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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."
This form of dissent is unpatriotic, Citizen. Report to the nearest NSA facility for rehabilitation.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I have finally figured out why the statue holding 'the scales of justice' wore a blindfold! ;-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Translation: The whole thing is a monumentally tragic, Constitution-violating fuck up, brought to you by two successive Administrations and a Congress that couldn't give a flying fuck about the Constitution.
What a pathetic situation.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
"Change You Can Believe In"!
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
we haven't had checks and balances in our government since the Gore V Bush decision, when Bush's dad's appointed supreme court ruled it's more important to abide by Florida's arbitrary date to count their votes than to count all the fucking votes using as much time as is necessary to insure an accurate count. why the fuck would anyone trust the US courts now? especially after the "corporations are people" decision.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Obama delivered on the Transparency though, can see right through him
Can we wantonly spy on your Internet activities?
YES WE CAN!
Can we store your email and search it at our leisure?
YES WE CAN!
Can we create a judicial overview process so flimsy and one-sided that there's almost no chance of any request being turned down?
YES WE CAN!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
So, your honor, please tell us why you didn't bring these concerns to our attention before somebody with more guts than you'll ever have brought the matter up?
Hell, you probably could have brought these concerns up without even revealing anything classified, or breaking any rules. They probably didn't remember to make it a state secret that you have no oversight powers worth mentioning, so it would have been entirely licit for you to complain about that.
We might as well be honest here: Every day that you knew you had no oversight; but remained as a FISC justice, much less chief justice, you knowingly operated as a rubber stamp and a pitiful facade of rule of law. A rubber stamp for a program that you cannot have been stupid enough to think was entirely on the up-and-up. Unimpressive. Cowardly. Unworthy of your office.
"represtitive government"
Is that a portmanteau of "repressive representative" government?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
"The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." -- U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 1. [emphasis added]
I think it is very much arguable that the FISA court judges, having "rubber stamped" nearly all surveillance requests, can be said to have violated "good behaviour".
They should just appoint a special investigator.
They could give the investigator over-arching extra-legal authority, just like the agency he'd be investigating.
I hear Edward Snowden has some experience in this area, and is currently in need of a job...
OOPS Wrong tab wrong article! Too many slashdot tabs open..Got to keep it to under 50.
...and here I thought you were trying to say something deep about the two articles....
Is the US constitution being represented by the meteor?
the fisc is for supervising fisa, as feinstein notes. the report detailed violations under eo12333. feinstein also notes the need to step up oversight of eo12333 by the intel committees, *not* the fisc court
' 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.'
Tell me please, who is it that is misleading here?
Oh, I'm sure they'll pick someone from the NSA who will report to the NSA, and the report will be sealed and we'll get to watch a press conference where the President intones very seriously "I won't comment on the contents of the report, but suffice to say you can trust me and there's nothing to worry about."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Yeah, a lot of good that does. As you all keep on electing the same old crap, I sure hope none of you are expecting any better from his successor, or anybody else for the foreseeable future...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Get more spies of course. Call it the NSA Safety Agency.
Oh, I don't think the judges are being subjected to political pressure. Rather, I think they're being subjected to misinformation campaigns.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'm not, because Congress long ago abandoned a key role as a check on the Executive in favor of near constant partisan bickering. The end result is little more than a bitching chamber, where the party on top pushes its agenda, the other party consumes itself in trying to fuck up that agenda and get to the top. They are basically blind to all other considerations, and a pure political animals, squared off into two warring tribes, who have no sense of civic duty, no sense of morality or any sense of their purpose.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Report to the nearest NSA facility for rehabilitation.
I think they call them "Fusion Centers" now...
I think they're called FEMA camps.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
He's no more transparent than he ever was. It's only that people are looking a tiny bit more closely. His motives have been more than obvious since he first entered the arena of political gladiators' (more like the soap opera of professional wrestling). And please note, I'm not singling him out. This is the the very essence of the game.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
This isn't partisan hackery. Plenty of people who thought that Obama was going to make things better have been thoroughly disillusioned.
I don't think making fun of Obama's overused campaign catchphrase indicates that he's a Republican.
And I find Obama's transgressions worse, as his stated goals ran COUNTER to this yet he has in fact expanded it drastically.
For one, Bush was definitely for it but not at this scale.
For another, Bush is no longer president, nor even a major force, so you bringing him up is pointless blather.
An interesting tidbit about is that on immigration tests, immigrants are taught that the US is made up of a 2 party system called Democrat and Republican. They teach this to kids in school as well.
I can't say I agree with your last point totally, since we have yet to test it. People need to be made aware of corrupt media and taught to get other candidates with high morals on ballots and not simply accept what they are given. That awakening is happening, and of course it may be too late. We have not proven that it is too late, so I have a bit of hope (not much mind you).
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The NSA has worked out fusion?! Excellent, at least then some of the dollars spent might have a useful offshoot... if only we could get them to declassify it.
The DoD worked out fusion quite nicely about 65 years ago. The energy yields of the reactors are truly impressive---their best experimental reactor had an output of something like 60 petajoules from negligible input power. (The Soviets built an even bigger reactor with close to 200 PJ). It's the containment facility that's been giving us problems since then. Work out that little detail, and you're sitting on a gold mine.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
From: IRS
RE: Audit
Dear Zlives,
You appear to have recently posted a comment with an explicit and/or implied criticism of the King^H^H^H^H President and/or his ministers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H executive agencies. On an unrelated note, we are writing to inform you that, as a courtesy, we will be auditing you in the near future. Please prepare for this audit by gathering all tax records since the dawn of time, including supporting documentation, and a generous supply of ointment for lacerations and bruises. We sincerely apologize for any minor inconveniences that may be caused by this totally random audit that is not remotely motivated by your exercise of free speech, and for any inappropriate glee, delight, satisfaction, or excitation our agents may display during the beatings^H^H^H^H^H^H^H proceedings.
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Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
Face it, the worst elected government you've ever had ran the country better than when it was colonies owned by a King and privately owned corporations.
The whoosh is strong in this one.
I would call wealth redistribution (i dont like), deficit spending(mixed feelings), socialized medicine(mixed feelings, great if done right...not being done right), reduction of emissions and heavier epa regulations (i like), pro choice(I like) , support of gay marriage (I like), moving away from tradition (I like unless its the constitution), subtley promoting secularism (I like, but people should be free to have public religious displays), pushing the politically correct culture (I hate when it goes overboard), and growing the fedgov (I dislike due to inefficiency), growing social welfare programs (most of which I like), and gun control (I support banning full autos, artillery, grenades, etc but that's it) sounds pretty damn left to me
The spying and intrusion of government is party nonspecific...like java. Unless you consider citizens (against it), and politicians (for it) parties.
I put my positions in parenthesis in case you want to call me a $direction wing nutjob.