Motus Mentis

4 Comments

1. JK says

   The attorney general of the United States lied recently to Congress. He said he knew of no citizen’s communications that his department had monitored.

   “Largely to tamp down those concerns, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft declassified information about the FBI’s use of the provision in September 2003, saying in a statement that “the number of times Section 215 has been used to date is zero.”

   But in the years since, the FBI’s use of Section 215 quietly exploded, with virtually no public notice or debate. In 2009, the Justice Department reported there had been 21 applications for business records … [The] sharp increase in the use of Section 215 has drawn little attention until now because the number of national security letters (NSLs) issued by the bureau has been so much greater — 15,229 in 2012 …”

   http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/11/18887491-fbi-sharply-increases-use-of-patriot-act-provision-to-collect-us-citizens-records

   Posted July 24, 2013 at 1:26 am | Permalink
2. JK says

   “We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a late-night statement. “This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process.”

   http://news.yahoo.com/obama-lawmakers-square-off-over-nsa-authority-005554229.html

   Tomorrow is however today – so much for ‘informed or open’ – I did call my Rep.

   https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/tomorrow-congress-votes-amendment-defund-spying-heres-how-you-can-help

   Posted July 24, 2013 at 1:44 am | Permalink
3. JK says

   Well.

   Should my State of Arkansas send ya’ll another POTUS candidate anytime soon – it’ll likely be a fellow named Cotton. My own Representative Crawford (a former rodeo clown REALLY!) has a “hoot in Hell’s chance” anyway.

   Close – but not enough for one of Bill’s cigars.

   http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml

   Posted July 24, 2013 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
4. JK says

   I wonder if I should be surprised?

   http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/

   Posted July 28, 2013 at 5:26 pm | Permalink