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Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
An anonymous reader writes "The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the House voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA's phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 'no' voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 'yes' voters."
Seriously. Did anyone expect any other result? Money talks everywhere.
will receive no cash from defense and intelligence gathering industries for the next election cycle.
i no longer feel as alone when i express how fucking terrible the united states is, thank you for helping to destroy yourselves.
thank you for showing how deep the corruption goes.
thank you for not the 'intelligence' agency for my country
And why is it, this type of bribery continues? And where are the Republicans standing up saying how they are out for your rights, while they cut unnecessary government? And the Dems, who continued with the path that the Rep, put into place, that are acting as if they had no idea that surveillance was taking place on non-terrorist citizens..
It is time for term limits, and prison time for lobbyists, and politicians that take bribes.
Our congress isn't free. Our congress isn't in the best interests of the people. Our congress is bought, and until the people take a stand nothing will ever change.
Truly you have achieved the best government that money can buy...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
What's the surprise?
These industries are more likely to fund people sympathetic to their point of view.
It doesn't indicate that the congressmen switched their votes based on the contribution or lack thereof.
welcome our smart-investing defense industry overlords who know how to get the most bang for their buck (figuratively speaking) when buying politicians
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
good to see free market applied to governments - you go land of the free(market)
I think you might have just run into collinearity. The sort of people who vote against programs like this are the sort of people who aren't going to be in the good books of the defence industry to begin wtih.
That said: if democracy is so bad (and it is), get rid of it. What are you so scared of?
We in the USA are blessed by the Great Invisible Puppeteer in the Sky with the best government money can possibly buy.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
Isn't it exactly how congress works in America, the country that legalized bribery?
From a purely political perspective, the surveillance-against-citizens promises to be an important wedge issue in the next election cycle. Voters are divided on it, even the politicians are divided on it. We'll just have to wait and see, as unsatisfying as that sounds: in a representative democracy that's how these things are "corrected"... or not.
I hope they just pound the hell out of the people who voted against this bill, be they R or D. I fear that it will all be forgotten one year from now.
This is how the world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.
The Defense Industry lobbyists were smart enough to know which candidates actually liked them, therefore they gave twice the money to those candidates. It's almost like the articles is saying they actually ask candidates what they think BEFORE they cut a bunch of checks.
If you look at the actual numbers the ridiculousness of the "campaign contributions as bribes" theory gets even clearer. A House race costs at least $500k. In extreme cases (ie: Bachman) they cost millions. That's $700 a day for a cheap race. You'd rather have $40k from defense contractors then $18k, but the difference is only 32 days of fundraising for the guy with the cheap $500k race. Somebody like Bachman brings in $22k in under a week. Note that by international standards $500k is a really cheap election for the 750,000-person districts we have. Canadian pols spend in the $50k-$100k range, but a) there are generally three serious candidates in every riding so that works out to $150k-$300k per riding, and each riding only has 100,000 people in it.
In other words if you're a Congressman you pick a side. If you pick the anti-NSA side you get geek donations, grassroots buzz from Civil Libertarians, and a little defense industry cash (Honeywell et al. want to maintain a relationship with you, so you do get that $18k). If you pick the pro-NSA-side you get to be tough on bad guys on TV, and you get a little more defense industry cash. You do not change a side just because somebody offers you a lot of money, because that would look terrible on TV ("He's an EVIL FLIP-FLOPPER"), the new voters you were appealing to wouldn't actually vote for you because they wouldn't trust you, and the ones you stabbed in the back are gonna hate your guts.
Since the GOP won the last go-round tough-on-bad-guys got more votes then Civil Libertarians.
Dear americans, your empire is going to fall. Not today or tomorrow. But - younger of you may live to see it. Those of you who visited history lessons about not-america (also called "rest of the world") may notice the pattern: Roman Empire, British Empire, Russian Empire and so on.
Yes, your country have lot of weapons. Guess what - romans had it too, russians still have. And yes, there are still many scientists live in US. Guess what - it may not matter that match.
