The NSA Is Dianne Feinstein's And Mike Rogers' Abusive, Cheating Spouse
from the you'd-think-the-head-of-an-intelligence-committee-would-know-how-to-quit-som dept
The leak-and-response cycle of the past couple months has been highly entertaining and the pattern is nearly always the same.- Leak reveals evidence of NSA overreach or wrongdoing.
- NSA issues statement explaining how leak is being misinterpreted or is an aberration.
- NSA attends hearings and issues statements declaring it doesn't abuse its power. (Frequently qualified with "not under this program.")
- New leak reveals evidence of NSA overreach or wrongdoing, proving NSA's most recent statements were pretty much "incomplete lies" or "least untruthful" answers.
- Repeat.
The most remarkable aspect of this cycle is the unwavering support Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein continue to provide the agency. No matter how damaging the leak or how egregious the lies, Rogers and Feinstein stand by their beloved NSA like severely co-dependent spouses, firmly believing against all available evidence that the most recently disclosed act of malfeasance will be the NSA's last.
If it weren't so sad, it would be almost comical. (Granted, it is a little comical, in part because it's so sad.)
It all began back with the first leak -- the order demanding Verizon cough up metadata on millions of customers. The response from Dianne Feinstein?
"I knew -- hell, EVERYONE knew -- about the NSA's shady past when I hooked up with it. Why's everyone so outraged?"A few days later, Feinstein (and others) attempted to justify PRISM's collection efforts by claiming it had prevented the NYC subway bombing, when actual, non-defensively-deployed evidence suggested otherwise.
"Look, the NSA has had an 'interesting' life, but it's also theoretically done good things."It all came to a head a little over a week ago. Feinstein, standing by her
Even this failed to diminish Feinstein's devotion. Her response?
"Sure, the agency cheated, but it was, like, once a year."
NSA: "Um, don't be mad, but it was slightly more than that. But these thousands of violations meant nothing to us, baby! You gotta believe that!"Actually, it was way more than "slightly more," and even Feinstein seems to be a bit nonplussed (or at least quieter), glaring as the agency explained further:
"Cheating over 2,000 times may LOOK bad, but you're not taking into account those millions of times we didn't! Perspective. That's the key."Mike Rogers' relationship with the agency seems just as needy, but his reactions are uglier. Rogers doesn't rely on swiftly debunked denials. Instead, Rogers believes the real problem is everyone else -- all these jealous haters who have it in for the agency.
At first, it was just other pesky Congress members looking for details on the NSA. None of their business. This isn't their battle. Rogers is the one in the relationship and if there's anyone who should be worried, it's Rogers. And he's not worried.
But we're worried, Mike, they'd say. Let us in. Let us know what's going on. No deal. Then, finally, something emerges.
"Leave it alone! It needs its freedom! If it doesn't have that, then it can't be the agency it wants to. You hurt not just me and the agency, but all of us when you question its actions. Stop driving us apart!"But we don't think it should be acting this way, they say. This isn't how a helpful agency acts. This is how an abusive agency acts.
"Shut up. You're all jealous. Just a bunch of social media know-nothings and internet freaks. You have no idea how complex the situation really is."And as the evidence of wrongdoing continues to pile up, Rogers not only covers his own ears and shouts nonsensical syllables over the concerned crowd, but covers the ears of the crowd as well.
The deep-seated denial continues despite thousands of violations being uncovered. Rogers may be hurt but he's not willing to kick his faithless agency to the curb. He's almost vanished completely, off composing justifications that restore the agency's trustworthiness.
If nothing else, he rationalizes, the agency has just maybe prevented a bad thing or two from happening. Surely that's enough to excuse its egregious abuse of the nation's trust? Besides, it's not as if you can trust the opinion of shut-ins and Facebook users. They don't know what it's like out there in the real world, where everything is a big gray area.
Relationships are never simple, especially for those on the inside. Feinstein and Rogers have both had their trust abused greatly by an agency they seem to worship, and that can't feel good. Unfortunately, they seem unable (or unwilling) to make a clean break, which makes one wonder exactly what it would take to separate them from the NSA, and how unfortunate that revelation would be for the citizens they're supposed to be representing.
