All five of Oklahoma’s congressional representative’s rejected surveillance reform, voting to reauthorize the spying that Edward Snowden currently lives in exile for exposing. Not too surprising, as Tom Cole, James Lankford and the other three Republicans have been nothing more than automated rubber stamps for increased military spending and surveillance powers.
I realize this is week-old news, but it still strikes me as more bleak confirmation that not one spine exists among the five. I think Oklahoma is ripe for at least one Congressman to have even a quarter of the courage as Amash and Paul have.
Cole himself said he has seen no abuse of 702, but clearly there has been, particularly with the revelation of rampant FISA court abuse. How could they not have known? The answer: of course they did. They just didn’t care. They just spewed the two-decade old “protect Americans from terrorists” trope to rationalize everything.
Ed: Despite having been absent for four days, about 70% of you are still here reading. I appreciate that very much. The lesson I’ve learned is this: don’t use a computer charger equipped for a much more powerful computer on a dinky old Chromebook. It shall be fried.
