Yesterday, President Obama strongly defended the NSA’s Big Surveillance program:
Obama, who ran for president in 2008 on a platform of reversing some of the Bush administration’s encroachments on civil liberties, instead defended the programs. ”I came in with a healthy skepticism about these program,” Obama said, noting his administration has strengthened some program safeguards. “My assessment and my team’s assessment is that they help us prevent terrorist attacks.”
Program safeguards. Anyone know what those are? And, of course, if you just tell people that terrorist attacks are prevented, you’re going to get a Pretty Big Pass. But this is the thing that set my teeth on edge every time I heard it yesterday:
“If people don’t trust the executive branch, and also congress and the judicial branch, then we’re going to have some problems here,” Obama admitted.
There is something very Alice in Wonderland about this statement. Because this is a government that has one branch still trying to defund ACORN — even though they no longer exist. This is a government that has one branch taking more votes on abortion and Obamacare than they are on resolving the unemployment crisis. This is a government who — at all levels — works harder at making sure that American business is better taken care of than American citizens. This is a government who can’t even come to terms on a rational budget — which is basically why they even exist — yet they spend a half of a normal work year not getting that done. We have a branch of government who is ruling that corporations have the rights of human American citizens. And yet, as completely dysfunctional as portions of this government works hard at being — because dysfunction is the point — we have the otherwise very smart President of the United States making a straight-faced case for trust in these institutions to provide oversight to a giant Big Data program that I’d bet ALOT of money, the majority of them don’t understand.
In other news, the House voted to start deporting the DREAMERS, in opposition to the President’s policy. One more outreach fail for the rebranding GOP — and given that Marco Rubio is now actively trying to kill immigration reform, I’ve yet to hear anything from activists pushing back. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t — but those reports aren’t in the news I see yet. Hope someone has batter info than I do on this.
And Rmoney is back and he is doing a public (and publicly embarassing) post mortem on his failed campaign. He thinks that Hurricane Sandy helped Obama at the end of the campaign. (Noting, of course, that if a natural disaster had somehow helped Rmoney get into the White House, we would be treated to a neverending claim that God wanted Romney to win, right?) And a “leading Democrat” thought Romney would win a week ahead of the election. I’m guessing that this was Joe Lieberman. Who else would be relying on Rasmussen to judge this election?
Anyway, I’m off to Baltimore for the day. What interests you today?