Lawmakers' Bid to Rein in N.S.A. Narrowly Fails
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Tx4obama (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: NY Times
WASHINGTON — A deeply divided House defeated legislation Wednesday that would have blocked the National Security Agency from collecting vast amounts of phone records, handing the Obama administration a hard-fought victory in the first Congressional showdown over the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities since Edward J. Snowden’s security breaches last month.
The 205-to-217 vote was far closer than expected and came after a brief but impassioned debate over citizens’ right to privacy and the steps the government must take to protect national security. It was a rare instance in which a classified intelligence program was openly discussed on the House floor, and disagreements over the program led to some unusual coalitions.
Conservative Republicans leery of what they see as Obama administration abuses of power teamed up with liberal Democrats long opposed to intrusive intelligence programs. The Obama administration made common cause with the House Republican leadership to try to block it.
House members pressing to rein in the N.S.A. vowed afterward that the outrage unleashed by Mr. Snowden’s disclosures would eventually put a brake on the agency’s activities. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and a longtime critic of post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism efforts, said lawmakers would keep coming back with legislation to curtail the dragnets for “metadata,” whether through phone records or Internet surveillance.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/politics/house-defeats-effort-to-rein-in-nsa-data-gathering.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)Losers: the rest of us. imho
HatTrick
(129 posts)Anyone know where to find who did, and who didn't vote for this?
I need to decide who I will, and won't be giving money to in the future.
HatTrick
(129 posts)Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)Pelosi and Hoyer voted against it. Nice to see the side with King, Bachmann and Issa on this issue. VOMIT!!!
Even Senselessbrenner and Rora-barfer voted to stop this.
Odd bedfellows.
edit. . .typo for should have been against.
Volaris
(11,673 posts)break the power of the corporate state will be a combination of Liberals, and those Republicans who boo'ed Romney when he said "Corporations are People, my friends."
I think the trick will be to convince those Republicans that they are actually Liberals, and not conservatives. I think a lot of them are ready to believe something...other..than what has been shoved into their heads by Rush and Beck and the rest of the monied interests over on that side, I say, let's GIVE IT to them, and watch the Oligarchs have a flat-out fit about it.
Come on, you KNOW it will be fun 
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)Pelosi & Hoyer did not vote for this amendment. They were with Bachman.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)Response to pmorlan1 (Reply #11)
Pastiche423 This message was self-deleted by its author.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
PSPS
(15,313 posts)Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)call him on it! That's very simple.
On this shit, he is damned wrong!
Did all of you actually expect that something would change because of the Snowden revelations? Snowden worked for a subsidiary of the Carlyle group so I wonder if his only mission was to turn Democrats against Obama. If that was his intent, mission accomplished.
Think about it, not even the House voted to do something about the surveillance. Tell me wise ones, what is going to change?
Go ahead and blame Obama. Obama knows the history of JFK talking about eliminating the CIA, look where that got him.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)Not only did I expect it to change we got it today. On our first challenge to the national security state we almost won despite the heavy lobbying effort from the NSA, political leadership of both Parties and the President. We got the majority of Democrats and a lot of Republicans. The vote was 205 - 217. That's freakin close. As the NYT said:
Ultimately, 94 House Republicans defied their leadership; 111 Democrats — a majority of the Democratic caucus — defied their president.
We have citizens crossing party lines to join together to fight a common foe. Because of their efforts, they've pushed their Representatives to revolt against the status quo. Is that a change? You better freakin believe it. This was a great day for those of us who are fighting the national security state, no mistake about it.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)I can't believe everyone is in the dumps in this thread. This was a fabulous vote today. No one thought that this amendment would get 205 votes. Most people thought that if they got 100 votes it would be a good vote. We got 205 votes. We got a majority of Democrats and a good chunk of Republicans.
This is from the NYT piece describing the vote:
We should be very happy. This was our first vote on this issue and we almost won despite the heavy lobbying coming from the NSA, Political leadership of both Parties and the President.
I watched the vote on cspan. While they were voting, cspan broke away to take calls from citizens. When they went to the Republican line they heard support for the amendment, when they went to the Democratic line they heard support for the amendment and finally, when they went to the Independent line they heard support for the amendment. It was the same over and over and over. Every caller, save one, supported the amendment. The one caller who didn't voice support for the amendment also didn't knock the amendment. People are waking up. They are crossing Party lines to fight a common enemy. Our politicians are hearing from these people and they are finally starting to stand up to the powerful surveillance state.
It's a great day for us.
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)LBN OP here: http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/1014547519
Thanks
Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.