It may end in bloody conflict (see fall of Rome) or as peaceful dismount (see fall of Soviet Union) or as something in-between (British Empire). But - it will end. If history teaches us something, it's "too big army is bad for you".
You guessed right - US military (and NSA is also considered military by us in "rest of the world") is way too big for US economy to support. Since US have not a single border with enemy states, it's army supposed to be about 1/1000 of current size. Yep, you read right: one hundredth. No, you don't need carriers. And no, you don't need that many nuclear submarines. And no, you probably don't need tanks AT ALL, nobody going to invade you any time soon.
And finally - no, world don't need you as policemen.
We were warned about the dangers of the military industrial complex by one of our best presidents. Eisenhower kept this nation out of trouble (pointless wars and political suicide pacts) and allowed us to enjoy our peace dividends. We should have listened and remembered.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
....that still doesn't make it a democracy.
As long as our "representational" government is hijacked to represent the majority of dollars instead of people and of free speech, then we've completely strayed away from any sort of democracy at all. I don't know what you call it, but it ain't democracy.
Clearly our voices no longer equate to a level democratic process. Though we may be born equal, our influence under the law extends with our wealth, regardless of its source or of the massive disparity among the citizens.
Whats the point of voting in an auction that always goes to the highest bidder? Nostalgia or denial? We might as well still have royalty because it sure works like a nobility.
It's only gonna bet bigger until there is some grievous abuse of this intelligence to someone famous, popular, and beyond reproach.
CAPTCHA: tempest
it is called fascism
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
We keep telling people to follow the money. Our lawmakers took our advice, they are following the money.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Hands up everyone who is surprised by this, I have a bridge for sale...
I'm just going to repeat this until either it starts or someone makes a valid argument against it. The states need to call a constitutional convention and fix problems like these. Imagine term limits for Congress - the state reps would pass that because it would mean more churn and a chance for them to get there. Problem one solved. That's just for starters. Fixing problems like what this post is about would be on the table too.
In this day and age of social media and groups who have nothing better to do this should be easy to push right to the front. Just have to work hard to not have it be subverted. Just imagine how pissed off this would make Congress & the President. The founding fathers would be cheering! The world would see how it's really done right.
People and corporations donate money to candidates who represent their views and interests. It's the same with progressives like me who donated money to Elizabeth Warren.
It's not just 'secret NSA spying'.
Tort reform? You'll find the naysayers got at LEAST 2x from the legal community PACs and lobbyists.
More loans and grants for education, or student loan forgiveness? You'll find that the ones in favor got piles of money from Teacher Unions.
Minimum wage? Unionization? Defense spending?
As the old saying goes: Follow the Money.
opensecrets.org.
-Styopa
The media has done their job well, that is they have actively assisted in the dumbing down of america.
You are correct, but lets be clear: "The Media" is overwhelmingly dominated by corporations, and it is not just Americas problem. Those corporations are overwhelmingly interconnected with the interests of a vast array of other unrelated businesses, be it just advertising revenue or outright arms of the same corporation. The mass corporate media is using FUD/muddying the waters/dumbing down just enough to make the majority of voters for political reasons, they are doing so because it is good business for other arms of their corporation and their partners.
This is also the reason the mass worldwide corporate media react so violently, distort the facts as far as to turn them upside down, make unfounded extreme accusations when any country or individual calls out the massive, obviously society destroying conflicts of interest that we have today in corporate media. Imagine what the worlds media combined do when a country starts to pass media and airspace legislation to even up the playing field with more to share the space with social organizations (say 33% government channels, 33% private companies with no other business interests in country, 33% to social groups and organizations)? Well no need to imagine, we have a good example: Ecuador. If your first reaction to naming Ecuador as a shining example is that you start frothing at the mouth, wanting to post AC to educate me on "the human rights abuses", "censorship", "repression"... etc etc of Ecuador - then you are knee-jerk reacting, a product of the pervasive mass media dumbing down we are talking about here. There are even " international press freedom organizations" lining up to condemn the country - all of them with dubious shady origins when you look into the details and all of them making claims that dont add up when you look critically into the facts. If your one of those then you owe it to yourself to read the link provided and do a bit of searching outside of mass media channels on this topic. Ecuador is the only country I know of that is attempting to tackle front on the conflict of interest that dominates mass media today (Apart from some organizations - Wiklleaks Party is trying to make it part of their election campaign in Australia, see "Can we trust the media").
