House votes to give NSA even more spying power...
 

This month the supreme court ruled that the NSA was over reaching it's lawful ability to spy on American citizens. The ruling stated that they had gone way beyond what Congress authorized.

This put the ball into Congress's court to do the "right thing" and take back some "freedoms" which have been thrown in the garbage. This month the Patriot Act is up for renewal and this is the defining moment as to if Congress removes the NSA's current spying power, legitimizes it or gives them more..

They have opted to give the NSA even more spying power than it already has.. "yey freedom"..

The New NSA Reform Bill Would Give the Government Even More Power to Spy on Your Smartphone | VICE | United States

Every asshole whom voted in favor..

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll224.xml


The house has voted to allow the NSA to keep in their possession every phone call record which takes place in the US and hold on to them for 5 years. Previously the telco companies held these records and the govt was "supposed" to get a warrant to access these records. (we all know the warrants weren't happening)

With this new bill the govt will hold on to the records meaning they will have access to them once again with out warrants.

The bill also allows them to track internet data on smart phones, something they weren't allowed to do before with out a warrant.

This is what the House calls the "USA Freedom Act". I think it means freedom to spy on the USA.. Meanwhile the NSA doesn't think this is enough and are lobbying for full access to all internet traffic.

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

i'm going to ask you a serious question.

i am not picking sides and this is not a loaded question.


do you think it's right or wrong for Americans to give up certain freedoms for national security?

I think Benjamin Franklin summed it up perfectly..

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."


Nothing the NSA is doing is stopping terrorist attacks.. They haven't been able to provide proof of a single attack stopped by their spying, meanwhile several attacks have happened under the watch of their spying.

The simple fact is they are collecting far too much data to be able to do anything with it in real time. The data they are collecting isn't meant to stop anything but rather to be used against someone after the fact. Meaning they arrest you then look for a crime.. That's not in our Constitution.

i don't agree/disagree.

that said, that quote is taken out of context.

Franklin was writing not as a subject being asked to cede his liberty to government, but in his capacity as a legislator being asked to renounce his power to tax lands under his jurisdiction. In other words, the “essential liberty” to which Franklin referred was thus not what we would think of today as civil liberties but, rather, the right of self-governance of a legislature in the interests of collective security.

What Ben Franklin Really Said

That's fine, but I can still repeat the same words he said and use them in context which I choose. He said the words but they can be re-spoken because they are words and different meaning can be implied.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." crockett asshole on GFY 5/15/15

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

well fucking played.

It's a bi-partisan agreement :helpme

politics as usual....

I always gets blasted for this, but frankly.... I just don't care. If the US government wants to read my texts and my emails they can knock themselves out. There is just absolutely nothing of interest there.

And please don't tell me "this is what they said when the Nazis came to power". No, it isn't.

Nothing of interest but anyone can be made a criminal if they have 5 years of your texts and phone calls to choose from. It's already been shown that information the NSA has snooped on "non terrorists" has been shared with the FBI & police.

You don't fight this stuff because you know you aren't a terrorist, you fight it because it will most certainly be used for other things down the road as it already has been..

Is it worth it to live without those freedoms? NO

Will the terrorist have won if we continue to have freedoms taken away? YES

No true American would have voted to increase this unconstitutional spying - PERIOD

americans will sell their assholes for the illusion of """""""""security""""""""" so that their government can """"""""defend"""""""" them :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

reality: 15 year old weed dealers do not use mobile phones or the net any more in my country because they got wise :1orglaugh

Im SURE alquaida is posting its plans on facebook :1orglaugh

carry on :thumbsup

lol they tracking all data, what else you have to say abotu it

i personally dont worry that the government will be hijacked by a nazi-like cult & subvert the public with their own personal data. theres no proof the government is arresting people first & using their data as evidence after the fact.

so far the government has been doing all this snooping & collecting, & no political groups have gone to jail. small time drug dealers seem to not worry about texting their product on their iphones, i seen this personally. underage drinkers are not being arrested for posting drunk pics on facebook.

we have this constitution that pretty much guarantees the state will never use the tools of fascism on the people. although numerous constitutional principles are ignored, some are bedrock, like free speech & guns. the cops do a great job keeping the peace, although some people beg to differ depending on their worldview.

my feeling is, im powerless over it, & im not gonna riot over it. im more worried about tomorrows NBA game 7.

:2 cents:

ok ok ok, sleep well....:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1 orglaugh:1orglaugh

for the rest: https://ssd.eff.org/

you two need to stop contradicting each other. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

The very fact that this spying is going on shows that the Constitution means nothing to them. :2 cents:


If they decide they want to do something,. they will do it and worry about figuring out a way to make it "legal".

This very vote shows EXACTLY that. The NSA just went ahead and did what they wanted to do. The Supreme court ruled they over reached their legal abilities. The House has now voted to make it legal and "extend" their abilities..


There is one thing which has always run true, when govts get power they do not give it back with out being forced. When they are given a hammer for a specific job it isn't long before they want to use that hammer on every job..

Look at Swat teams for a clear example of this abuse. They were always intended for the most violent raids, not ordinary warrant searches and so on. Now they are used indiscriminately because the cops have them and all their equipment, so why not use it? That's exactly what they do now, they use them for everything they can..

