Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash

[SevenFiveSeven]

[URL]http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/[/URL]

[quote]The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the house voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.

That’s the upshot of a new [URL="http://maplight.org/us-congress/bill/113-hr-2397/1742215/contributions-by-vote?sort=asc&order=%24%20From%20Interest%20Groups%3Cbr%20%2F%3EThat%20Opposed&party[D]=D&party[R]=R&party[I]=I&vote[AYE]=AYE&vote[NOE]=NOE&vote[NV]=NV&voted_with[with]=with&voted_with[not-with]=not-with&state=&custom_from=01%2F01%2F2011&custom_to=12%2F31%2F2012&all_pols=1&uid=44999&interests-support=&interests-oppose=D2000-D3000-D5000-D9000-D4000-D0000-D6000&from=01-01-2011&to=12-31-2012&source=pacs-nonpacs&campaign=congressional"]analysis[/URL] by MapLight, a Berkeley-based non-profit that performed the inquiry at WIRED’s request. The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in 122 percent more money from defense contractors than those who voted Wednesday to dismantle it.[/quote]

[img]http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2013/07/defense-contributions-chart.jpg[/img]

[Reds]

and absolutely fuck all will happen because the american public at large at apathetic as fuck over this

[kijji]

This is fucking ridiculous. There's no way people can say this is not a bribe.

[Dwarfy77]

[QUOTE=Reds;41614057]and absolutely fuck all will happen because the american public at large at apathetic as fuck over this[/QUOTE]

Just saying that wont change anything, believe me, we care, there were protests in major cities on the fourth, I was in Chicago's, whenever I see any American saying 'Well what are we supposed to do?', get out there, spread the word.

[Fatfatfatty]

Politicians dont run the country, corporations do.

And as long as money and trade is a thing, nothing can be done about it.

[Starpluck]

[QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;41614197]This is fucking ridiculous. There's no way people can say this is not a bribe.[/QUOTE]

It's not bribery because it's legalized. And the congressmen have no incentive to outlaw it or cap "donations," one of the problems of limitless-term office.

[SinjinOmega]

Auuuuuugh. Why won't you people stuff these facts into everyone's face?

[SinjinOmega]

[QUOTE=RichyZ;41614576]alright ill go out onto the street shouting out these headlines and hope people will believe me[/QUOTE]

I... didn't mean going off like a lunatic. Meanie :c

[catbarf]

It's not surprising, really- the ones who are more friendly with the defense industry get more campaign cash, and being friendly with the defense industry are more likely to give them what they want.

It's still absolutely disgusting how much political clout private entities have. We'd all be better off if corporate campaign contributions were outlawed entirely, but of course that will never happen.

[Comcastic]

I really hate this country

[rsa1988]

Well like the president the senators and the such should only have so many terms in office so that there is less incentive to make it a career. Sad that they are willing to fuck the country up rather than save it. Gotta love the sin of greed.

[catbarf]

[QUOTE=rsa1988;41615177]Well like the president the senators and the such should only have so many terms in office so that there is less incentive to make it a career. [/QUOTE]

Then we get people taking a break from running multi-billion-dollar companies to become President, help out their own interests, and then go back to their old company. Just look at Bush or Romney.

I'd rather we had politicians with nobody to answer to but the people. Allowing them to make a career out of office rather than make it a side job to a business is one way to do that.

[Used Car Salesm]

Wow, if you ever wanted proof that Washington is for sale...

[LowlyKommrad]

[QUOTE=Comcastic;41614996]I really hate this country[/QUOTE]

Then do something about it, god damn.

[shian]

[QUOTE=KommradKommisar;41615720]Then do something about it, god damn.[/QUOTE]

You make it sound so easy.

[evilweazel]

I can kind of see why people don't really care much about this who thing, I suppose. Most people don't seem to care if the NSA knows about them. In our global issues class when I was in High School we were talking about the morals behind a (at the time) theoretical program like this, and a lot of people said they'd rather have some government worker know their "secrets" if it meant the same program caught a potential terrorist or something, which I suppose I can see the reasoning behind. Don't think it's that people don't care, more like they don't see it as a huge loss of privacy or they think that loss of privacy is worth whatever it may prevent. I don't know for sure though.

Personally, I don't like it just because of the fact that the government said in court they were not monitoring us, and then this got leaked and disproved that. I wasn't naive enough to believe that they didn't have a program like this, but I suppose I was sort of hoping they actually didn't.

[Awesomecaek]

Democracy for sale.

[demoguy08]

They're not even particularly subtle about it anymore, are they

[Leaf Runner]

[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;41614231]Politicians dont run the country, corporations do.

[B]And as long as money and trade is a thing, nothing can be done about it.[/B][/QUOTE]

This is the kind of mindset that keeps anything from being done.

[Call Me Kiwi]

[url]www.wolf-pac.com[/url]
Might be worth looking at.