For example Rafael Correa told a well known Spanish interviewer Anita Pastor, and a paraphrase, "How could we reform the banking system when 80% of the countries media was owned by banks". As an aside, Anita Pastor during the course of the interview claimed that the worlds press was free and independent. In a stroke of irony she was fired shortly after by an incoming government due to asking the ministers uncomfortable questions during the election campaign. The same government and the other major party in Spain has now passed decrees in true American style,that all election interviews will be controlled, with controlled questions in a controlled marketing directed act. They have even changed the government controlled media so that all stories pass by them before being published. Just like nearly every other western country now. Free press, indeed.
Politicians are simply being reward for having the 'right' beliefs. It's not about buying someone's vote once; it's a long-term investment. Lobbies know that it is not necessary to find someone willing to vote against their conscience - they find the politician who already *wants* to vote the 'right' way because they are ideological or misinformed or, in extreme cases, outright mentally ill, and shower that person with so much money that a reasonable or patriotic candidate can't compete. By the time that someone becomes a legislator anyone willing to defend their own constituents or even their country has long since been weeded out.
The industry can't afford to not fund people who's vote they may still need and may still buy if they give enough money. They will receive money as long as those industries have money to spend on buying political friends for their companies, regardless of who gets to be in power or even voted into office. It's not about betting on a single horse, it's about buying hay for all the horses, allowing you all area access into the racing track. The "real bribery" starts when friends and family members of congresspeople get business contracts from the companies that funded the campaigns. To get there, the companies first have to by their way into the political "race track" with campaign funding.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
How is this even a story?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
From this article, it looks like the lawmakers who voted "no" to NOT stop the NSA's phone-spying dragnet received higher funds Why this complex sentence formation? How about "The 217 Lawmakers who supported continuation of NSA's phone-spying received higher campaign funding from defense and intelligence industries" ?
So much correlation that their might be some causation involved.
The really perverse thing is that that the bribes from the defense contractors are payed with tax money from people who don't get comparable means for influencing their representatives into representing them.
A consideration:
* If you can't vote in the election, you cannot give money.
* A person's name is tied to the gift AND public.
That solves all sorts of issues, mainly so that politicians actually represent PEOPLE, not faceless corporations or generic-sounding PACs.
It also prevents outsiders from rigging an election. Locals only.
Of course, this will never happen, because the politicians will never vote to cut their incomes/perk budgets.
And like any business, the objective is profit. Ideology claims otherwise, but actions speak louder than words.
Observe their actions. Ignore their words. Only then will you understand the true motives of those in power.
I suppose if we used the same tech they use to paste virtual advertisements during sporting events, that whenever an American politician is speaking in front of cameras, it could help people understand what's going on when the suit the speaker is wearing is emblazoned with the names and/or logos of the corporations who've bribed him or her, like sponsors of a racing team.
Imagine it, the schmuck steps up to a podium, his name appears in front of him, and the phrase "Brought to you by... " and the list of the ten biggest donors. Simultaneously, bumper stickers are digitally edited in on his chest, arms, legs, etc, as long as the cameras are on him and rolling.
Couldn't hurt, dispense a little truth amongst the lies, right?
But you Aussies and NZers are a buncha fucking pussies.
Just because we can't rein our government in doesn't mean you guys can't be telling YOURS to say 'Fuck off' to the US.
