"In the aftermath of the Amash Rebellion, there are two new parties in Congress: the authoritarians and the Americans. The vote on Rep. Justin Amash’s LIBERT-E Act, which would have gutted the National Security Agency’s phone records dragnet, drew a clear line of demarcation that will only widen in the coming months as civil libertarians continue their push to roll back the Surveillance State. It was close – 205-217 – and the administration, along with the Democratic congressional leadership and its Republican enablers, were scrambling at the last minute to hold back the tide. With the leadership of both parties calling for a "no" vote, a special "emergency" briefing by NSA officials, and – to top it off – a rare White House statement urging members to reject the measure, the Amash amendment still managed to garner 111 Democratic votes (a majority of the House Democratic caucus) and a whopping 94 Republicans."
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 20:00:14 +0000
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