Posted: 12/12/2019 8:16:44 AM EDT
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Republicans Condemn FBI's Use of Surveillance Powers They Long Supported
One by one, Republican senators expressed outrage Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had committed errors in how it sought and obtained surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser, describing the findings contained in a new inspector general report as evidence of alarming privacy violations that could be wielded against any American.
The concerns echoed those made by civil liberties advocates for decades. But they came this time from self-described national security hawks who have long voted to renew and expand U.S. surveillance powers In an impassioned opening statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, railed against what he described as a loose system of oversight at the FBI that allowed investigators to push forward with a counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He said the FBI "defrauded" the secretive FISA court with its applications for surveillance on the former campaign adviser, Carter Page, and compared the FBI's actions to abuses discovered after Watergate.
"It's as if J. Edgar Hoover came back to life," Sen. Graham said, invoking the name of the FBI's long-tenured previous director who oversaw spying on civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr. Acknowledging that he proudly considered himself a "pretty hawkish guy," Mr. Graham said he would hate to rein in the FISA process given foreign security threats to the U.S. "But after your report, I have serious concerns about whether the FISA court can continue unless there's fundamental reform," Mr. Graham said. Also referring to himself as a "national security hawk," Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.), said he had previously ignored warnings about the possibility that surveillance powers could be abused, believing "that stuff like this just couldn't possibly happen at the FBI and Department of Justice."
Both Sens. Graham and Sasse have repeatedly voted to renew and in some cases widen existing surveillance authorities, including those held by the FBI. President Trump, too, has pushed to maintain the intelligence community's spying capabilities, despite his repeated lacerations of those agencies. Earlier this year, for example, the Trump White House moved to permanently preserve a National Security Agency surveillance program that collects U.S. call metadata even though it has been shut down because of repeated compliance issuesspurning the advice of some senior intelligence officials who said it no longer held national security value. ....
Previous administrations, including that of Democrat Barack Obama, have also vigorously fought efforts to curtail or make more transparent FISA proceedings. 
Attorney General William Barr, too, has said he wants to consider changes to the FISA process in the wake of Mr. Horowitz's report, though he has shown deference to surveillance programs in the past.
During his last stint as attorney general in the early 1990s, Mr. Barr signed off on a secret surveillance program that allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration to collect in bulk records of Americans' international calls. That program relied on a loose statutory interpretation of the word "relevant" that later undergirded the NSA's own bulk phone surveillance program that was revealed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. 
The Republicans and the Democrats are the opposite sides of the same coin. GOVERNMENT. Both create laws, agencies, and systems that are used to crush the plebeian serfs that are the commoners. Both play the game of being on different sides, when in reality behind closed doors they all fuck the same whore, drink the same liquor, and do a line of coke off the other whore's ass. They all laugh while fleecing the public and taking turns being in power. |
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. |
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It doesn’t matter who you vote for, because voting will not fix the plethora of issues we are facing. The people in Washington aren’t going to take any action that reduces their power. Neither party gives a fuck about fiscal responsibility, as well. There are few individuals that do, like Rand Paul, but not enough individuals to make a difference. Perhaps, if enough state governments got together, a meaningful change could be forced. That won’t happen, though. |
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We are using the wrong terms.....
People get too wrapped up in R vs D. It is not that. They are all PROGRESSIVES. A progressive can be any party and likely could describe 100% of dems at the federal level and 98% of Republicans at the federal level. I do believe it gets better for Republicans at the state and local levels, somewhat anyway. We live under a nanny police state. Freedom as we knew it is dead. The ideals this country was founded under are dead. In the end, people are just really nefarious and power hungry fucks. We need a mass die off like an asteroid or a plague to even have a remote chance for freedom to return. |
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We are using the wrong terms..... People get too wrapped up in R vs D. It is not that. They are all PROGRESSIVES. A progressive can be any party and likely could describe 100% of dems at the federal level and 98% of Republicans at the federal level. I do believe it gets better for Republicans at the state and local levels, somewhat anyway. We live under a nanny police state. Freedom as we knew it is dead. The ideals this country was founded under are dead. In the end, people are just really nefarious and power hungry fucks. We need a mass die off like an asteroid or a plague to even have a remote chance for freedom to return. |
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I don't get the hate going towards Miami. I'm new and every post I read from the dude is nothing but facts. I'm pretty much of the mindset of "I don't fucking trust anyone in power, no matter the team they claim to represent". |
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He ok. But I think occassionally after hard shift he gets drunk and teases the sensitive people..  Quoted:
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I don't get the hate going towards Miami. I'm new and every post I read from the dude is nothing but facts. Truth hurts, especially when the truth shows that those you think are on your side, aren't. |
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I actually don't drink much. Maybe a glass of wine once in a blue moon or a Rum/Soda every couple of months. But that's pretty much it. Truth hurts, especially when the truth shows that those you think are on your side, aren't. 
