The wonderful thing about Congress is the fact that they are ALWAYS so …… well, on it.
Now after sitting on their, ahh …… brains, they are all activated over the NSA and the fact that the NSA will not release any information to Congress. Well it is all top secret, after all. Obummer tries to calm Tubularsock’s fears by telling me that I’m all safe and snugly because in our “check and balance system” Congress has oversight over what the NSA is doing and all is just working the way we were taught in 8th Grade civics.
But let Tubularsock give it to you in Obummer’s own words …….. “These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate. And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up.”
So Congress rushed the doors of knowledge to find out the FACTS so they could do their oversight, reauthorization, and debate. Ok, they’ll do that right after they get back from their three week break. No really, this is an important issue about freedom vs a police state so as soon as they get back …………
As Congress rushed off they did say breathlessly that these NSA programs were such revelations to them all. Nobody ever told them (The programs are all top secret, after all.) how massive and invasive these programs were meant to be! Wow, total surprise, total surprise!
Tubularsock figures Google searches don’t work in Washington, D.C. for some reason. And simple logic and common sense seems in short supply as well.
NSA asks and receives a ZILLION dollars from Congress to run their secret programs and Congress is then surprised that all this spying is happening. What in the hell did the members of Congress think that that billion dollar file storage unit in Utah was going to be used for a Mormon dance hall?
So if Congress is so surprised about the NSA why did they all condemn Snowden for giving them the information that the NSA won’t give them? Maybe they should be giving him a fucking medal for doing something that Congress doesn’t have the power or ability to do.
Now when the members of the House spoke up as Obummer requested and attempted to remove funding to the NSA and stop the spying on all Americans it was the Republicans who made a stand and supported Obummer along with the Democratic Party’s leadership with Nancy Pelosi in the lead and voted it down.
But what is significant to anyone who is paying attention is that Nancy supported the NSA under Bush as well but acted like she didn’t. So did many of the Democratic Party leadership.
So Nancy Pelosi and 82 Democrats stood shoulder to shoulder with Michele Bachmann, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Peter King, Steny Hoyer and 129 Republicans to keep supporting the NSA spying on all Americans. Now that is bi-partisan collaboration if I’ve ever seen it. Who says the two parties can’t work together to keep the American public enslaved!
But the vote was close because 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans voted against oppression. Now can they keep that up and shift the tide from a police state mentality to an open society without government spying on the citizens? Stay tuned.
Now to pull off this round of spy control Obummer had to pull out all stops and rush the NSA top guns into the House to scare the members into THE FEAR OF THE TERRORISTS! (a la Bush & Cheney)
And to punch it up a notch the closing of all the embassies in the Middle East all of a sudden because of the EXCELLENT work of the NSA had just done in exposing the increase in “chatter” between the major players of Al Qaeda. Wow, and what perfect timing.
Interesting question: How many American citizen’s phone, emails, Facebook entries, Twitter statements, internet posts had anything to do with Al Qaeda “chatter” in the Middle East?
But the fear of THE TERRORISTS is never complete without the reminder that THE HOMELAND is in constant danger.
Rep. Michael McCaul a Texan Republican and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security states that the State Department warning is significant because al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is probably the biggest threat to the U.S. and are “ . . . the faction of al Qaeda that still talks about hitting the West and hitting the homeland. And their expertise is chemical explosives, hitting the aviation sector, as we saw with the underwear bomber. So we are on a high state of alert.”
Let Tubularsock remind you about the underwear bomber (2009) because he seems to come up as the constant fear of the HOMELAND. He’s kind of like the Santa Clause of terror except he carries his presents in his shorts.
The NSA had “chatter” at the time about the underwear bomber but no real concrete information. The guy gets on Flight 253 in Amsterdam without a passport, with a oneway ticket he purchased in cash and with no luggage. (Now, who would suspect?)
It was the passengers and the flight crew that stopped him from his attempt to blow the plane up with a bomb style that had detonation issues. Not the NSA, the CIA, or the FBI.
Now, exactly how does reading your emails and listening in on your phone calls make the HOMELAND safer again?
Tubularsock 