NSA Surveillance and the USA Freedom Act
Last night, the Senate agreed to extend debate till Tuesday on the USA Freedom Act already passed by the House.
Rand Paul doesn't believe the House passed bill goes far enough and opposed it, angering a majority of the GOP Senate who walked out when he got up to speak. It was quite the thing to watch!
I am not a huge fan of Rand Paul but felt his opposition to the bill was sincere. However, his speech on the floor of the Senate last night, seemed to be more about grandstanding and gaining possible, future presidential votes by his constituents than anything else. No doubt he he'll zap out links to his speech via social media to get his message out.
That being said, I stand with Paul on this particular issue. I do not believe the NSA or ANY government agency should have that much power and access to private citizens phone records, without first proving a real national security threat and thus acquiring a court ordered warrant. It violates our freedom and privacy. Plus there are those in public office who might use that access for less than altruistic purposes. We have seen this with the IRS and it could happen with the NSA records.
For anyone interested or who wants to become more informed on the subject, watch the debate on CSPAN online and/or the documentary CitizenFour about Eric Snowden. He was the guy who blew the whistle on the NSA's mass collection of records on Americans. I watched the documentary awhile back and was blown away. This is one gutsy guy who knew, by exposing what was happening in the NSA, would put his life in danger, but did it anyway. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it's a very informative documentary and well worth watching.
Here's a link to the NYT's review of the documentary. I think it's pretty much spot on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/movies/citizenfour-a-documentary-about-edward-j-snowden.html?_r=0
Rand Paul doesn't believe the House passed bill goes far enough and opposed it, angering a majority of the GOP Senate who walked out when he got up to speak. It was quite the thing to watch!
I am not a huge fan of Rand Paul but felt his opposition to the bill was sincere. However, his speech on the floor of the Senate last night, seemed to be more about grandstanding and gaining possible, future presidential votes by his constituents than anything else. No doubt he he'll zap out links to his speech via social media to get his message out.
That being said, I stand with Paul on this particular issue. I do not believe the NSA or ANY government agency should have that much power and access to private citizens phone records, without first proving a real national security threat and thus acquiring a court ordered warrant. It violates our freedom and privacy. Plus there are those in public office who might use that access for less than altruistic purposes. We have seen this with the IRS and it could happen with the NSA records.
For anyone interested or who wants to become more informed on the subject, watch the debate on CSPAN online and/or the documentary CitizenFour about Eric Snowden. He was the guy who blew the whistle on the NSA's mass collection of records on Americans. I watched the documentary awhile back and was blown away. This is one gutsy guy who knew, by exposing what was happening in the NSA, would put his life in danger, but did it anyway. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it's a very informative documentary and well worth watching.
Here's a link to the NYT's review of the documentary. I think it's pretty much spot on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/movies/citizenfour-a-documentary-about-edward-j-snowden.html?_r=0
posted by Candle in the Wind at
9:07 AM
2 Comments:
Great post. Citizen Four is really worth watching. Once seen, you might like to download TOR - so that you don't leave a footprint when you visit websites. To get it, go to: www.torproject.org. It's free!
Thanks Judy! Definitely going to look into the website.
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