With a chance to interview heads of departments in charge of NSA surveillance, 53 Senators jump on planes to go home.

                    A briefing by Senior Intelligence Officials on surveillance programs failed to attract the attention of even half of the Senators. Senators, despite all their bluster, don’t seem to care that much about classified security programs. Many Senators, 53 to be exact, chose to leave early rather than attending the briefing.

The Senate held its last vote of the week around noon Thursday. They somehow could not find the time to attend the 2:30 meeting with James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA and other Senior officials. Clapper, Alexander and other Senior officials told the lawmakers that showed up about the classified programs to monitor millions of phone calls and broad swaths of internet activity. As of now the names of the attendees and non-attendees has not been released.

The exodus of colleagues exasperated Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca), who spent all week answering a gauntlet of questions from colleagues and media about the programs. She said ” It’s hard to get this story out. Even now we have this big briefing- we’ve got Alexander, we’ve got the FBI, we’ve got the Justice Department, we have the FISA Court there, we have Clapper there and people are leaving.” I share her exasperation, these Senators attack President Obama and his staff, then don’t show up for the briefing. Maybe they ” don’t know about the programs” because they don’t show for briefings. This was important, yet these Senators couldn’t find time to do their job. Tsk, Tsk, shame on you Senators.

Lawmakers have been quick to call for Congressional oversight but are even quicker out the door. They cannot seem to make the scheduling sacrafices to learn more of the secret details of the programs. You would think that lawmakers would sttend briefings before making votes on the subject. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence in Congress. Lawmakers would be better equipped to scrutinize the claims of Senior Intellegence officials if they attended briefings more regularly. Please remember that being a Senator is not a vacation, it is an important job where you represent the people. It would make sense for you to remember that.

Lawmakers often vote to approve the Intelligence Programs with only a vague of what they are authorizing. Feinstein contends that her colleagues have known about the programs from previous debates and meetings. Many Lawmakers say they didn’t know about the programs, but the evidence suggests differently. There are records of hearings, briefings and the renewal process with the FISA Court every 3 months. Something doesn’t jive.

Republicans should hope they were not the ones leaving. If they were, this just proves they don’t care about the people or the country, only about smearing President Obama and stopping his agenda. They offer nothing but cuts to normal people, scream about the defecit, yet will not raise taxes on the wealthy. Not showing up illegitimizes the Republican party. Democrats not showing up is not quite as bad, because most support the President. Those who did not support the programs and didn’t show up deserve the same fate as Republicans. This is not a come and go as you please position, this is governing tye greatest country in the world. Maybe if these lousy politicians looked at it that way we wouldnt have any scandals.

Why doesnt anyone understand what Top Secret means?

           Edward Snowden, whether he did the right thing or not, is a criminal. In order to get a Top Secret clearance you have to sign an agreement, if you hreak the agreement you are technically guilty of treason. There are many things that the public should not know. Should we know the President’s exact schedule? Knowing where he is at any time. NO! Should we know where our nuclear weapons are or the codes to fire them? Of course not.

                   Anything and everything you do on the internet leaves a trail. Someone can always find out what you are doing. At least now it goes before a court, the FISA Court. When George W. Bush was in charge they tapped phones without court authority. The government does get a court order in order to get your phone and internet data. They go before the court every 3 months to renew the coury order. This is Top Secret, which means it affects our country in some important way.

                  Corporations have access to all of our data. They do this to learn how to market to us. Why is it ok for a corporation to do it, but not the government. The 4th Amendment is not being torn apart. As far as I can tell it is within the Amendment. They are getting a court order to get the data. It is not breaking any laws. But Republicans and their cohorts are trying to paint President Obama as an evil man and Democrats as do nothings.

The simple fact is that no law is being broken. As much as Republicans, who constantly violating civil liberties, cry about it, it is not illegal. But there is a portion of this country that hates him because of his skin color and will go against him regardless of what he does. This is the America we live in.

To be secure or not to be secure, make up your mind.

               After the Boston Marathon Bombing the media was complaining that we should have known something. How could the CIA have known anything if there were no phone taps? Obviously the government doesn’t listen to calls or this tragedy would have been prevented. Republicans are hypocrites who helped create the Patriot Act, but now they don’t like it. Rand Paul wants to file a civil suit, well I want to file one against him for every person that died of gun violence since he helped vote down the Manchin/Toomey Gun Bill.

I am sick of the hypocritical nature of our society and government. They want something done, find o ut something is being done and throw a hissy fit. Republicans stop creating scandals and create jobs. Help our economy instead of hindering it and the rich have gotten enough breaks, close the Tax Loopholes and get Tax Reform done. It will help with our National Debt you claim to be so concerned about.

Why are Republicans killing Immigration Reform? They want to deport kids who were brought here illegally by their parents. How is that their fault? What happened to Republicans engaging Latinos, trying to work with them to gain their votes. Just more Republican lies, if you aren’t giving them money you are not important. They are the party of NO, lies and manufacturing scandals. If they cannot win or buy victory they will try anything to get rid of you.

So the government is tracking our phone data, who cares. How is that violating Civil Rights? I have read the 4th Amendment and as long as a court says it is ok, it is legal. Democrats need to stick with President Obama, that is the only way the American people will see improvement. The polarization of this country is sick and most comes from the right. If you want to secede, do it, no federal money for you. Red states get a lot more government aid then Blue states. So buh-bye crazies.

Lets get real about the NSA collecting phone records.

              The Fourth Amendment;
        The right of the people to be secure ine their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized.

             After 9/11 fear permeated American life. We were an unsure people who were perplexed by an unwarranted attack on innocent people. The rest of the world had been dealing with this for quite some time, as have we at out foreign interests. After 9/11 many were willing to sacrifice civil liberties to help ensure our safety. The Bush/Cheney regime skirted moral authority and we became a preemptive strike country. Attack and ask questions later. The Patriot Act was pushed through with tremendous support from both sides if the aisle.

In doing so we were opened to a moral dilemma. How far is to far? The FISA Court, which was created in 1978, was given a kind of moral authority. It was up to this court to determine when our government was overstepping its authority. They determined that the so called data mining was legal. By determining that they also established how far these “spying” operations could go.

If the government determined something was wrong and needed to go through the data, they would have to go to court to get clearance. It is not as if they can go right in there and take what they want. Of course people will jump to conclusions to establish President Obama as a bad guy. The truth of the matter is that none of this can happen without the approval of the FISA Court. Which covers the executive and judicial branches.

Now for the legislative branch. The Senators, Republican and Democrat alike were informed. Every 3 months they had to go before the FISA Court to get the order aporoved. They had hearings for all Republicans and Democrats to come in and ask questions. The Senators complain that they were not allowed to talk to anyone who did not have clearance. That is how s TOP SECRET clearance works. You are told TOP SECRET information and you are not allowed to tell anyone else. If it concerned them so much why didn’t they try to learn more about the subject or ask more questions. This is about Senators who knes about something and did nothing to stop it, although then knew the American people wouldn’t like it. Now they are covering their tails.

The fact of the matter is this. It is Constitutionally legal. All branches of government knew about it. Why are American people upset? If you are not doing anything criminal you have nothing to worry about. This is the tradeoff our government chose to make and we chose to live with. It has gone on for 7 years and now it gets leaked. It seems as if the Republican scandal machine is in hyperdrive trying to find anything that sticks.