Yesterday, the US House voted on an amendment to a defense budget bill, that would have specifically stopped the NSA from blanket collections of meta data of Americans in the United States. Now, you would think that many Democrats would stick with the President on this and vote 'no', and that Libertarian-leaning (conservative Republicans) would lean against the NSA and vote 'yes' on it. That's not how it ended up. A majority of Democrats voted to stop the NSA, while a majority of Republicans voted to support the NSA.
Here's how Oregon's representatives voted:
Yes (to stop the NSA):
- Suzanne Bonamici (D)
- Earl Blumenauer (D)
- Peter DeFazio (D)
- Kurt Schrader (D)
No:
- Greg Walden (R)
Of course, I have been writing about my opposition of the NSA's blanket surveillance on Americans from the beginning, and I'm a huge fan of Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. All I have to say on this: I'm extremely proud that we have such fine representatives (save Greg Walden, of course) in Oregon.
Brings tear to my eyes, really.
Update: Maplight / Wired Magazine found a relationship between those who voted to block the NSA and those who voted to support the NSA: MONEY.
So the message is, if a lawmaker gets lots of money from the military and intelligence industry, they're more interested in defending that money than defending your civil freedoms.
Greg Walden -- $37,500
Suzanne Bonamici -- $15,750
Kurt Schrader -- $13,500
Earl Blumenauer -- $7,000
Peter DeFazio -- $6,000
No comments:
Post a Comment