Just What I Was Afraid Of

I will hold major Intelligence Committee hearings on NSA and other data-collection programs this fall. http://t.co/1MLEcbyBGd
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) August 9, 2013

President calls on Congress to revise key portions of Patriot Act; says steps can be taken to provide greater oversight/transparency
— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) August 9, 2013

On June , I wrote:

[I[t appears we have something of a limited hangout here by USG [regarding the Snowden leaks]. The purpose is unkown, though I suspect what may be going on is that the USG may be wanting to use in court cases some of the data they are collecting. BUT in order to do this, they have to acknowledge they have the data in the first place, which may be what the leak to Greenwald is all about (and the leaks to WaPo about USG tracking internet data).

Now that the public is aware this data is collected, Congress will hold hearings, not mind you, resulting in the end of the practice, but to ultimately set "guidelines" on when it can be used.

Let's see how this all plays out, but now that this data collection is being made public, to me the real danger is that the government is now going to be able to openly use it against its subjects--which may have been the purpose of the leaks in the first place.

If you really think that Feinstein and Obama are calling for hearings and revisions in the Patriot Act to enhance American freedoms, then you really need to get here to San Francisco, fast, I have a great fog making machine to sell you.

Any revisions will carry short paragraphs of legalese that will allow the data collection to be used against Americans in many more ways. The legislation will be passed and 6 months later, after it is enacted, WaPo and NYT will come out with stories on how the legislation actually enhanced the government to use the data in new ways.

Any Congressional hearings will be very dangerous. There is no one in the Senate or the House, that I can think of, that has the willingness, understanding and the power to stand up against an evermore powerful surveillance state. That the call for hearings is being led by Feinstein and Obama is deeply  troubling. We would be much better without hearings and deal with a somewhat chained NSA spying apparatus. New legislation will only take the changes off. Very scary.