Why No Executive Order To Stop NSA Metadata Collection? 312
An anonymous reader links to this editorial at Ars Technica which argues that "As chief executive, Obama has the power to reform the NSA on his own with the stroke of a pen. By not putting this initiative into an executive order, he punted to Congress on an issue that affects the civil liberties of most anybody who picks up a phone. Every day Congress waits on the issue is another day Americans' calling records are being collected by the government without suspicion that any crime was committed. 'He does not need congressional approval for this,' said Mark Jaycoxx, an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney."
Re:reversed "with the stroke of a pen" (Score:2, Interesting)
if reforming the NSA is so obvious, why do Republicans in Congress oppose it?
Gee.. I wonder if the (R)'s don't have a hard-on to bring on the police-state as much as the democrats? I *used* to be a Republican, after about 1/2 way thru BushJr's second term, I got fed up with the shitting that BOTH parties are doing on the Constitution and dumped the R's.. I held my nose in 2008 and voted for McCain and gleefully voted for Romney in 2012... BUT the vast majority of Republicans nowadays are simply "Democrat-Lite".. They want to shit on the Constitution as much as the D's do... I'm beginning to wonder even about the new R's that came in back in the landslide of 2010, some of them seem to be eying the Constitution as toilet paper also.... Woe unto us...
Re:Re (Score:5, Interesting)
He seems to have worked on the assumption that it was better to have no failures for which he could be blamed, rather than aiming for successes for which he could get credit.
In some people's minds, lack of failure is a surer measure of success, than attempting success (and possibly failing, thereby).
Re:Is it not obvious? They have dirt on him! (Score:2, Interesting)
Not psychotic, sociopathic, a significant portion of politicians (and CEOs for that matter) are sociopaths.
Re:Is it not obvious? They have dirt on him! (Score:1, Interesting)
Being from Chicago I've been suspicious of him since he was elected Senator. He literally came out of nowhere and his "victory" speech on the TV when the news showed the party at his headquarters showed a man who was quite different and far less polished than the man who was elected president. Someone groomed him for this.
Re:Is it not obvious? They have dirt on him! (Score:4, Interesting)
The part I agree with is that I personally am not concerned whatsoever with the metadata. At all. And the only reason you see most of the media coverage is because folks don't understand what metadata is. If you polled the public right now you would largely find them believing the government is secretly recording and archiving all of our actual phone calls. They aren't.
Sorry, but metadata is all that is needed to invade privacy [techdirt.com], and they're collecting it on everyone. It's not okay, okay?