Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose over and over again
by digby
Emptywheel on the release of the NSA memo yesterday:
Last night, the government finally released a new version of that memo, reflecting all the things that have been declassified thanks to Edward Snowden’s leaks.
And it shows that a 15-page section of the memo authorize(s) the phone dragnet.
Only, that section is entirely redacted.
Even after the phone dragnet has been declassified for 15 months, the Executive refuses to show its claim that it can engage in that dragnet with or without Congressional authorization.
Understand what this amounts to: The Executive just waved its dick around in advance of Congressional action that may or may not reauthorize this program. It said, to Congress and to us, that it will continue operating its phone dragnet with or without Congressional authorization.
It would appear that we have lots of government activity designed to look as if changes are being made while nothing does. Same as it ever was.
The congress is pretty much a rubber stamp, we know that. With a few exceptions they have shown themselves to be more than happy to be led around by the nose by the executive branch. But Marcy says there is some hope that the big telcoms are not so happy to be in that position so there is some pushback coming from a constituency that really matters --- business. I guess we should be happy to take what we can get ...
.