Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday that Tuesday testimony from intelligence officials on the government's data-surveillance programs did little to close what he called a "credibility gap."
Thousands of Americans are languishing in federal prisons for lying to federal officials. Federal officials themselves often get a pass when they tell a whopper to Congress. It's a double standard that must end.
Controversy has engulfed the National Security Agency after it was revealed the office - and others like it - were collecting citizens' phone and e-mail records. The public revelations have split Congress, with some lawmakers defending the program as an effective way to fight terrorism, and others viewing it as the first step to the totalitarian "Big Brother" depicted in George Orwell's classic, 1984.
On Thursday, I held a news conference announcing my intent to pursue legal action against the federal government for infringing on Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.
Fearless Fosdick, the ace gumshoe in the old Li'l Abner comic strip who was assigned to prevent an unwitting shopper from buying the can of poisoned beans crafty evildoers had slipped into the food supply, is obviously the inspiration of the men who set out to collect the telephone records of every American.
Several key elements in the bombshell story about the government’s secret surveillance programs have been either underreported or left out of the narrative altogether.
A key Democratic senator said Wednesday the collection of phone records and other mass data is "well understood," but there is room to discuss the broader implications of the spying programs.
Several key elements in the bombshell story about the government's secret surveillance programs have been either underreported or left out of the narrative altogether.
Trust us. Would your government — and the private contractors your government hires to do the work — do anything bad? Snooping into the intimate details of the lives of everyone is not nice. Besides, it could be worse, and that's all the proof anyone needs to see that it's not really bad at all.
