Tag Archives: FISA

A Detached President Could Be Just What the NSA Needs

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President Obama was described as "impatient" and "disengaged" during briefings on last year's Syria crisis. That sense of detachment lead him to a constructive resolution of the NSA snooping controversy. [Credit: Pumas Unleashed]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma was described as “impa­tient” and “dis­en­gaged” dur­ing brief­in­gs on last year’s Syr­ia cri­sis. That sense of detach­ment could lead him to a con­struc­tive res­o­lu­tion of the NSA snoop­ing con­tro­ver­sy. [Cred­it: Pumas Unleashed]

Even as the debate about arm­ing the [Syr­i­an] rebels took on a new urgency, Mr. Oba­ma rarely voiced strong opin­ions dur­ing senior staff meet­ings. But cur­rent and for­mer offi­cials said his body lan­guage was telling: he often appeared impa­tient or dis­en­gaged while lis­ten­ing to the debate, some­times scrolling through mes­sages on his Black­Ber­ry or slouch­ing and chew­ing gum.

New York Times, Octo­ber 22, 2013

A Pres­i­dent has enor­mous demands on his time and atten­tion. He can’t focus on every­thing. He must choose. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, if the New York Times account is to be believed, chose to be “impa­tient” and “dis­en­gaged” as his advis­ers last year pre­sent­ed him with options on Syr­ia, per­haps explain­ing why he fol­lowed what the Times termed “an uncer­tain path amid Syr­i­an bloodshed.”

The dis­en­gage­ment from mat­ters of nation­al secu­ri­ty that served him so poor­ly through­out the Syr­i­an affair might unique­ly suit him to resolve the con­tro­ver­sy over whether the gov­ern­ment should con­tin­ue to gath­er large vol­umes of data about US cit­i­zens. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The NSA And Government’s Gradual And Silent Encroachments

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Federal District Court Judge Richard J. Leon on Monday ruled that NSA monitoring of cellphone traffic is unconstitutional. [Credit: Minority Report Blog]

Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Richard J. Leon on Mon­day ruled that NSA mon­i­tor­ing of cell­phone traf­fic is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. [Cred­it: Minor­i­ty Report Blog]

On March 5, 1976, Patri­cia McDo­nough was robbed.  She report­ed the crime to the Bal­ti­more police. Soon after, McDo­nough began receiv­ing threat­en­ing and obscene phone calls from a man pur­port­ing to be the rob­ber.  At one point, the caller asked her to step onto her porch.  Short­ly after she did, she saw a 1975 Monte Car­lo dri­ving slow­ly past her home.  She recalled see­ing that same car near the crime scene. She report­ed the tag num­ber to the police, enabling them to iden­ti­fy the own­er as Michael Lee Smith.

The police asked the tele­phone com­pa­ny to install a pen reg­is­ter — an elec­tron­ic device that records all num­bers called from a par­tic­u­lar tele­phone line – to mon­i­tor Smith’s home phone.  The device helped police deter­mine that Smith had placed the offen­sive calls to McDo­nough, lead­ing to his arrest and con­vic­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Moral Hazard of Government

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Sting wrote the stalker's anthem, "Every Breath You Take," a song that takes on new meaning in light of newest NSA revelations. [Credit: Davids Zondy]

Sting wrote the stalk­er’s anthem, “Every Breath You Take,” a song that takes on new mean­ing in light of newest NSA rev­e­la­tions. [Cred­it: Davids Zondy]

The intel­li­gence community’s gild­ed rep­u­ta­tion, already tar­nished by months of unau­tho­rized dis­clo­sures, was dragged into the realm of the creepy last Fri­day when an NSA offi­cial told a reporter about an agency employ­ee who had tapped secret gov­ern­ment data to spy on his ex-wife. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

NSA Surveillance: Insulting Our Intelligence?

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Michael Corleone warned his brother-in-law not to insult his intelligence. Does the government insult ours when it defends its snooping activities? [Credit: Rotten Tomatoes]

Michael Cor­leone warned his broth­er-in-law not to insult his intel­li­gence. Does the gov­ern­ment insult ours when it defends its snoop­ing activ­i­ties? [Cred­it: Rot­ten Tomatoes]

“Improp­er pay­ments” by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment totaled an esti­mat­ed $115.3 bil­lion in 2011, accord­ing to a report pre­pared by the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get (OMB), but the government’s own watch­dog agency doesn’t believe those esti­mates.  The Gov­ern­ment Account­abil­i­ty Office (GAO), which exam­ined the OMB analy­sis, thinks the num­ber of mis­spent fed­er­al dol­lars is much high­er. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Presidents, Reality TV and Technical Truth-Telling

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People say the darndest things when "Cheaters" host Joey Greco catches them in compromising positions. Presidents, too, sometimes find themselves on the defensive. When they do, we should think carefully about what they're saying.

Peo­ple say the darn­d­est things when “Cheaters” host Joey Gre­co catch­es them in com­pro­mis­ing posi­tions. Pres­i­dents, too, some­times find them­selves on the defen­sive. When they do, we should think care­ful­ly about what they’re saying.

Admit it. You enjoyed the eight-year real­i­ty show that was the Clin­ton White House as much as I did. Before there was “Cheaters,” there was the Pres­i­dent lyin’ and denyin.’ Before there was a “Real House­wives” fran­chise, there were rumors of the First Lady throw­ing a lamp (or was it a Bible?) at her hus­band (or was it a Secret Ser­vice agent)?  Before we were Keep­ing Up with the Kar­dashi­ans, we were delight­ing to gos­sip about the First Fam­i­ly of Dys­func­tion. The sto­ries didn’t have to be true, only believ­able. And they almost always were.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →