Rep. Mike Rogers Says France Should Be 'Popping Chamagne Bottles' To Celebrate That We Spy On Them
from the both-tone-deaf-and-culturally-insensitive dept
You have to hand it to Rep. Mike Rogers. Not only is he politically tone deaf to why people are so pissed off about NSA surveillance and privacy violations, but he appears to be culturally insulting as well. His latest is to defend last week's story about the NSA collecting information on 70 million calls in France to claim that the French ought to be "popping champagne bottles" to cheer on the NSA spying on them. Honestly, it would be difficult to make up a comment this clueless.“If the French citizens knew exactly what that was about, they would be applauding and popping champagne corks. It’s a good thing. it keeps the French safe. It keeps the US safe. It keeps our European allies safe,” he added.At least he didn't suggest they should also enjoy some cheese. Of course, that presumes the only reason the US is spying on the French is to protect them against terrorists. But, if that were actually true, they wouldn't also be bugging the phones of leadership and politicians. To date, there is no indication that the spying on all of those calls was limited to "protecting" the French -- and Rogers' own next statement more or less confirms that this has always been about protecting US interests, not the French.
“This whole notion that we’re going to go after each other on what is really legitimate protection of nation-state interest, I think is disingenuous.”
So, here's a simple question for Mike Rogers: would he be okay with sharing all of his phone and email records with the French? After all, perhaps they'll use it to protect him from harm. Even better, yet, why not release that information publicly. If it's just metadata, then there's no expectation of privacy, right? If Rogers releases all of his phone and email metadata for the past five years, I'll stop by his office the next time I'm in DC with a bottle of champagne.
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Filed Under: france, mike rogers, nsa, nsa surveillance
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Why the hell keep it a secret from people if we'd be "applauding and popping champagne" if we knew?!
My champagne bottle is at the ready...
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Arrogance and ineptitude, a hallmark of Rogers.
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The Tyrant's Refrain
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That's how safe I feel, asshole!
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If that moron wasn't a moron, he'd keep his mouth shut.
This could be interpreted as "Those Frenchies are so inept at defending themselves that we have to pitch in and give them a hand, the poor idiots".
Diplomatically, this is a blunder of epic proportions: it implies that a sovereign nation should just surrender its sovereignty, since it is incapable of defending itself.
Certainly, nothing major will come of this: The USA and Europe have pretty good relations. But I wouldn't be surprised if the relationship between the two became colder and more distant. Most of Europe is certainly already getting tired of the USA's antics by now.
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Silly frogs
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...but we aren't going to tell those stupid Frenchies anything because they are totally incapable of defending themselves, understanding their enemies, or understanding why we need to be doing this.
They should shut up and ship us another statue.
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— Who's there?
Secret police.
— Secret police who?
We don't have to tell you, you're coming with us....
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FTFY
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Get locked up in jail by an evil dictator? Celebrate!
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No sane, straight-edge man ever in history thinks that anyone would celebrate their privacy being invaded, especially by an alleged ally that happens to have an even more powerful military.
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"Thank you, France, for keeping us safe!"
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Why the hell keep it a secret from people if we'd be "applauding and popping champagne" if we knew?!
My champagne bottle is at the ready...
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Also who the hell appointed the USA as the anti-terrorist police for the world?
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The worst bit
Aside from the historical revisionism (US industry was greatly in favor of the rise of fascism and openly encouraged it), this is a twisted thing to say. The US spying programs are themselves indicative of the rise of a new fascism. Rogers is apparently blind to it because it's the kind of fascism that he likes.
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At this point...
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I'm sending this message from the prison library.
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Dear France
Also, I am here to tell that the check is in the mail and of course I will respect you in the morning.
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So which is it then? Are we spying them like they spy on us or are they incapable of spying like we do? He is so full of shit his eyes are brown.
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Does that really even need saying?
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So Roger's actually alluded to the WWII and the invasion of France by the Nazis to support the assertion that France can't defend themselves without us spying on them to know what is going on and that if we had been spying on them then we would have been able to somehow stop the invasion of France in WWII. Truly epic.
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Oh, wait, I forgot, it's a secret.
LOLS
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My champagne bottle is at the ready
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If the French ought to be "popping champagne bottles"
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It's hilarious how Mike Rogers shows just how inept public education is. I think he needs to get a refund because he didn't learn a damn thing.
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* This is not to say that doubly fermented sparkling wines from other regions are not good.
** This is not to say that champagne from Champagne is any better than any doubly fermented wine from a different region.
*** I like champagne, and doubly fermented wine from other regions as well. Asti Spumante comes to mind, but I would drink it at entirely different meal that I would say a Brut Champagne.
**** I certainly hope that I failed to offend any of the producers of any kind of wine, doubly fermented or not. I have tried a lot of wines, and the only ones that actually offend me come in 1 gallon jugs. Not Magnums, or Jeroboams, or Nebuchadnezzars, but gallon jugs.
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Re: My champagne bottle is at the ready
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Re: Re: My champagne bottle is at the ready
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I love TechDirt but...
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Re: I love TechDirt but...
Regardless, political party is irrelevant. They are all equally bad. Well, most anyway. I think one of the few who is truly admired around here is Sen Wyden.
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Re: I love TechDirt but...
We actually never mention the party that a politician is, Democrat or Republican unless it's a key part of the story (i.e., something about the party itself, not he politician). That's site policy, because we prefer to focus on what they're saying/doing not lame partisan politics.
And that's true on either side. So, no, we don't single out any politicians by party. You may have us confused with other sites, but in this case you're wrong.
And Rogers is a Republican, not a Democrat as you claim.
So, no, you're wrong on both points.
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Re: The worst bit
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Re: Silly frogs
ftfy
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