dagblog - Comments for "Drone surveillance ok"

Quite depressing, no?

AnonymousPP — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 19:18:52 +0000

In reply to Meanwhile, over in Democratic

Quite depressing, no?

Meanwhile, over in Democratic

artappraiser — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 17:03:41 +0000

In reply to The Democracy in America blog

Meanwhile, over in Democratic land:

How Nancy Pelosi Saved the NSA Surveillance Program
Posted By John Hudson, The Cable @ ForeignPolicy.com, July 25, 2013

The obituary of Rep. Justin Amash's amendment to claw back the sweeping powers of the National Security Agency has largely been written as a victory for the White House and NSA chief Keith Alexander, who lobbied the Hill aggressively in the days and hours ahead of Wednesday's shockingly close vote. But Hill sources say most of the credit for the amendment's defeat goes to someone else: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. It's an odd turn, considering that Pelosi has been, on many occasions, a vocal surveillance critic. [....]

With 111 liberal-to-moderate Democrats voting for the amendment alongside 94 Republicans, the vote in no way fell along predictable ideological fault lines. And for a particular breed of Democrat, Pelosi's overtures proved decisive, multiple sources said.

"Pelosi had a big effect on more middle-of-the road hawkish Democrats who didn't want to be identified with a bunch of lefties [voting for the amendment]," said the aide. "As for the Alexander briefings: Did they hurt? No, but that was not the central force, at least among House Democrats. Nancy Pelosi's political power far outshines that of Keith Alexander's." [....]

I honestly don't get how

EmmaZahn — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:56:04 +0000

In reply to The Democracy in America blog

I honestly don't get how anyone can sensibly label libertarianism as populist

From the same blogger a few days ago" W.W. is Will Wilkinson formerly

Libertarian populism: Unpopular and impolitic | The Economist

BTW, the blogger is Will Wilkinson formerly of Cato via George Mason University, one of the bright young writers from that part of the political spectrum I follow. He no longer identifies as libertarian (Wikipedia) but still writes about it often.

Works for New Jersey - not

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 18:51:42 +0000

In reply to The Democracy in America blog

Works for New Jersey - not sure for the rest of the country.

And post-Snowden, with the Afghanistan War wrapped nicely around Obama's neck, the GOP line will probably be more protecting individual freedoms (which will translate into large military contracts once in office)

Intelligence surveillance is even better for them, since it's all top secret, so they can be for it before they were against it before they were for it in multiple iterations.

The Democracy in America blog

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 18:30:02 +0000

In reply to I suspect that there are 3

The Democracy in America blog @ The Economist does not likey, sees war of the populisms (though I honestly don't get how anyone can sensibly label libertarianism as populist):

[.....] Mr Christie's remarks are illuminating in the context of the ongoing debate over the promise of "libertarian populism" as an electoral strategy for the GOP. Mr Christie's cognition-arresting sentimental appeal to the grief of the "widows and orphans" of 9/11 and his exploitation of irrational, deep-seated fears of further terrorist calamity could hardly be more "populist". And what could be less libertarian than to straightforwardly suggest that "libertarianism", of all things, threatens to enable terrorism and increase the supply of American orphans and widows? Mr Christie, a politician who knows something about charming the public, has probably not committed a blunder. Sadly, his explicitly anti-libertarian fearmongering probably remains the more potent populism [....]

I suspect that there are 3

Verified Atheist — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:01:52 +0000

In reply to I found the following news

I suspect that there are 3 divisions in the GOP that currently might seem like 2:

Those that are big fans of the espionage-industrial system.
Those that hate anything Obama does, so are against Obama's surveillance programs.
Libertarians who are against these types of surveillance programs on principles.

Right now it might be hard to tell #2 from #3, unless you look at the history of their past comments, assuming such a history is available. (Whatever else one might think about Ron Paul, I put him in camp #3.)

I found the following news

artappraiser — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:52:14 +0000

In reply to Drone surveillance ok

I found the following news interesting because it seems to foretell a big split within the GOP on the whole surveillance topic as the topic continually rears its head:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is ripping libertarians — including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — for challenging government surveillance programs and failing to understand the dangers of terrorism.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/chris-christie-rand-paul-2016-election-94789.html#ixzz2aAfduqUq