I’ve been away on a little vacation and haven’t received an ebot in regards to this thread and only came in to see what’s new in the forum.

I’m seeing the obvious in your last post, that we’re now desperately trying to turn this NSA issue into a political football and looking to tie this whole NSA affair around the neck of an opposing political party and the incumbent President in order to satisfy some politically motivated itch and agenda. I’m sorry that you feel the need to do that but I (being a registered Independent) need to bring the issue back into focus and say that the NSA issue didn’t start with the current administration, it has been evolving over the years.

I’m in no way saying that elected politicians haven’t tried to capitalize on the existing legal conditions under which the NSA thrives on but we need to remember that the “ghost court” FISC anointed the N.S.A. with those constitutionally questionable amendments. Need we be reminded that the majority of judges that constitutes FISC are republicans and that the first politician that tried to turn the NSA loose on international American phone calls without a warrant (2001) was President G. W. Bush, also a republican? Who, buy the way, went without condemnation. Furthermore, the FISA Act of 2008 was passed on July 9, 2008…Obama was elected November 4, 2008 and took office as President of the United States on January 20, 2009 least we forget.

It is interesting to note that Obama voted to expand the FISA Act in 2008 when he was still Senator. This only shows that Obama was for the expansion of the Act back in 2008 as much as he was for the expansion of the 2012 FISA Act also. If anything, he’s shown that he’s for NSA’s profusion and proliferation even more than the people who feel that their constitutionally given fourth amendment rights and privacy means nothing when it comes to the illusive “security” they may imagine they will bask in.

It behooves me to wonder why it was that Edward Snowden thought before he decided to release the NSA documents that Obama would be the newly elected President that would make it all alright. Perhaps he thought that once Obama became President and got the lowdown on the NSA and the unabashed, in-your-face domestic public snooping that was going on, that he would put an end to it, but that unfortunately was not to be the case…so much for a misguided optimism.

In fact in many circles it is often said that Obama has escalated the Bush-era policies. It is cited that;

1. The military-industrial complex is stronger than ever.

2. The police state is also stronger than ever.

3. Habeas Corpus has been tossed into the trash bin.

4. Obama is killing more people in drone strikes than Bush ever did.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-shammas/obamas-second-term_b_3720893.html

And if you want to read more about the abuses;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/espionage-act

The thread focuses on the abuses that the NSA has brought upon our citizens and the FISC court which allows them to. And the fact remains that it’s the FISC and NSA which needs to be revamped by congress. Obama like Bush and all elected Presidents will come and go every one or two terms of office but the laws and amendments passed by FISC which allows the NSA to continue down the path of compromising our rights and privacy will continue to perpetuate down the long run. It is paramount that this scourge be halted inasmuch as is needed to keep the probing eye of an intrusive government out of the lives of its innocent citizens.