{"id":10840,"date":"2013-08-11T00:57:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T07:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10840"},"modified":"2013-08-11T00:57:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T07:57:46","slug":"dump-clapper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/11\/dump-clapper\/","title":{"rendered":"Dump Clapper"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have not become very involved in writing about the surveillance issue, because I am not comfortable taking stands on issues I know very little about, and the problem is that there is so little transparency that the people who want to know more, can\u2019t.  I do have some thoughts on the matter, and what I think will be a good starting point.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"11.Clapper\"With the conviction of Bradley Manning and asylum granted to Edward Snowden in Russia, it may be time to turn attention away from the controversy over their actions and toward the government\u2014specifically, the intelligence community. Whatever ultimate judgment is leveled on Manning\u2019s or Snowden\u2019s actions, they have raised real questions about the ways that the United States gathers, uses and classifies information.<\/p>\n

The first order of business is to restore a semblance of democratic order within the government itself. Somehow amid the hunt for Snowden and the trial of Manning, the misconduct of James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has seemingly been excused. But if the actions of Manning and Snowden required prosecution, then what Clapper did deserves investigation and censure at the very least.<\/p>\n

Testifying on surveillance by the National Security Agency last March, Clapper appeared at a Senate committee hearing where Senator Ron Wyden asked: \u201cDoes the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, sir,\u201d Clapper replied. The he added:\u201cNot wittingly.\u201d<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Truthdig<\/a>><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow covered the surveillance in her opening segment.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

I agree with Obama concerning the Olympics, but I support moving them out of Russia.   I agree with him on health care and immigration reform, except that both need to go further.<\/font><\/p>\n

I agree with him that the unPATRIOT Act needs to be changed. I agree that the FISA court needs to be reformed. However, Congress must make those reforms, and this Republican House may not do so.<\/font><\/p>\n

On drones, I respect that he will not answer questions about why certain terrorists were targeted.  Whatever they were doing that gave them away, it\u2019s best that Al Qaeda not be told what is was, so they can stop doing it.<\/font><\/p>\n

I understand that, if Obama does not use the national security tools the law has given him, a national security failure would result in Republicans taking power, and they would convert the US into a totalitarian Regime like North Carolina, aka McCrorystan.  Therefore. we must change the law.<\/font><\/p>\n

I do want more evidence that these powers are not being abused.  Although I tend to think that Obama is not knowingly abusing them.  Some of his appointees and\/or nonpartisan career employees may be, and I have no doubt that a Republican President would.  Clapper did abuse them.   He intentionally lied to the Senate of the United States, when asked for transparency. He and any other federal official found to be abusing the law should be immediately terminated, and the abuse investigated.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have not become very involved in writing about the surveillance issue, because I am not comfortable taking stands on issues I know very little about, and the problem is that there is so little transparency that the people who want to know more, can\u2019t.  I do have some thoughts on the matter, and what […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}