month and the Appeals Court decided to let Congress decide how to re-authorize this spying program.
Unfortunately, this is where there is not much to cheer. If past practice is any lesson, Congress will wait until the spying program is about to expire and then in a panic try to frighten Americans into accepting more intrusions on their privacy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already put forth a new bill as a stop-gap measure to allow time for a fuller debate on the issue. His stop-gap? A five year re-authorization with no changes to the current program!
The main reform bill being floated, the FREEDOM Act, is little better. Pretending to be a step in the right direction, the FREEDOM Act may actually be worse for our privacy and liberties than the PATRIOT Act!
One silver lining in the court decision is that it should exonerate Ed Snowden, who risked it all to expose what the courts have now found was illegal US government activity. That is the definition of a whistleblower. Shouldn’t he be welcomed back home as a hero instead of being threatened with treason charges? We shouldn’t hold our breath!
This week Snowden addressed a conference in Melbourne, Australia, informing citizens that the Australian government watches all its citizens “all the time.” Australia’s program allows the government to “collect everyone's communications in advance of criminal suspicion," he told the conference. That means the government is no longer in the business of prosecuting crimes, but instead is collecting information in case crimes someday occur.
How is it that the Australian government can collect and track “pre-crime” information on its citizens? Last month Australia passed a law requiring telecommunications companies to retain metadata information on their customers for two years.
Why do Australia’s oppressive laws matter to us? Because the NSA “reform” legislation before Congress, the FREEDOM Act, does exactly what the Australian law does: it mandates that US telecommunications companies retain their customers’ metadata information so that the NSA can access the information as it wishes.
Some argue that this metadata information is harmless and that civil libertarians are over-reacting. But, as Ed Snowden told the Melbourne conference, "under these mandatory metadata laws you can immediately see who journalists are contacting, from which you can derive who their sources are."
This one example of what happens when the government forces corporations to assist it in spying on the people should be a red flag. How can an independent media exist in the US if the government knows exactly whom journalists contact for information? It would be the end of any future whistleblowers.
The only reform of the PATRIOT Act is a total repeal. Accept nothing less.
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Prosecute.
I would vote for this guy, Ron Paul, even if he is rolled out to the podium in a wheelchair with his diaper leaking shit. Even if he can’t speak anymore and just types, like Stephen Hawkins, with his eyes…
Looney
It is true that they will wit until the last minute to scare people into accepting it. Luckily enough for them, a half assed attempted terrorist attack by those dipshits in Texas occurred, which should get everyone all nice and scared. And then we hear that ISIS claims to have all these fighters just waiting for the right moment to attack all over the US, just in time to get people 'in the right frame of mind' to not make a stink about being spied on by their govt. What a lucky(for them) coincidence these events happened in the week before the vote.
Love RP, but the beast is not going to be "fixed."
We're far, far beyond that. Politics is a waste of time.
I am sure that they will get Fox news and Rushtard to go wide open on the propaganda
Exactly. Only the people can put an end to all of this. Politicians have proven time and time again that they are for sale and will do whatever pays them the most. (Dr. Paul is a rare exception of course)!
55 times more likely to get killed by a law enforcement officer in the US than a terrorist. 600 times more likely to drown in a bathtub in the US than get killed by a terrorist. But few people know that. So I'm afraid you nailed it.
I did vote for him, Looney - as well as foolishly donated generously to his Internet Bomb fundraisers. Unfortunately, his campaign not only squandered the funds, but they rolled over in obsequious submission when the New Hampshire primary clearly showed signs of vote-counting fraud in favor of Romney. Paul's got good ideas, but he's no leader... he's a patsy.
Here's your choices: Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush. Thrilled yet?
Maybe after the hangings, maybe not.
The judiciary is just as corrupt as everything else now.They are part of the problem, not
any solution. SCOTUS has its own destiny over a trapdoor, for treason.
If Congress cannot pass the Patriot Act, expect plenty of stories from anonymous sources about Senators and Representatives who are pedophiles, who use cocaine, who embezzled funds, who killed people while driving drunk . . .the list will go on and on. The blackmail information Clapper and his boys have on many politicians is just a postage stamp or e-mail away from going to Clapper's paid presstitutes, as the NSA's biggest political supporters know.
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.jobs-review.com
Say one thing, do another.
The way of life in USSA.
way of murder in USA, voila, fixed.
cause...:
2014, former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden remarked: "We kill people based on metadata".
That's what is so insane. Killing people (and whatever known innocents surrounded them) based on metadata. Future generations will look back with greater horror at the drone programs than they do at the holocaust. At least the holocaust made sense in human terms. One race was mighty pissed off at another race. The drone program is totally inhuman.
Bunch of preverts, what else can you say?
Tyranny Abounds
Colonel "Bat" Guano: I think you're some kind of deviated prevert. I think General Ripper found out about your preversion, and that you were organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts. Now MOVE!
So what they were doing was illegal under the law that must be repealed? Sounds like they are going to do whatever the fuck they want regardless.
flood the landscape w/underground made ar-15's ; maybe enough people to take the country back.
"Be a real shame, Senator, if jihadis keep attacking America. Might even go after certain members of Congress...maybe their families. But I bet if you vote for re-authorization, we'll be able to do something to stop them...."
More like "We know you are a cross dressing fag Senator. Would you like everyone else to know that as well? Consider that when deciding how you will vote on re-authorization."
"We know you are a cross dressing fag Senator..." "because we were at the same parties your were, remember?"
fixed it
See our "prevert" comments above.
