Both the House and Senate seemed ready to act quick on major NSA reform bills, with 130 and 20 co-sponsors, respectively, but the pair have both been stalled in their judiciary committees, with no sign of a vote coming soon.
It wasn’t a big surprise in the House, where Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R – VA) argued for waiting for the Obama Administration to take a “formal position” before voting.
The big blow is in the Senate, where chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – VT) was the author of the legislation and has loudly pushed the reforms for months. Yet he too is suddenly in the “wait and see” camp, apparently content to give the Obama Administration the benefit of the doubt on reforms that will likely never come.
Though public sentiment remains overwhelmingly in favor of reform, the Congressional leadership seems unwilling to bring the matter up to a vote, and some are saying the 2015 expiration of the Patriot Act provisions the administration argues authorize the surveillance may be the first chance any of this gets heard on the floor of Congress.
Cowards all…
Corrupt cowards…
Everyone should write or call Goodlatte, Leahy and their members of Congress, and tell them to implement NSA and STRATCOM reforms immediately. Feinstein, King and Rogers should be recalled and fired by the people of their states.
If we have to wait for Congress to act, we'll all die in Guantanamo. But when the corporate mafia wants to rip off the taxpayers at the tune of several billion or trillion, then those senile jerks suddenly revive and could get that crap passed quicker.
Obama Inc. has not been circumspect about their position. They want surveillance to continue and expand. So the charade of opposition has been about maneuvering for the 2014 elections without having to actually do anything until 2015. And by then they will have some new reason – likely a false flag – to re-authorize the anti-constitutional "Patriot" act.
Vote (write in) "none of the above" in 2014.
If you waste your vote like that, you get more of the same in 2015. Instead, SUPPORT an independent candidate. Get off your computer chair and work for an independent candidate. Support and vote for someone who's on our side. If you just waste your vote by saying 'none of the above', then the same corrupt fools win and keep on ruling you.
I've been voting libertarian or independent since 1976, and supported such candidates with time and money, but the same corrupt fools keep winning and ruling anyway.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results" Einstein
Time for something different.
There are no "independent" candidates – at least none who are viable at the national level. They are all dependent upon the money. Without BIG money, they remain a local faction and the dreams of national success are really just fiction. This is part of why the Citizen's United ruling was made as it was. The money backers understood that unless they could infuse large sums of money into the race, the chance of an un-owned candidate might possibly sneak thru and win. Can't let that happen. And so now, when someone who even thinks they might succeed without the "bankers" comes along they are snuffed out before they cause too much trouble.
In order for the system to be reset and straightened out to make it a level playing field where individual votes actually count there is going to have to be a major event that forces the country to think about where we need to go as a country. For years, one side or the other has claimed, without proof, that they were the voice of the majority of Americans. I believe that we haven't yet heard the "voice" of the Americans who have been sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting (I hope)… One thing is clear, things cannot continue the way they are going now.
Typical Leahy. Wouldn't trust that man to tell me if the sun rises in the east in the mornings. Remember last year he had a law that was going to let any government agency read your email just because 'law enforcement' had asked him for it. When this caused an uproar, suddenly Leahy changed positions again and opposed it.