Imagine That

The presidential advisory board on privacy that recommended a slew of domestic surveillance reforms in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations reported today that many of its suggestions have been agreed to “in principle” by the Obama administration, but in practice, very little has changed.

Most notably, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board called attention to the obvious fact that one full year after it concluded that the government’s bulk collection of metadata on domestic telephone calls is illegal and unproductive, the program continues apace.

  Dan Froomkin

Quel surprise.

And while Congress has variously debated, proposed, neutered, and failed to agree on any action, the report’s authors point the finger of blame squarely at President Obama. “It should be noted that the Administration can end the bulk telephone records program at any time, without congressional involvement,” the report says.

Oh, hell, he can’t even stop Congress from calling in Bibi Netanyahu to replace him.

You know, that little stunt should have woken the man up.  For his entire time in office, he's been appeasing the Republicans, to no avail.  I know there aren't many things where he actually disagrees with Republicans in the way of policy, but for the few that he does, if there's any way, shape or form in which he can circumvent them, he should be going night and day to do it after THaT.

The White House was recently said to be “still considering” the matter.

Wow. That will have the GOP shaking in their boots.

[O]ne recommendation in particular – that the intelligence community develop some sort of methodology to assess whether any of this stuff is actually doing any good — has been notably “not implemented.”

“Determining the efficacy and value of particular counterterrorism programs is critical,” the board says. “Without such determinations, policymakers and courts cannot effectively weigh the interests of the government in conducting a program against the intrusions on privacy and civil liberties that it may cause.”

Yes, dears. I’m sure they know that. Hence, their avoidance. If they'd taken that tack after Viet Nam, we wouldn't have been in any of the military campaigns waged since.  With the exception of Grenada.