Mary Katharine Ham
Hot Air
7/24/2013
A strange bedfellows moment on the floor of the House Wednesday, as a coalition of libertarian Republicans and liberal Democrats joined up in an attempt to restrict the NSA’s domestic spying powers. The amendment was vocally opposed by leadership of both parties, even earning a White House statement against it on the eve of the vote…
…Speaking against the bill on the floor, Reps. Michelle Bachmann and hawkish freshman and Iraq vet Rep. Tom Cotton, among others. The roll call is here, if you’d like to see how your Congressman voted. The totals: 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats in favor, and 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats against.
I’m on the Amash side of this issue. Evidence that the NSA’s domestic spying has actually prevented terrorist attacks has been rather sparse and unconvincing, and while I respect that we occasionally have to make some sacrifices to protect ourselves, coughing up the metadata for every phone call we make doesn’t seem like the right balance to me…
Read the entire article at Hot Air.
Related: Congressman Amash wrote:
It was an honor to lead the way on this extraordinary debate. Seeing so many colleagues from both sides of the aisle come together in defense of liberty and the Constitution was amazing. We will not rest until the Fourth Amendment is restored.
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Bachmann: NSA scandal a “false narrative”, Glenn reacts
…While listening to the audio, Glenn wrote ”Michele Bachmann is not dead to me. But she is in very ill health.” on the radio studio’s chalkboard.
“She’s not dead to me, but she is in ill health. She has to ‑ this has got to stop. I have no problem – I would say on this whole speech if she would take away the false narrative. And that no one is storing (information),” Glenn said.
“She could say: Look, they are storing, and I’m concerned about it. Nobody’s reading your stuff, but they are storing. They are keeping record. They are keeping record on every single American,” Glenn said.
“What do you think the Utah data storage center is for, Michele? Please don’t treat me like a moron. What are they storing in there? They are not storing eggs and meat and they don’t have, like, a little veggie tray in there. They are storing our records, our information. They have more information, and this universal healthcare is going to make the NSA look like a rookie. They are storing information on every single American. All of our ‑‑ all of our movements, all of our e‑mails, and all of our purchases, all being stored. We know that.”
And there’s more at The Blaze.
NSA vote splits parties, jars leaders
A $512.5 billion Pentagon appropriations bill cleared the House Wednesday evening after the leadership narrowly beat back efforts to curb the National Security Agency’s authority to collect private call records and metadata on telephone customers in the U.S.
The pivotal 217-205 vote was the first real test of political sentiment since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents that revealed the secret program…
