FISC Chief Judge: We Can't Effectively Oversee the NSA

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Washington Post: 'The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government's vast spying programs said that its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans. The chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often the government's surveillance breaks the court's rules that aim to protect Americans' privacy. Without taking drastic steps, it also cannot check the veracity of the government's assertions that the violations its staff members report are unintentional mistakes.' President Obama said in June, 'We also have federal judges that we've put in place who are not subject to political pressure. They've got lifetime tenure as federal judges, and they're empowered to look over our shoulder at the executive branch to make sure that these programs aren't being abused.' Not so much, Mr. President."

Comments

Re:And the peices fall into place

[jamstar7]

This isn't partisan hackery. Plenty of people who thought that Obama was going to make things better have been thoroughly disillusioned.

OK, Constitutional Practice 101 time.

El Presidente is head of the Executive branch. He's also Head of State. His job is to implement laws voted into existence by Congress. Congress creates the laws, not El Presidente. The current El Presidente is stuck with a Congress that can't vote on a lunch menu let alone something like a budget, a jobs bill, a 'take care of the veterans' bill, and so forth. When the 'Opposition' screams at him to 'compromise', what they do is demand he do things their way, follow their agenda. And since the Opposition came to power with the platform of 'Let's screw the scary black guy so we can seize power in the next election', that's why you have 40 votes on repealing ACA/'Obamacare/Romneycare/whatever. That's the sole focus, waste time and clog the channels so nothing gets done so they can drop the blame on 'the scary black guy'. Case in point, Benghazi. Republicans voted to cut funding for embassy security worldwide, knowing it'd be just a matter of time before somebody took a swing at an embassy. They did, and the Republicans immediately started chopping down trees for a cross, sharpening nails, and digging up hammers.

What of 'Executive Orders', you say? Those are instruments for El Presidente to instruct, educate, illuminate, and motivate the Executive Branch. They have no legal standing outside the Executive Branch.

El Presidente needs some appointees confirmed? Too bad, this Congress ain't gonna do it, cause that would help El Presidente do his fucking job, and we just can't have that.