Public Concern Over NSA Spying Increasing Rapidly As Congress Discovers Their Constituents Care About This Issue
from the wake-up-congress dept
Ever since the Snowden leaks broke, we've been hearing from a variety of people about how the whole thing was likely to "blow over," that most Americans really aren't that concerned about the feds snooping through their stuff, and that everything would go back to normal before long. We've been suggesting that this was an unlikely storyline, but it's allowed some in Congress to more or less ignore the growing controversy. Of course, it appears they're starting to realize this was a mistake. A new poll that was conducted before the latest revelations (which are, by far, the worst revelations yet) show quite a lot of concern from the public:A July Washington Post-ABC News poll — before the latest disclosures reported by The Post — found fully 70 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Republicans said the NSA’s phone and Internet surveillance program intrudes on some Americans’ privacy rights. What’s more, Democrats and Republicans who did see intrusions were about equally likely to say they were “not justified:” 51 and 52 percent respectively. Nearly six in 10 political independents who saw intrusions said they are unjustified.And, while some politicians seemed to believe that it was only the most extreme folks who were interested in this -- or, as Michael Hayden claimed "twentysomethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years" -- it seems that Representatives from Congress, who are back in their home districts, are discovering that, why yes, massive NSA surveillance does seem to be a major issue their constituents care about. A variety of Representatives have been surprised at various townhalls to discover that many people wanted to discuss the surveillance and what (if anything) their elected officials were going to do about it all.
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Filed Under: concerns, congress, nsa, nsa surveillance, politics, privacy
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Oh, always some SLIGHT chance limited hangout will get out of control...
"everything would go back to normal before long." -- Naw, ain't me after all: I don't hold that being spied on by either gov't or corporations is normal, grates on me continually, besides that I'm still predicting the "leak" means a new stage of tyranny is soon to be put in place.
So, 6 in 10 of independents is the most that say this massive spying, these crimes openly committed by out of control gov't that will increasingly stifle their lives are unjustified? -- Then, we is doomed.
Why ya hafta end the week on a downer, Mike?
And where are the minions?
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Oh, look: NSA establishes $60 million data analytics lab at NC State
"A $60.75 million grant from the NSA is the largest research grant in NCSU�s history � three times bigger than any previous award."
Oh, yeah, NSA is REAL scared, cutting back, keeping a low profile for a while...
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This is only the tip of what has been exposed that the public knows about now. It's not what they are going to know about in two or three months.
That the public is already concerned just about what is now known speaks gobs of what they will be feeling about this when the rest of it comes out.
This is a full blown scandal, going to the very top of government; the president himself. He has in pretty much every way defended it, helped put roadblocks up to prevent it being known in court, and stonewalled or directed the DOJ to stonewall all attempts at finding out.
The BS over Obama welcoming debate... notice there has been no debate and that was the purpose of saying so. It was a way to dodge the question without ever having to actually address what the NSA is doing with the public.
Now it's a whole lot too late to be fessing up. The time to do that has passed. What the public now knows is no one in the know is going to tell the truth. That means it has to be done by a congressional investigation to get to the real truth.
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So you are left with trying to 'think up' other things they "might' be doing to keep you precious story alive.
That does not help your case at all, it makes you look desperate, (sure most don't think what they are doing is that bad, ) so lets try to think of things they MIGHT be doing to make it look worse !!
Then just fall back in the typical Government hate speech..
Sure, the NSA must be doing things that are bad, after all you hate the Government, there's your proof.
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This is a bi-partisan problem and only voting the bums out in the next election is going to do anything to change it. Are you really asking the foxes to investigate the loss of chickens from the coop?
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There's Elections Acomin'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2014#Cali fornia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2016
Hmmm, that 2016 is also a presidential election year. Obama can't run, but he has been talkin' to Putin...
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Let's celebrate the fact that the moronic u.s. electorate have found a new way of being divided roughly equally.
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Congratulations to Americans for ushering in a new era of bipartisan division.
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Im intested but...
I hope to hell the continued attention can help you restore the balance if only so China wont be able to say 'come on you guys do it too'.
Ironic that Obama used that excuse when it come to US spying on allies but you know, they're/we're still foreigners, so it's ok...
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They stole my country with their pork. I want it back. I want the Republicans to pay back the money that they stole with their bul**** wars and other emergencies that weren't real.
The Republicans created the national debt. They lied about Iraq. They lie about our personal privacy. This government lies. All of them. You can't trust any words they speak at all.
Granny told me "Stay away from Police, Politicians and Lawyers. They are trained to lie for a living."
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SO much outrage !!!! LOL
Masnick face it you missed to boat. NO one cares anymore, except those trying to get page hits from it.
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No one cares any more... and yet writing about it is trying to get page hits?
Do you realize how contradictory the first half of that sentence is with the second half?
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Argh, you beat me to it..
Also, that poll is only of American voters.. I'm not in the states but this topic directly affects me - I can't believe the number of people who care in the states is so low and I'd also love to see a poll of people from all over the world.
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And Obama is lying about it..
He's a politician, no matter the color of his skin, and politicians lie. I simply disdain it more since when he was a congressman, he was shouting about transparency and then running his Presidential campaign he was saying how his administration was going to be the most transparent ever.
And sadly... most of us fell for it. And he's just another lying politician. Or worse, he THINKS he's telling the truth... in which case he completely incompetent.
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