If the US took any sort of direct action on a major global player like Australia for instance, you can be that shit would tip off WW3, because like it or not, neither Russia, (the rest of) NATO, nor China would let that slide, no matter how much 'revenue' they'd lose by going up against us.
At the same time the reason the US is pushing so hard is because they know they can, and until somebody has the balls to step up and say 'No, we're not only drawing a line here, but we're pushing it back *THERE*.', they're going to *KEEP* railroading you guys until there's nothing left.
If you want an idea of what sort of dystopic future we'll have to look forward to if that happens, try the Original 'Rollerball', it pretty succintly summarized what'll happen if global business is allowed to railroad countries to that degree.
Final address Jan 1961 as he left office: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Some folks apparently weren't listening....
It looks like it will be difficult for these people to avoid going to prison now - unless, of course, the whole US judicial system is utterly corrupt, and America is being run like a banana republic.
Lobbyist: Listen, I'd like to do more money for you -- I just need to know your positions on a few issues. For instance, where are you on sugar price supports?
Congressman Johnson: Sugar price supports. Where do you think I should be, Tommy?
Lobbyist: Shit -- makes no difference to me. If you're for 'em, I got money for you from my sugar producers in Louisiana and Hawaii. If you're against 'em, I got money for you from the candy manufacturers.
Congressman: You pick.
Lobbyist: Let's put you down as for. Now what about putting limits on malpractice awards?
Congressman: You tell me.
Lobbyist: Well, if you're for 'em, I got money from the doctors and insurance companies. If you're against 'em, I got money from the trial lawyers. Tell you what, let's say against. Now how about pizza?
Congressman (gestures to plate): I'll stick with the salad.
Lobbyist: Not for lunch, shmuck, for PAC money. A lot of the frozen pizzas use phony cheese. There's a law pending requiring them to disclose it on their labels. Where do you stand?
Congressman: If I vote for the labels...then I get money from the dairy industry...
Lobbyist: Good...
Congressman: And if I vote against the labels, I get money from the frozen food guys.
Lobbyist: Excellent! And don't forget the ranchers, because they get hurt if pepperoni sales go down!
Congressman: A pepperoni lobby. I love this town.
Lobbyist: So which is it?
Congressman: Fuck the cheese people. Thanks to them my office smelled like smelt for a week.
Lobbyist: All right. For.
Congressman: So Tommy, tell me -- with all this money on every side, how does anything get done?
Lobbyist: It doesn't! That's the genius of the system!
I am officially gone from
I was in Quito during the "coup d'état" a few years ago; I actually saw the protests and my hotel was across the street from the hospital where Correa was being "held hostage". I watched the news unfolding from my window and on live TV. The stretches that both the state media and western organizations were going through to make it look like a bigger deal than it was were amazing: at one point, there were some 20 protesters in front of the hotel, but some 50 cameramen were hovering around them and filming from low angles to make it look like a crowd; the caption and reporting was about the chaos at the hospital. Yet I was able to go out and about without problems and patients were going in and out of the hospital all night. All of the restaurants and internet cafes closed early, but the reasons that they invariably gave for this was the fact that the police was on strike and so criminals would be emboldened. I saw Correa leave the hospital at around 2:00 am, completely unhindered and smoking a cigarette.
Everything I saw that night supported the claim that it was a simple police strike over pay and benefits. However, over the next weeks, people were going to prison over this joke, this farce. It was simply a pretext to send political opponents to jail, where many of them remain. It kind of makes me ashamed of my Alma Mater, which also educated Correa.
For all your rhetoric, I do not think such a thing would happen in the west.
LOL
Have you read this one yet? The Space Merchants, by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. kornbluth (or maybe it was its sequel, can't remember)
This is how it works every day of the week so...
Good leaders run toward problems, bad leaders hide from them.
This just in: politicians are corrupt and have very little to gain from serving the people that elected them. In other news the world is round and the sky is blue.
How is this news today on Slashdot? Multiple other sites reported on this Wednesday or Thursday of last week. Just continuing proof that Slashdot is not relevant at all anymore.
