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National Security Letters Reform Act Reintroduced
eldavojohn writes "A bill introduced today, similar to one that died in 2007, would reform the plague of National Security Letters and greatly narrow their scope. On top of that, it would mandate the destruction of any wrongly obtained information discovered in audits by the Inspector General that uncovered widespread improprieties in NSLs."
According to Thomas it was introduced by a Democrat.
But, sure, Republicans can sign on to bills that restore the rule of law to the USA, too.
This anti-republican dogma has really got to stop. First of all, if you are going to believe in the myth of the "two sided democracy", then you have to at least admit that there are both good or bad eggs on both sides of the aisle. If that weren't true, then there would be no way we would be in the constitutional mess we are in today -- as soon as the "right" side got the majority, everything would have been fixed. Since that's obviously not the case, you have to assume that each majority has its' own agenda and the entire contemporary political machinery exists solely to maintain the existing power base in Washington and the elite of the U.S. Only when we as a society can get beyond the Democrat versus Republican myth will we truly start dismantling the subterfuge that is destroying our liberties, our Constitution, and our democracy. If we start looking at every politician based soley on his or her merits alone and ignore his or her political affiliation we would see the enormous "change of course" that we have been promised oh-so-many times and never actually seen.
...spat on and blurred so much you cant read it any more.
That's why I don't like inkjet printers.
What?
Interestingly, nothing chills political party circle-jerk fantasies of unlimited executive power quite like the possibility that an opposing party might wield it.
Fixed that for you. If you think the phenomena that you have described is unique to Republicans then I think you are in for a rude surprise.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
As you may or may not recall, during the Bush administration the Justice Department had this problem where some political appointees decided that they'd hire and fire people at Justice based on political affiliation (and possibly sexual orientation, in at least one case). Then the matter was investigated, by Congress, who couldn't get some individuals to show up to testify, which is contempt of Congress. When referrals for these contempt charges were passed to the Justice Department, they were promptly ignored, on the orders of - surprise - a political appointee of the President whose administration was being investigated in the first place.
Which is all to say, investigative powers are great, so long as the ability to compel testimony and subpoena (and obtain) documents is unimpeded, and that the investigative process is unimpeded and apolitical. What we saw over the last 8 years was the willing complicity of the legislative branch (till 2006, after which we saw some true cravenness), coupled with an executive that felt it was above the law. No simple IG provisions were going to fix that.
Obama bailing out the auto industry and trying to fix health care is the path to socialism, but spying on Americans without due process and then trying to forbid them from talking to an attorney, you're okay with that.
Why do you assume that someone who is opposed to the former must be in favor of the latter?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
First thing I learned in self-defense class in grade 7, never bring a weapon to a fight you don't want used against yourself.
I thought the rule was to bring enough to share.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!