Feinstein calls it "protecting Americans" My wife calls it B.S.

[diabeticman]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/feinstein-chambliss-nsa-phone-records.php?ref=fpb


‘It’s Called Protecting America’: Senators Defend NSA On Phone Records


The top two senators on the Intelligence Committee on Thursday defended the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records after it was reported in The Guardian.

“It is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress,” Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told reporters at an impromptu news conference in the Capitol. “This is just meta data. There is no content involved. In other words, no content of a communication. … The records can only be accessed under heightened standards.”
_________________________________________________________________________

My wife has become completely disillusion with the two party system. She now calls it a huge joke. When you have "Republicans" and "Democrats" happy and just fine with this than you know elected officials aren't looking out for the best interests of the American public.

[BlueCheese]

1. Heightened standards.

Whatever that means. Just trust Big Brother not to do anything inappropriate.

If it weren't for leaks, they wouldn't even tell us that this program existed.

I'm so angry with Feinstein I can barely see straight. As for protecting America-- before anything else, America is a nation founded on a set of ideals. Without our freedoms and our democracy, we would no longer be America. When you took office, you swore to uphold the Constitution. That's what you should be protecting, you spineless senator.

[TommyCelt]

6. "Heightened standards"...

...sounds like it's in the same family as "enhanced interrogation".

[Octafish]

2. Isn't her husband due to make a buck off something to do with privatizing USPS?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/blum.asp

Not that it's anything other than a coincidence.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. I call it a rather pathetic, self-serving, attempt at CYA.

Translation: "We're spying on you without your knowledge for your own good."

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I'd like to record Feinstein's phone calls and broadcast them.

I'm just trying to protect you, Diane!

[randome]

5. Yeah but your wife is...

...a very nice woman, I'm sure.

[rhett o rick]

7. It is not a honest two party system. It's a good corporate tool vs. a nasty corporate tool. nm

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[Laelth]

9. Here's the rub.

Democratic politicians are very concerned about what people will say about them or what the electorate will do to them. They're thinking, "Well, what if there's another massive terrorist attack, and it is shown that the attack could have been prevented if we had done X, Y, and Z (all of which are legally authorized by the Patriot Act and other recent laws)? What then? We'll be crucified in the media! Republicans will say bad things about us! We will lose elections! Therefore, we must do X, Y, and Z, so that we don't get blamed for not preventing a terrorist attack."

That's the mindset that those of us who value our civil liberties are up against. I have no solution, but I fully understand why the same, authoritarian, police-state policies are pursued by both parties.

-Laelth


Cross-posted from another thread.

[woo me with science]

10. K&R

[blkmusclmachine]

11. 1 Party, 2 Faces.

Indistinguishable.

We're All Republicans Now

[woo me with science]

12. Noam Chomsky

"In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population."

Noam Chomsky

[ohheckyeah]

13. Maybe they could do me a favor and forget about protecting me.

They are the one's I want to be protected from.