The USA wages trade wars on behalf of the corporations that have their bribery called "Free Speech".
Seriously, did you not read ANY of the things that were leaked by WL and Snowden? How many times have the US government moved heaven and earth to enable Monsato or Exxon or GM or Boeing to get an edge in international trade under threat of the USA blowing the shit out of their country when "Exporting Democracy (tm)"?
Unfortunately, this doesn't necessarily prove corruption. First, it is a reasonable assumption to say that defense industry interests are more likely to vote in their favour anyway, as it benefits that industry to have them in office.
However, on the other side, it's not unreasonable to believe that career politicians (a problematic concept in the first place) will do what it takes to keep raking in the funds that will help them campaign to keep their job. But that's a fundamental problem that is difficult to address, since even if we term-limit them, they just run for a different office and shuffle around more. Which is still probably better than having 40-year senators.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I'm surprised anyone is surprised. We have the best government money can buy, everybody knows that.
Guess where those Defense Industry dollars are coming from?
Those are you're tax dollars.
We don't need a new constitution, we just need to remember/reinvent how to amend it.
Here's my proposal for the Next Amendment:
"No law shall be enacted by congress or by any state or any lower government that grants special rights to government workers or excludes government workers from a provision of law."
This proves nothing, except that Slashdot is filled with a bunch of fucking hypocrites who scream "Correlation is not Causation" at everything that moves, except of course when it comes to that which helps the far left Slashdot agenda.
Move along.
This just goes to show that "we the people" should make campaign finance reform the really big issue. We should severely limit the amount of money politicians are allowed to spend in order to get elected. Force them all back to grassroots where they have to stand atop their message to be seen. Making PACs illegal would be a good start. I realize we have gawdawful tons of things wrong with this country that need immediate attention, but absolutely nothing constructive will get done as long as our politicians are in someone's pocket. Fix this issue, and just watch the ripples.
I enjoyed this flick. Not sure why it was considered one of Murphy's bombs.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
n/t
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It's completely ludicrous to even contemplate using the LAW to go after the very folks who WRITE THE FUCKING LAWS. Hell, except for rare cases, you can't even go in and arrest a member of Congress. They prefer to do their own inquiries on their own members.
So, outside of storming the House / Senate and removing the corruption by force what, exactly, would you propose we do about it ?
If con is the opposite of pro, is congress the opposite of progress?
This "study" is somewhat suspect. They include shipbuilders, defense services, etc. with no explanation of why these are relevant. What does shipbuilding have to do with NSA electronic intercept? Defense services, things like chow halls, cleaning services, etc., what does that have to do with NSA electronic intercept? Also, a casual look at the data shows it has way to many outliers to be a reliable source of "fact". Look at the split of "no" and "yes" in filks who received $0. Prety even. Also they chose to publish the data in formats that make it difficult to import into another program to analyze for yourself. This is a common tactic of bogus researchers, make hard for people to analyze the data so few will be inclined to do it and throw the BS flag. Why not make the data a nice neat table so it can be cut and pasted? Instead it is a PDF or text with names cut off, characters run together, etc., all designed to foil someone from easily mvoing thr data into say a spreadshett to debunk their BS.
Why the fuck does anybody vote in this country anymore? Oh wait, maybe all those empty shelves in the gun stores are a new voting method?
Money talks, bullshit walks.
If you want the laws written to support your way of life, better pony up the cash. Taxes don't count btw.
Finest government money can buy!
My understanding is that independent defense contractors are making MEGA BUCKS on the farmed out surveillance and storage of our private info. It’s their lobbyists that are working overtime to woo our congressmen to support this. I don’t want an Uncle Sam who is a Peeping Tom! Way to go Constitutional Rights Association for giving Dianne Feinstein a Dunce Award. I’ve learned a lot about this issue from their website at: http://constitutionalrightsassociation.org/category/the-law/
SCOTUS. It supressed the limit to donations to politics. It turned US' democracy into moneycracy.