Obama and the NSA - 2nd Term Blues

The White House: Press Statement by the White House Press Secretary on the Amash Amendment that would block NSA funding to spy on the phone records of US Citizens. The Statement states the following, " In light of the recent unauthorized disclosures, the President has said that he welcomes a debate about how best to simultaneously safeguard both our national security and the privacy of our citizens.  The Administration has taken various proactive steps to advance this debate including the President’s meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, his public statements on the disclosed programs, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s release of its own public statements, ODNI General Counsel Bob Litt’s speech at Brookings, and ODNI’s decision to declassify and disclose publicly that the Administration filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.  We look forward to continuing to discuss these critical issues with the American people and the Congress.

However, we oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools.  This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process.  We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation.  ".

Lets Get Real:

The liberal base of the Democratic Party will not be happy that the Oval is trying to block this Bill that would prevent the National Security Agency from collecting the phone records of ALL of Americans.  From the left point of view its BIG BROTHER gone wild, but this is the age after 9/11, THE Oval can not afford for something to go wrong on his watch.  Even if this passes the House it should die in the Senate, in less Majority Leader Reid can not control his group.  One can argue that this move is more of warning shot over the bow of the Oval, keeping the Oval aware that the Congress is a equal branch of the US Government.  On this the Oval is right, Nixon would have loved the spaying of the NSA one would assume.