President Obama’s underwhelming speech on revamping NSA spying practices is yet one more head fake to the American people and one more damnable lie on his insubstantial resume.
First, Obama stated that the government would stop storing huge amounts of personal data in NSA computers but indicated the data will be stored elsewhere. What did he not say? He refused to stop the NSA from spying on and collecting personal information on Americans. This was the primary complaint of the American people, and he ignored it.
Second, Obama adopted new privacy restrictions for non-U.S. citizens and ended spying on heads of state that are friends of the United States. The hell with non-U.S. citizens: STOP SPYING ON AMERICAN CITIZENS! Obama tacitly winked and nodded at continuing violations of the Fourth Amendment by the National Security Agency.
Third, Obama attempted to balance national security with privacy and civil-liberty’s concerns by paying lip service to national security and intentionally ignoring privacy and civil liberties.
Fourth, Obama did not adopt any recommendations from the review panel for greater court oversight. The FISA court is a misnomer. There is no advocate for the American people, only an advocate for a totalitarian spy agency operating without constitutional controls.
The uproar over the NSA’s unconstitutional activities have focused on (1) spying and confiscation of personal data of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment; (2) mass collection and storage of phone records of American citizens who have not violated any law; (3) mass collection of foreign communications data; and (4) monitoring of foreign leaders. A side issue is where to store the data that should not have been collected in the first place.
I’ll give the president a nod to collection of foreign communications data and to monitoring of foreign leaders. He failed the test in not banning the collection and storage of communications data of innocent American citizens by the NSA. If Obama cannot live within the law, why should anyone else?
Overall, Obama’s NSA failure is a failure of leadership, just as Obama’s IRS targeting of political opponents is a failure of leadership. It seems the constant theme of the Obama presidency is a failure of leadership: Benghazi, the Obamacare debacle, the FBI’s failure to bring charges against IRS personnel, massive NSA spying on innocent American citizens, the murder of a Border Patrolman in “Fast and Furious,” the lack of transparency with Obamacare enrollment numbers, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Mexico, North Korea, Haiti, Venezuela, the failed jobs bailout (stimulus), the theft of General Motors from its rightful owners, ad nauseum.
The really shocking and sad result of Obama’s failures and continuous lies is I have lost respect for my government. No, it is worse than loss of respect.
I no longer trust my government.