General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI guess we know now why our Dems in Congress have seemed neutered.
Not all of them, of course, but we've been complaining about some of them for a long long time.
How many dirty tricks and/or crimes have already taken place simply because one of thousands of contract employees who may or may not have been properly vetted have used some tidbit of classified info for political purposes?
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Due to what I have learned in the recent past my boulder of salt went down to...just a single grain
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/06/21/former-intelligence-analyst-obama-was-wiretapped-by-nsa-in-2004/
On the Road
(20,783 posts)That NSA has been digging up dirt on Democratic legislators to blackmail them, and that the votes that are puzzling to you are the result of this blackmail.
This is Glen Beck territory. And it makes everyone complaining about NSA practices look like a nut.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)The NSA has been digging up everything on everyone. Not just dirt, but everything.
Then an analyst looks it over. The analysts are private contractors, just hirees of the NSA. Like Snowden accessing info, the other contractors can also access the gathered info. And they can pick out anyone.
The problem is the contractors. But it is also the fact that the NSA is spying on everyone and storing that info.
Your dumb attack, calling this Beck territory, is actually something along the lines that Beck would be expected to do.
tritsofme
(17,449 posts)If you try to blackmail a government official with classified information, you will go to jail.
It is absolutely Glen Beck nonsense to suggest that these contractors are successfully blackmailing lawmakers left and right.
carolinayellowdog
(3,247 posts)that seems like Glen Beck territory to me
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)Especially as we've seen that the conservatives will do anything to protect the interests of their donors.
tridim
(45,358 posts)It's not hard to understand and it's not a conspiracy theory.
tritsofme
(17,449 posts)Don't we have a special forum for such interesting ideas?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Cause that's what it's about, isn't it? Secret government cockroaches.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)they vote to please their wealthy donors instead of the people who elect them.
msongs
(67,509 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Not all of them can be bought, but no one cares about them.
The others are more than enough to do what they're told.
Did you know Sen. Obama was targeted for, eh, monitoring in 2004?
Of course, the sensitive folks at MSNBC censored Tice from stating that live, on-air.
I wonder why that would be?
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)G_j
(40,372 posts)Hoover went after King.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Getting someone to admit that it has happened, impossible. But do I think it is possible? Certainly. Look at the history of this nation, we've been doing that for decades, probably longer. Hoover had files that allowed himself to stay as head of the FBI for years past his mandatory retirement date. But he was always given a waiver, and Congress always approved it, because who would take chances that some secret they had was not known by the FBI?
Are we expected to believe that this practice ended when Hoover died? We know it didn't, Homeland Security infiltrated Occupy. Bush sent the goons into the anti-war movement. All to gather information, and when you get enough on one person, you have an informant.
If the NSA and HLS thugs aren't doing it, then you can bet someone has at least thought about it, and gathered information to have ready in case.