Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

Public Concern Over NSA Spying Increasing Rapidly As Congress Discovers Their Constituents Care About This Issue

from the wake-up-congress dept

Fri, Aug 16th 2013 4:31pm — Mike Masnick

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

19 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 4:55pm

Of course Unconstitutional totalitarian spying on law-abiding citizens is a threat to the democracy of this country. Only a moron would believe otherwise.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 5:06pm

Re:
maybe we should re-elect some people in congress then...
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out_of_the_blue, 16 Aug 2013 @ 5:47pm

Oh, always some SLIGHT chance limited hangout will get out of control...
'the whole thing was likely to "blow over,"' -- Oh, he's talking about ME!

"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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out_of_the_blue, 16 Aug 2013 @ 5:58pm

Oh, look: NSA establishes $60 million data analytics lab at NC State
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/15/3109412/nc-state-teams-up-with-nsa-on.html

"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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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 6:19pm

Here's the thing. WE HAVEN'T HEARD EVERYTHING THEY ARE DOING IN THE LINE OF SPYING.

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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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 6:46pm

There's Elections Acomin'
I guess this will really be a test of how awake the 'sheeple' are. In the meantime, check your's:

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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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 6:54pm

Wow cool roughly half of dems and reps think snooping unjustified and roughly half think its justified.
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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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2013 @ 6:58pm

Re:
Or to put it another way,
Congratulations to Americans for ushering in a new era of bipartisan division.
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Allen (profile), 16 Aug 2013 @ 10:13pm

Im intested but...
As a non US citizen living outside the USA it makes no difference to me. Let's face it for all the high ideals the US aspires to, the protections you thought you had never applied to foreigners like me. We've always been legitimate targets.

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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AmericanSon, 17 Aug 2013 @ 6:55am

I thought living on less than $300.00/wk from workers comp and unemployment was bad. I did not know that the state of New York was monitoring me when I claimed my weekly unemployment benefits using a virtual private network app (vpn) from a public wifi hotspot. They immediately terminated my benefits because my i.p. address showed me being in another country even though I have never left the lower 48 in my entire life. It's been two months now without income and I am now homeless, carless, and hungry. My child support is in default and I cannot afford my three b.p. meds.
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Shon Gale, 17 Aug 2013 @ 7:19am

Really! What part of Congress gives a damn about anything? They only care about their individual personal corner of the hell they've created.
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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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2013 @ 9:49pm

51% and 52% !!! 'almost 6 out of 10'.. WOW !!!!!!!!!

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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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2013 @ 9:56pm

Re:
So people now don't care or think what they are doing is actually 'that' bad, or without good reason.

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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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2013 @ 9:59pm

Re: Re:
yes, use that Democracy you don't think you have !!!
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Mike Masnick (profile), 19 Aug 2013 @ 1:22am

Re:
NO one cares anymore, except those trying to get page hits from it.

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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martyburns (profile), 19 Aug 2013 @ 1:44am

Re: Re:
Do you realize how contradictory the first half of that sentence is with the second half?

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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Jasmine Charter, 19 Aug 2013 @ 5:56am

And Obama is lying about it..
And Obama is out there, on TV lying about it. And I don't say that because he's black and I believe black people lie... so no racist backlash. That's the argument of a small minded person.

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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Pragmatic, 19 Aug 2013 @ 6:10am

Re:
Congressional investigation? Okay, I'll bite. Which members of Congress are qualified to and capable of leading this investigation, considering how many of them voted for it and how many of them still support it?

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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Ninja (profile), 19 Aug 2013 @ 7:56am

Re: Re: Re:
I'd say the percentage of those who care is awesomely high considering it's the American public. You see, less than half of them care enough to even vote...
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