"The Surveillance Reforms Obama Supported BEFORE He Was President"

[bvar22]

by Kara Brandeisky
ProPublica, Aug. 7, 2013, 10:24 a.m.

When the House of Representatives recently considered an amendment that would have dismantled the NSA’s bulk phone records collection program, the White House swiftly condemned the measure. But only five years ago, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. was part of a group of legislators that supported substantial changes to NSA surveillance programs. Here are some of the proposals the president co-sponsored as a senator.

*As a senator, Obama wanted to limit bulk records collection.

*As a senator, Obama wanted to require government analysts to get court approval before accessing incidentally collected American data.

*As a senator, Obama wanted the executive branch to report to Congress how many American communications had been swept up during surveillance.

*As a senator, Obama wanted to restrict the use of gag orders related to surveillance court orders.

*As a senator, Obama wanted the government to declassify significant surveillance court opinions.

<much more>

http://www.propublica.org/article/the-surveillance-reforms-obama-supported-before-he-was-president

Please visit the site for detailed documentation .

[AZ Progressive]

1. Where You Stand Depends On Where You Sit

People often change once their position in society changes.

[JaneyVee]

2. Kinda busy focusing on the economy and killing Bin Laden.

[truebluegreen]

5. Kinda busy focusing on Grand Bargains

with whackjobs.

[The Link]

3. No President will leave office having limited power for his successor.

It will never happen. Obama knows what is expected of him.

[leftstreet]

4. He must be secretly thrilled about Snowden

Political and public pressure will likely force some of the very reforms he held so dear, but was unable to achieve once in office

[wtmusic]

6. That's so wonderful, that he wanted all of those things!

Now when the fuck is he going to do something about it?

[reformist2]

7. The only thing he might listen to is the sound of us liberals threatening to flush his reputation

down the toilet. He knows that we're unhappy, but he knows that in the end we'll be wouldn't dare say that the Obama presidency was a failure.

But what if we did say that? All presidents worry about their legacy... does Obama really want to risk being seen as a sellout? We need to make it clear that we are willing to call him exactly that. A SELLOUT.

[ProSense]

8. "The Surveillance Reforms Obama Supported BEFORE" Snowden.

There, fixed.