Time to go back to the state run liquor store..comrade more booze please! |
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The whole idea of secret courts is wrong. But if I knowingly lied to get a warrant in AL. I know who would be wearing handcuffs, POST revoked, out of a job and a criminal conviction. |
| Either the Republicans and the Democrats are two sides of the same coin, or they are the dumbest naïve mother fuckers to believe the government can be trusted to guard our rights. Take your pick! Who with one bit of intelligence didn't see this happening? It's the ruling class against the citizenry period. |
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Either the Republicans and the Democrats are two sides of the same coin, or they are the dumbest nave mother fuckers to believe the government can be trusted to guard our rights. Take your pick! Who with one bit of intelligence didn't see this happening? It's the ruling class against the citizenry period. |
No practical difference other then to suck gullible idiots into a Party. US Politics is like sports team fans. Neither sides own party can do anything wrong and when they do the other side IS WORSE. |
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IMO most of them are merely opposing ends of the same turd! Show me a politician who isn't a pos in one form or the other and you will have found a Unicorn. ???? Quoted:
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. |
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I wonder at what point in time of the history of the USA, some asshole or several of them looked at this country and saw the raw potential of it and decided to simply take it over surreptitiously from We the People. And ever since, keeping up the charade that America actually belongs to us. |
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I'm here pointing out that the Republicans supported the usurpation of civil liberties too and you think that is being a Jack Booted Thug? LOL Quoted:
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OP's screename seems more fitting everyday. LOL You say both sides are equal, but one side always gets away with abusing surveillance powers because of their intelligence (FBI/CIA/IRS/FISA), propaganda (MSM/Social Media/Tech), and enforcement (Fed & Local LEO a/k/a JBT) arms. |
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How about Trumps hypocrisy with supporting NSA spying powers all in the name of security, for the children, while complaining about the same being used against him during the 2016 election. The GOP under Trump is completely complacent here except for Rand Paul and very few others. |
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How about Trumps hypocrisy with supporting NSA spying powers all in the name of security, for the children, while complaining about the same being used against him during the 2016 election. The GOP under Trump is completely complacent here except for Rand Paul and very few others. |
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Yup. Agreed. been on this train manya manya year.
But if you are going to pretend that domestic fringe groups like the proud boys and Groypers are an equal threat compared to world wide ideologies like Wahhabism, you and me can't be friends. The stupid has reached a terminal state, and it is contagious. One ideology has killed a million people in the last decade alone, and formed a terror state ISIL, the others do patriot prayer and troll Con Inc grifters. The point of Wahhabism is making dead people until the Caliphate is recognized. Most of the time blaming the far right for violence is Akin to blaming Jodie Foster for John Hinckley Jr. |
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The whole idea of secret courts is wrong. But if I knowingly lied to get a warrant in AL. I know who would be wearing handcuffs, POST revoked, out of a job and a criminal conviction. You're still little people like the rest of us
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No that republicans are entirely clean on this issue but the comparison between them and democrats is ludicrous on all counts. There are some that are indeed part of the corrupt system abusing powers of the government and creating tyranny. That is not the entire party unlike democrats. They are not the same. Anybody can be corrupted. The problem we have is more a voter/citizen problem than the politician. Lack of attention and volunteers paid to political parties and campaigns is the problem. We aren't watering the tree of liberty. |
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But my guy is different and won't do the same things as those other people!  Quoted:
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. Trump may have tried to uncover demonstrable provable Ukrainian corruption. IMPEACH! Yeah, both sides are totally equal. |
| It is often that the things which Democrat and Republican politicians pass in lock-step at the Federal level that are the most abhorrent. The "Patriot Act" is one such instance. Other prime issues are those that the party out of power screams about right until they are in power, then the screaming shifts to the other party, like debt & deficits. Gun control is frankly one of the very few actually important issues that is still mostly partisan, or was until the Dems went full commie. |
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Two opposing cheeks on the same ass. Working together to shit on America. Quoted:
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. |
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Can anybody show me a single domestic terror attack this unconstitutional golem has prevented?
I know I can cite at least one attack that was handed to the FBI on a silver platter by the Russians and they still did nothing to stop the Boston Marathon Bombers. As long as humans are "in the loop" the information will be abused. Look at Barack H Obama, he got his own start in IL politics by having access to sealed family court records. Now an Executive level Counter-Intelligence Investigation of the opposing party's Presidential Candidate has been revealed, Counter-Intelligence operations of that importance cannot happen without POTUS consent or at least knowing about. These power-hungry politicians have proven Man is incapable of the discipline and restraint necessary to wield access to so much illegal and unconstitutional information. The DDR Stasi was nothing compared to this, they couldn't follow EVERY East German, could read every single piece of mail in real time, couldn't monitor every single phonecall and I'd bet record all cellular and fiberoptic voice transmissions. There are still means with due process with which they can look at the really bad guys, the government needs to be kept on a short leash, preferably with a choker or pinch collar that easily brings them to heel. |
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. Rs have supported it more in Congress but if they didn't have the issue vote locked up the Dems would gladly vote it in. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00020 Look at the date and understand the Dems pretended to not want it but ensured there were enough available to vote with the Republicans to pass this. Same in the House. The Rs say they want reform but they don't. |
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Both parties are hypocritical on mass surveillance. Rs have supported it more in Congress but if they didn't have the issue vote locked up the Dems would gladly vote it in. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00020 Look at the date and understand the Dems pretended to not want it but ensured there were enough available to vote with the Republicans to pass this. Same in the House. The Rs say they want reform but they don't. Quoted:
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The Republicans and the Democrats are absolutely opposite sides of the same coin, but few in GD will admit it. Rs have supported it more in Congress but if they didn't have the issue vote locked up the Dems would gladly vote it in. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00020 Look at the date and understand the Dems pretended to not want it but ensured there were enough available to vote with the Republicans to pass this. Same in the House. The Rs say they want reform but they don't. |
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Loss of Freedom -
Wait till the social media rules get so cumbersome that they introduce social media scoring... China is doing it and other countries have expressed interest. Your freedoms and benefits (in China: education, health, housing, travel, employment, access to certain grocery stores) are tied to your support of the Chinese Gov't and policies. If you are supportive online and in social media, you get more perks. If you butt heads with the ruling class, you lose access to services. Sounds like utopia for the communist democrats in Washington DC. |
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I wonder at what point in time of the history of the USA, some asshole or several of them looked at this country and saw the raw potential of it and decided to simply take it over surreptitiously from We the People. And ever since, keeping up the charade that America actually belongs to us. |