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Senate May Vote On NSA Reform As Soon As Next Week

Posted by samzenpus on from the stop-looking-at-me dept.

apexcp writes Senate Majority Leader (for now) Harry Reid announced he will be taking the USA FREEDOM Act to a floor vote in the Senate as early as next week. While the bill, if passed, would be the first significant legislative reform of the NSA since 9/11, many of the act's initial supporters have since disavowed it, claiming that changes to its language mean it won't do enough to curb the abuses of the American surveillance state

19 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Not a solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The USA FREEDOM Act only limits spying on American citizens. The spying on the rest of the world is not addressed at all.

    1. Re:Not a solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Uh, it's a spy agency. Spying on the rest of the world is their mission.

    2. Re:Not a solution by Thanshin · · Score: 2

      Which, of course, opens the door to the simplest of international agreements : "I spy on yours, you spy on mine and we can share the results, all legally."

  2. I hope it... by unixcorn · · Score: 2

    Repeals the Patriot Act and shuts down Homeland Security. How many redundant players do we need to keep us safe?

    1. Re:I hope it... by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How many redundant players do we need to keep us safe?

      I'd suggest starting by questioning the base. Which, if any, is actually contributing significantly* to keeping someone safe?

      And then I'd suggest to compare that significance to the investment in money and in degradation of privacy among other rights.

      i.e.: If every life saved by HS costs some millions of dollars, it's way more efficient to spend that money in idiot-proofing vending machines and, as an added bonus, the country gets to keep being free.

    2. Re:I hope it... by Noryungi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Repeals the Patriot Act and shuts down Homeland Security. How many redundant players do we need to keep us safe?

      As many as it takes to give tons of money to all the little cogs in the militaro-industrial complex.

      Seriously, the USA were already spending more than everyone else in the world on its military (and its security apparatus, including the NSA), before 9/11.

      Was this able to prevent the WTC/Pentagon attacks? No. And not just that, but Osama bin Laden was able to hide practically in plain sight for years, communicating all the time with his organization through written and recorded messages (meaning: outside the reach of the NSA).

      Will the NSA be able to prevent the next 9/11? Let me go out on a limb and say "No" again. If the hard-core terrorists haven't got it by now, every single telecommunication in the world is being spied upon. The safest way is to organize the next attack by courier and letters, and not through electronic communications at all.

      The Iraq war was all about oil, Halliburton and Exxon bottom line. Today's enless wars, conflicts and spying is all about keeping the money machine going strong, and the US Government doling mountains of cash to contractors and sub-contractors.

      The whole thing will end very badly.

      --
      The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  3. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I listened to campaign ads from parts of the country considered liberal, and from regions considered conservative this election season. Assuming the candidates were attempting to address issues important to voters, the topics ran the gamut from job creation to how malevolent the opposition candidate was.

    Not once did a political ad obviously endorse curtailing the government's sweeping surveillance powers.

    Candidates from elections are prone to endorse whatever view the polls say their constituents are interested in. I'd say this is a poor harbinger of curtailing the powers of the surveillance state.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. by NotDrWho · · Score: 2

      That's because both parties want that sweeping power for when *they're* in charge.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    2. Re:Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. by mister_playboy · · Score: 2

      Candidates from elections are prone to endorse whatever view the polls say their constituents are interested in.

      This recent election provided a great counterexample in the minimum wage increases that passed in 4 red states. There were no Republicans taking up this popular policy position.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    3. Re:Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      I would not vote for (support a candidate that is for) a federal minimum wage increase at this time because I want to see how it plays out in the various localities.

      well, so far it's been uniformly positive

      If it appears that the experiments have worked to my satisfaction, then I would definitely vote that direction.

      Perfect is the enemy of good

      (+100%??)

      The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation in over two decades. Yes, +100%. That's how useless the minimum wage is in this country, it is half of what you need to live beyond abject poverty. And there's just no reason why anyone should be permitted to pay less than a living wage. If you can't pay that much, you don't have a viable business idea.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      If they employ someone full time, then yes, that person is damn well entitled to a wage that can sustain basic living, regardless of what else they do with the rest of their time (study, work on another work etc). That was the point of having minimum wage when it was originally introduced. That it was devalued over time because it wasn't indexed to inflation is a travesty, and effectively subverts the law without explicitly repealing it.

  4. Time for another dog and pony show, huh? by NotDrWho · · Score: 2

    Put on a good show for the idiots to pretend like you're doing something, you Corporate-owned assclowns.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  5. Re:It won't happen by halivar · · Score: 2

    When they have the majority in both the house and the senate starting next Jan. they will expand the NSA's powers and try to ram it through.

    IOW, continuing the good work of the current majority and the administration?

  6. Well, well we want to get some work done now... by PseudoCoder · · Score: 2

    The Democrat-controlled senate hasn't scheduled any votes for some time now, and even other Democrats have been complaining that senate Dems aren't doing anything, for fear of votes coming back to haunt them in the elections. If it's good policy, why do you have to fear your how your electorate will respond at the polls?

    http://thehill.com/homenews/house/200228-house-dems-to-senate-dems-pass-our-bills

    Now all of a sudden it's time to get something done? That's what happens when you play politics with public policy. Now we know you were too busy looking out for your own hide and not serving the public. And check out Landrieu all of a sudden being a "driving force" in passing Keystone pipeline in the face of a tight runoff election. This would be hilarious if it wasn't such a sad reflection of the state of the US.

    --
    "Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder."
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Much more than this!! by s.petry · · Score: 2

    The act does not mention the NSA anywhere in the bill. The only organization that is mentioned is the FBI, which means really business as usual. The FBI restrictions are non-existent with the fact that we have "fusion" centers that all of the other people can dump data into without any restriction.

    USA FREEDOM Act - Title I: FISA Business Records Reforms - (Sec. 101) Amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to establish a new process to be followed when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submits an application to a FISA court for an order requiring the production of tangible things (commonly referred to as business records, including books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information not concerning a U.S. person or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.

    Emphasis mine. Nowhere does the bill mention that the amount of data is going to be reduced or curtailed. Everything being collected illegally today will still be illegally collected even if this bill passes and becomes law. The bill is a waste of time and provides zero reform.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  9. Re:Hold off by TangoMargarine · · Score: 2

    The new Senate has more loyal Americans.

    Ah, I remember back when I was an idiot child and believed that "American loyalty" could justify the Republican platform.

    Because let's keep voting for the guys who keep giving tax cuts to their rich asshole buddies, and funnelling half the economy into military spending, and then whine about how the budget isn't balanced.

    P.S: Or were you being sarcastic

    --
    Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
  10. Re:It won't happen by jafiwam · · Score: 2

    When they have the majority in both the house and the senate starting next Jan. they will expand the NSA's powers and try to ram it through.

    IOW, continuing the good work of the current majority and the administration?

    Or, just now realizing the power structure of parallel construction, back room deals to harass people for political reasons, massive and invasive domestic eavesdropping abilities etc. are all going to be in the hands of the Republicans when Democrats lose the white house in 2016... and fearing the machine they created being turned against them.

  11. Re:Don't hold your breath by david_thornley · · Score: 2

    Yeah. What we need is for the land to be free and brave people making their home here. Sort of like the song. Would be nice.

    What we don't need is a bunch of cowards who are so afraid of terrorists (in the US, cows kill more people) that they'll give up freedom. And that's what we've got.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes