Does This Really Surprise Anyone?

by on October 10, 2008 · 4 comments

According to ABC News:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

It’s a simple formula: Lack of oversight produces abuses. Members of Congress may scurry around and declare outrage, but the responsibility is their own as much as anyone else’s.

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About Jim Harper

Jim Harper is the Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, the Editor of Web-based privacy think-tank Privacilla.org, and the Webmaster of WashingtonWatch.com. A Poli Sci major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Jim served as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly in his final year at Hastings College of the Law. Prior to becoming a policy analyst and advocate, Jim served as counsel to committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. He avoids genuine life experience by watching lots and lots of reality TV.

Read more articles by Jim Harper.

  • JammingEcono

    How can there be effective oversight when the Administration fought efforts to increase oversight like it was a holy war?

  • MikeRT

    Any bill that is vetoed can be repassed by Congress without having to be signed by the President. It has always been constitutionally feasible for Congress to ram oversight down Bush's unwilling throat. If that fails, and he pulls his usual stunts, it's likewise feasible for them to impeach the son of a bitch for breaking the law.

    The reason Congress has failed to do this is that they'd rather chase after their own greedy interests than do their jobs. If working stiffs wasted so much of their time doing absolutely nothing for their employers that they agreed to do, it would get them fired.

  • JammingEcono

    How can there be effective oversight when the Administration fought efforts to increase oversight like it was a holy war?

  • MikeRT

    Any bill that is vetoed can be repassed by Congress without having to be signed by the President. It has always been constitutionally feasible for Congress to ram oversight down Bush's unwilling throat. If that fails, and he pulls his usual stunts, it's likewise feasible for them to impeach the son of a bitch for breaking the law.

    The reason Congress has failed to do this is that they'd rather chase after their own greedy interests than do their jobs. If working stiffs wasted so much of their time doing absolutely nothing for their employers that they agreed to do, it would get them fired.

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