Exhibitionist seeks anonymous voyeurs. Apply Box 37A.
Anthrax anyone?
those that write the laws are above those same laws
Impunity is the term you seek.
Politicians & law agents.
What else would they do?
Where's the Million-Gun March, huh?
All that hardware might look pretty impressive, walking to D.C.
Buying but not using is a feel-good exercise that replaces having to take the risks of real action.
A good analogy is to compare it to masturbation -- which is also a self-gratifying exercise that produces no results and avoids taking risks.
When I see the guys with the biggest collection and most ex-Mil experience pulling a modern day equivalent of the "I have a Dream" speech of MLK, then I might take them more seriously.
Hell, the so-called "Oath Keepers" have yet to even make a peep or raise their heads. So far, I've only seen Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden show real courage -- more courage than all the "Oath Keepers" combined. That's because there are different kinds of courage. They have physical and economic courage -- both of which are lacking in ALL who fail to march.
Will admit that Ron Paul and Alex Jones are also brave & gutsy. Lucky for them, they enjoy the safety net of public popularity, and have not disclosed any real Gov secrets which would cause the Gov to take real actions against them.
Actually, I think some rich dude was masturbating with his anal hoarding ass of late and he bled to death whilst his hooker called 911 and pulled the dildo out of his risk taking arsehole. Either way we look at it the dude was masterbating, and he died from ruptured whatever they call it? At least he got his 15 minutes of fame on that one, eh.
:|
"Hell, the so-called "Oath Keepers" have yet to even make a peep or raise their heads"
Success at Bundy Ranch, one of the few places with excellent logistics for such an endeavor.
After the vote Ron should call for mass arrests of Congress.
Maybe after that he should demand that they FREE CORZINE
"Is a frog's ass watertight?"
The Who - You Better You Bet [Full Length Version]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj58IHA3urc
VIVA Ron Quixote Paul! VIVA Edward Snowden! VIVA Mexico!
Muerte al Gobierno de los Estados Unidos!
We need to go further than just repeal. We need to make laws and amendments prohibiting any such abomination from ever being passed again. We need to make special crimes that will apply to representatives that try to push such laws through.
I prefer the Shrugging Maneuver.
I'll just assume this is a rhetorical question........
Would be the end of current whistleblowers would appear too.
I mean this article really sums up "the problem" quite well.
CONGRESS HAS TO PASS A LAW MAKING CERTAINLY THE DISTRIBUTION OF SAID DATA DELINEATED.
I see no way of stopping the "collection" of said data since we do it to ourselves...meaning in effect "spy" on ourselves in the name of being some type of media "persona."
Hence the need for Congress to pass a law in my view. "To protect us from ourselves" (especially for those of us who are vulnerable and coming of age.)
Be interesting to see if the Supreme Court strikes down the whole law actually as hopelessly out of touch with reality.
The federal judiciary is full of sound and fury signifying nothing. The stupidity is to trust these quislings in black robes for your rights or justice.
Justice Marshall in Marbury vs Madison (1803), "The Government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right." One of the key legal principles on which Marbury relies is the notion that for every violation of a vested legal right, there must be a legal remedy."
Justice without remedy is farce. Our courts are degenerate and corrupt. Fools expect justice.
It is interesting when the monsters of peeps hearts come alive and eat them, all their passions and those they once were allowed to care about...
Not like I have to wait a lifetime for that to happen anymore..... Seems half a lifetime is enough for the dance of those who can't ride their monsters anymore.
All Five Eyes partners are passing the same legislative horseshit in their respective governments all at the same time, Dr. Paul. Get a fucking life, eh. Hell, you are a smart guy with money to burn, and the brains to burn it. Take my advice and stop banging your head into the walls of Congress. You are dealing with highly paid Muppets that will never change their behaviour unless they are forced to. The only recourse is to let the whole system crash and burn before our very eyes, and then we can let the Five Eyes know they are blind as a bat after we eat their lunch, and kick their feet out from under them.
I can just hear them saying....
We've fallen and we can't get up!
:|
Call me cynical, but the ruling was:
1) A panel of judges desiring more payoffs and/or promotions from Zion--a negotiation tactic.
2) A scheme to fool the sheeple into thinking that there really is a justice system and that they still have some control over things.
3) All of the above.
I'm going with 3.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Free Corzine! Hands off Holder!
End U.S. Corporate-Fascism with it's continual unprovoked wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.) proxy wars (Syria), and coup d'états (Ukraine), murder of innocents with drones, and other war crimes and its anti-citizen, anti-middle-class, anti-working-people, anti-labor, anti-liberty, anti-equality, and racist agenda.
Bulk collecting content too...
How the NSA Converts Spoken Words Into Searchable Texthttps://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/05/nsa-speech-recognition-snowden-searchable-text/
"...as these provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire at the end of the month..." False flag attack in 6 weeks?
CONgress is well beyond repair.
Most state-level governments are beyond repair too, but the people in state government are much closer to the pitchforks and torches than FEDeral assholes are.
Ill go with its a chain yank. Show us them files so we can see what they been doing. Then we can talk about what should be done. Its hard to get exited about a promiss from a bunch a scumbags. Especialy if they havent stopped lying thru thier teeth. We have not gotten one straight answer outta any of them ever. Why trust anything from thier pie holes now?
Not all are stupid, but many under-informed.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/empireoflies/empire-of-lies
http://russia-insider.com/en/ron-paul-crowdfunding-film-heres-why-you-sh...
vote from the rooftops folks... this sham of a country is getting really fucking old and it's time some people died.