The spying has started out with the excuse of terrorism but we have already seen cases where the FBI & police have been tipped off by the NSA for crimes having nothing to do with terrorism. It wont be long before they decide it's ok to use it against "suspected" drug dealers, for saving the children, for catching you cheat on your taxes.. It doesn't end once they are give the power they just expand that power. Every govt has done this and it's up to the people to stop it.

WOW - apathy, passivity, and hopelessness have rarely been expressed in such an eloquent way. :warning

Have to say that you are buying right into the government's scheme of systematically tearing down the constitution which is the foundation on which this country was built.

The biggest threat to our country is not some boogeyman terrorist group hiding in the darkness but located right in Washington DC and in plain sight. It is called the US government.

the local kids work for somebody and this somebody told them not to use phones...they are 15 they can not be arrested for drug dealing ect...they have no guns, no phones, no weed no nothing LOL you give them money and they come back in 5 min :1orglaugh

i see, you get your drugs for cheap serb sex slaves from the local kids.

He was writing about a tax dispute between the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the family of the Penns, the proprietary family of the Pennsylvania colony who ruled it from afar. And the legislature was trying to tax the Penn family lands to pay for frontier defense during the French and Indian War. And the Penn family kept instructing the governor to veto. Franklin felt that this was a great affront to the ability of the legislature to govern. And so he actually meant purchase a little temporary safety very literally. The Penn family was trying to give a lump sum of money in exchange for the General Assembly's acknowledging that it did not have the authority to tax it.

Yes we have already covered this. Please read further before hitting the reply button and attempting to show us all how much you know.

so where is your logic going - that cops will arrest people for being democrats? & how are the voters going to stop it? form a militia? vote the bums out of office? theres really no solution to whats happening behind closed doors in DC.

bottom line - all this is pushed by the defense industry. they have unlimited money & clout with generals & intelligence committee chairs. a public mutiny will not stop them. all you or I or anyone else can do, is set up a VPN, buy an AR15, a case of beer & vote rand paul.

:)

We are in total and complete agreement on this.

Totally agree with this as well.

Obama claims otherwise. last i checked, he's still a democrat too.

"And as a consequence, we’ve saved lives," Obama claimed. "We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved. And the encroachment on privacy has been strictly limited by a court-approved process to relate to these particular categories."


Obama On NSA Spying: "We Have Struck The Appropriate Balance" Of Privacy And Security | RealClearPolitics

So far...every "plot" that the govt. has "thwarted" has been one that they started themselves with sting operations.

They put up fake profiles on social media. Then they start posting all kinds of pro-terrorist propaganda. And then when some mentally disturbed person answers them with interest...they come up with a "terrorist plot" and convince the idiot to try it.

Then they set up a sale of a fake "bomb" and then when the guy shows up to buy it...they arrest him and shout to the heavens about how they stopped a "terrorist plot".

Fucking ridiculous.

well the official purveyors of narcotics at the royal academy of arts and science were all out so I had to resort to procuring from the local kids, who do not carry phones, if that is ok with you :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

If I was in the USA I would contact my local cripp or blood but we have no gangs ect we are not a violent klingon lair like the USA :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I think we can all agree that in the case of the NSA and spying there are no democrats or republicans, but rather politicians whom are fucking us. I've complained about Obamas actions regarding the NSA many times here on GFY, but you guys choose to look with blinders on as if I green light anything a Democrat does.

I don't agree with everything Obama does, it's just you guys always bitch about right wing talking points you are told to bitch about so I always have to tell you how dumb the talking points are. :winkwink:

Voting them out of office does nothing, because the new guys have less input than the guy they replaced. New guys typically don't get on the special committees and so on, specially if it's known they intend to go aginst the grain.

Pressure on the people with the current power is the only way to do it.. If tens of thousands of people were protesting Bohners office, Reid's office and other high ranking members of the house and senate with a unified voice of end the spying they would be forced to comply.

Civil disobedience works wonders if it has a unified goal. Instead they just encourage people to join teams and pretend one team is diffrent than the other. While they are diffrent in many areas, the NSA and spying is one area they are equally fucking everyone.

There is zero reason to bicker about democrats or republicans on this piticular matter. It should be something everyone should care about and be trying to stop.

I think we can all agree that there is only one person who could have vetoed this bill.

This bill hasn't made it to that point yet.. But WTG on trying to make it a team issue..

I do hope that the President shows some spine and vetoes it.

During the 2008 campaign he spoke about how the govt. had instilled fear into us in order to create things like The Patriot Act.

But I think that now...the second that any politician talks about getting our freedom back, then suddenly a new "boogeyman" pops up and they all are too afraid themselves of being labeled "soft" on "terror" (whatever the fuck that means).

what sort of issue would you like it to be?

He's not going to. He wants it just as much as the rest of them. It will have a tougher time in the Senate, but it will likely pass there in one form or another. I know it will pass one way or the other, but I had hoped Congress would of tried to reel in some of the spying and not make it worse..

I can see this is to much of a big boy game for you to follow along. Perhaps you should play in one of the "Liberals hate our freedoms" topics which get posted daily.

Do you mean too much? Because big boys know how to spell.

Either way, I asked you what sort of issue this is to you and you failed to be able to answer, apparently working on a team is a problem for you.

I think the issue is pretty clear.. There is a spying on American citizens issue..

i think we can all agree that the bill won't be held up at all in the senate, so the last chance to get this stopped is a veto.