House votes to continue NSA spying on citizens

[a completely inoffensive name]

The amendment didn’t stop the NSA collecting any data, they just had to show cause before it could be asked for and targeted individuals.

So it was not exactly crippling the war on terror.

Those voting against or skipping the vote don’t give a damn about the laws or rights of individuals.

It just means they fell in line this time. As I said FIsherking ,these type of laws don't usually pass on the first try. There has been no big push from the public towards this bill, and yet it still almost passed. If a coalition can be made fast and lobby hard, it can be done. Calling the nays a bunch of names and calling it a dead bill/amendment only serves to hurt us.

[Fisherking]

I provided a link to the vote for a reason. You can at least see how your rep voted. Pressuring them to change their minds, or just reinforce their positions is your right.

I have seen some people spin this as a party issue blaming Republicans.

Obama wanted it to fail and said so. You can see that the party leadership of both parties was on the side to defeat the amendment. People making it partisan just are not looking.

The Parties are not your friends, no matter which side you have chosen.

[Fisherking]

Mine, a Democrat voted No, just like the Administration and the party asked him to.

Gutless Weasel! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Kilmer

At least he’s not a lawyer.

[a completely inoffensive name]

My hometown's (where I am still registered) representative voted Nay.

But I am not surprised, my hometown literally rests under the shadow of Reagan's body. It's a Republican Mecca and it doesn't matter how corrupt or incapable the Republican candidate is, he wins.

[Fisherking]

It won’t come up again either. Not unless it is a full bill.

The Defense bill passed shortly after the vote on the amendment failed.

This was not a party issue, it was a party line issue, and the party line won over the people. Both parties opposed the amendment and I think anyone who stood up to them should be thanked.

[Lemur]

You can at least see how your rep voted. Pressuring them to change their minds, or just reinforce their positions is your right.

My rep (Paul Ryan, R) voted against it, no surprise there. I've contacted him many times, I suppose I will again. Not like he listens, however. His district (and mine) is safely gerrymandered, and he's something of an authoritarian.

Congress, eh? Whatcha gonna do?

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls finds that in addition to setting new milestones for futility, Congress is also more hated than it's ever been. A full 83 percent of respondents say they disapprove of the job Congress is doing, the highest number for that question since the poll began tracking the number.

[Xiahou]

Congress, eh? Whatcha gonna do?

Repeal the 17th Amendment and prohibit listing a candidate's party identification on the ballot. That's where I'd start.

[Fisherking]

So, on the day the vote failed, we get a report of this:

Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57...unt-passwords/

[Husar]

Passwords? That seems a bit redundant considering they wanted the SSL Master Keys so they can decrypt all communication to and from websites.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355146

Of course passwords might be more useful in case they already have a suspect.

It's also funny because our minister of the interior said early on that we should just encrypt our communication if we don't like it. Now it turns out the NSA was whining about people encrypting their communication for a while because then they can't access it but they really should.

[Fisherking]

Encrypted communications are a priority for the NSA, in the US or elsewhere. They made a claim a few weeks back that there was only one instance when they could not decrypt them, and they were whining about that one, but I suspect that was misinformation, and it was broken too.

The have keys for most of that software too.