Obama to deliver speech on NSA reforms Jan. 17
Source: Washington Post
President Obama will deliver his highly anticipated speech on reforms to the National Security Agency on Jan. 17, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday.
Carney did not elaborate on what the president will say when he lays out his vision for changes to the NSA's vast surveillance activities, in the wake of the disclosures from documents stolen by former government contractor Edward Snowden.
In December, a panel appointed by Obama to review the government’s surveillance activities issued a report recommending significant new limits on the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/10/obama-to-speak-on-nsa-reforms-jan-17-white-house-says/
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baldguy
(36,649 posts)And will use this as further opportunity to promote Rand Pauls talking points & criticize Obama for the sin of being President while the NSA does what the NSA has always done for the last 60 yrs..
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)You're right, I elected him to be just like all the other presidents. I elected him to continue what Bush started.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)And it was continued by Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton. And would have been continued by Stevenson, Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry if they had been elected.
60 yrs is a long time. Changing a govt institution that old doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen without a whole lot of political support. I can't imagine Obama will be getting such support from people who spend time & energy seriously comparing him to Hitler.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)You buy into the notion of "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear". It is the same schtick used by the Nazis.
I believe in the principle of the 4th Amendment right against unlawful searches and seizures. Undirected, broad sucking up of arguably personal information not targeted to a specific investigation or based on reasonable suspicion violates our rights against such intrusions.
We have become a police state and I believe that within 10 years Stasi Germany will look like heaven unless we change course. This is especially true if a nutcase Republican is elected to the White House. He/she will absolutely use this power to quash all political opposition not unlike what Stalin, Mao and Hitler did.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)Obama is not the dictator the fecal spew all of the RW libertarian propaganda that the Snowden Fans are so enamored of makes him out to be. The very idea is offensive.
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]
SaveOurDemocracy
(4,400 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)The world will breathe a sigh of relief once the phone metadata is maintained by a third-party private company instead of the telecoms or the NSA?
I don't think there will be much satisfaction no matter what Obama decides.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]
Let's get back to the 4th Amendment.
I realize the world is more complex than it was in 1789 when the Constitution including the 4th Amendment was ratified.
But it seems to me we can still have processes in place that protect the rights of law-abiding individuals from "seizures" of their personal information absent probable cause while still prosecuting a war against those that would do us harm.
randome
(34,845 posts)The NSA requires four levels of approval just to view the metadata. That seems like a pretty robust process to me. And to Carl Bernstein.
If it needs to change, so be it. But the courts have already ruled that the 4th Amendment does not apply in the case of third-party business records. Again, if that needs to change, so be it.
But for Snowden to have put people's lives at risk, create diplomatic incidents and run to Russia hardly seems worth the cost of changing a bureaucratic process. Far too much hyperbole has already been expended on what, when it comes down to it, will be a regulation that refines existing regulations.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]
baldguy
(36,649 posts)So, obviously, it's all Obama's fault.
How are Snowden Fans different from Teabaggers?
Fearless
(18,421 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]
ProgressSaves
(123 posts)The folks and groups wrapped in tinfoil will proceed to move the goal posts, but the majority of sane Americans will have their minds eased.
We'll move on and they'll keep doing what they do best... being insignificant for longs periods of time until the next story they can use to reinforce their 'government is evil' ideology.
SaveOurDemocracy
(4,400 posts)
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)I am a student of history and know how complacency led to the excesses of Nazi Germany.
We are seeing a morphing of government and business just as in Germany. That becomes the seedbed of Fascism.
We need to vigorously assert our rights under the Constitution. If we do not we will become as Germans under Hitler or Russians under Stalin.
We must find a way to balance the needs for security and surveillance with our Constitution. I for one would accept an increased risk of something bad happening in exchange for knowing my life was "my life" and not a life overseen by big brother.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Change!
Promise!
Y'all still believing this BS?!?! 
randome
(34,845 posts)And if Obama making changes that you demanded isn't enough for you, I don't believe in you.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]