Obama Praises NSA But Promises To Rein It In 306
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Josh Gerstein writes on Politico that President Barack Obama told Chris Matthews in an interview recorded for MSNBC's 'Hardball' that he'll be reining in some of the snooping conducted by the NSA, but he did not detail what new limits he plans to impose on the embattled spy organization. 'I'll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA. And...to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence,' said the President who insisted that the NSA's work shows respect for the rights of Americans, while conceding that its activities are often more intrusive when it comes to foreigners communicating overseas. 'The NSA actually does a very good job about not engaging in domestic surveillance, not reading people's emails, not listening to the contents of their phone calls. Outside of our borders, the NSA's more aggressive. It's not constrained by laws.' During the program, Matthews raised the surveillance issue by noting a Washington Post report on NSA gathering of location data on billion of cell phones overseas. 'Young people, rightly, are sensitive to the needs to preserve their privacy and to retain internet freedom. And by the way, so am I,' responded the President. 'That's part of not just our First Amendment rights and expectations in this country, but it's particularly something that young people care about, because they spend so much time texting and-- you know, Instagramming.' With some at the NSA feeling hung out to dry by the president, Obama also went out of his way to praise the agency's personnel for their discretion. 'I want to everybody to be clear: the people at the NSA, generally, are looking out for the safety of the American people. They are not interested in reading your emails. They're not interested in reading your text messages. And that's not something that's done. And we've got a big system of checks and balances, including the courts and Congress, who have the capacity to prevent that from happening.'"
Check sand ball ants is (Score:2, Informative)
And we've got a big system of checks and balances, including the courts and Congress, who have the capacity to prevent that from happening.'"
Because that's working wonderfully, isn't it?
Re: Not interested in reading your text messages r (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget the NSA likes to keep data around for a long time. So if in a few years, a friend of a friend joins an organization that has a similar name to a suspected terrorist organization, the NSA can go back and look at what you were saying now to try to incriminate you.
Translation (Score:5, Informative)
"1. The things that the NSA does are proper and justified.
2. We will strive to reduce the improper and unjustified things* the NSA does."
*Nothing
Re:Self-restraint (Score:5, Informative)
"I promise to fight hard against all those programs which I helped create!", says politician. Film at eleven.
Re:Not restrained by law? (Score:5, Informative)
True, although that's not the default. Extradition, mostly for computer crimes, is based on the somewhat dumb theory that if something happens to an American computer, the perpetrator was "in" the USA for legal purposes, even if he or she has never actually visited the USA and has nothing to do with the country. There is also a small category of explicitly extraterritorial laws; for example, it's illegal, under U.S. law [wikipedia.org], for an American to travel to another country for the purpose of underage sex, as defined in the U.S. statute. Most laws aren't extraterritorial, though. If you murder someone in Germany, you won't be prosecuted under American homicide law, but German law. And if you smoke pot in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, you aren't violating U.S. drug laws.
Re:Next time.. (Score:4, Informative)
Telling someone to google it does not count. You need specific primary source examples. You should read up on logical fallacies, or perhaps just think a little bit about how what you're saying could be wrong. Because it is really easy to see you are wrong.
Common Trolling Tactics (Score:3, Informative)
Asking for evidence ad infinitum is also a common trolling tactic
...and making statements with no evidence, but claiming that the evidence is there for anyone who cares to find it, isn't a common trolling tactic?
You made a statement of fact, presumably because that fact is something you care for people to believe. So take a moment of your time to provide a link or two. Even if you're being "trolled" there will certainly be some non-trolls reading the comments as well who will learn from the link you provide.
Thanks, dude (Score:5, Informative)
Could you please send a note to the company in question, specifically telling them why you cancelled your service?
If this happens enough times, eventually US companies will start to poke the government about it.
no, please no (Score:2, Informative)
Ron Paul's not going to fix this shit without breaking a bunch of ridiculous shit. If he wasn't so fucking crazy aside from a couple policies he might be worth considering.
He's like a broken VCR: he's still right twice a day, but nevermind the rest of the time.