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Filed Under: co-dependency, dianne feinstein, house intelligence committee, mike rogers, nsa, nsa surveillance, senate intelligence committee
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Just look at their real spouses
The unwavering support Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein continue to provide the NSA can easily be explained by looking at their real spouses:From Richard C. Blum's (Feinstein 's husband) Wikipedia page:
and from Mike Roger's Wikipedia page:
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I have another theory: at least one of them is hooked by the pockets. I will not be surprised if I see they were benefiting financially from these abuses. Oh wait...
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After all, their allegedly private information is just as susceptible to being vacuumed up as ours. Don't you think that somewhere inside the NSA there's a unit specifically tasked with finding dirt on politicians, judges, corporate officers, civic leaders, etc.?
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Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
Pedestrian Reasoning on Government Spying
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/pedestrian-reasoning-on-government.html#more
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Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
If you want to start your own blog, go ahead, knock yourself out.
But please stop trying to ride the coattails of Techdirt's popularity to spout your inane messages and wacky notions.
Thank you,
-The Internet
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Re: Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
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Re: Re: Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
If he doesn't like the reporting here, why is he here every single day? Why the obession with commenting on every single article?
He comes here to mooch off the popularity and reputation that Techdirt has spent 15 years building. If he believed half of what he spouts about copyright, common law, attribution and ownership he'd realize that he undermines his whole argument by his attempts to "infringe" on the hard work and sweat of others.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Oy. Yet more People Magazine level analysis.
I don't auto-report people. I rarely use the report button at all. You can get off of my back about that, please.
I reported this comment because of Blue's rude and discourteous reference to a so-called "real writer". That's no way to treat your host. If Blue wants to start his own blog and spout his inane ramblings and link to whomever he thinks is a "better writer" to his heart's content, then he should go for it. He just doesn't need to do it in the comment section at Techdirt. Just my 2˘.
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if (NSA_said == "they said this bold faced lie")
{
release = "this to embarrass them";
}
or do they have so much information that anything the NSA says can be refuted immediately.
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Back to the OP ...err story.
"which makes one wonder exactly what it would take to separate them from the NSA"
What can and I predict WILL happen is when the dirt the "agency" has on the two of them is uncovered and they no longer have anything to protect.
Financial or otherwise.
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Rogers and Feinstein
They may as well ride that pony to death then eat its remains... or keep defending it until they get no more campaign contributions.
Either way I bet they couldn't care less. Once you sell out your self respect, nothing much bothers you anymore.
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I like the cheating spouse analogy...
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Just look at their real spouses
From Richard C. Blum's (Feinstein 's husband) Wikipedia page:
and from Mike Roger's Wikipedia page:
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Re: Just look at their real spouses
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Re: Just look at their real spouses
Those people are just robots designed to lie to Congress so that Feinstein and Rogers can steal from the Government!
*removes tinfoil hat
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Politicians Make the BEST Comedians (unknowingly)
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Or maybe the NSA isn't really that stupid...
What are the chances that the NSA is NOT monitoring the heads of the committees that fund them? And what are the chances that a career politician (44 years for Feinstein; 19 for Rogers) never made a single transgressions that they would rather keep private?
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Feinstein and Rogers = Dummies or liars
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Hey, Baby. I DIDN'T Cheat 710,000,000 More Times Than I Did
And if you add in Pomosexuality, I didn't cheat with 7,999,999,995 people.
Math don't lie, baby. I am almost totally straight with you, and insignificantly a cheater.
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Coming soon: "SPIES GONE WILD"
I'm sorry but The US Patriot Act justification doesn't wash anymore: "We're hunting terrorists. We don't need no stinking 4th Amendment."
A problem that won't go away is that, with data stored in public cloud services, a third party has access to your files and can give them away without your knowledge or permission. Plus they keep backup files forever. So even if you delete your files and close your account, NSA can find them.
The only real solution is to get a private cloud, like a Cloudlocker (www.cloudlocker.it) that works like a cloud service but stays at home where they still need a warrant to look inside.
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Classic Spystein and Mike Fogers logic!
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Feinstein Ad Hominen?
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Feinstein covering for war pig neocons behind 911
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Information is Power
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