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I honestly didn't expect my representative Chris van Hollen (his Congressional District is the MD suburbs of Washington, DC, not too far from the NSA), to vote
by atonse 13y ago
I honestly didn't expect my representative Chris van Hollen (his Congressional District is the MD suburbs of Washington, DC, not too far from the NSA), to vote to de-fund it. It would result in hundreds of lost jobs in his district. But nevertheless, I regret not making the phone call yesterday.
I hope this bill is offered up again, so I get a chance to tell my representative my opinion on it.
Edit: probably hundreds of jobs, not thousands.
- Amadou 13y agoRemember this wasn't to defund the NSA, just to defund the programs that spy on us citizens.
- kumarski 13y agoI wish I could go back and edit the title. I upvoted you to compensate. Sorry.
- atonse 13y agoCorrect - but this would still mean tons of lost jobs in this area, right? Surely, some human's eventually got to analyze the stuff.
- Amadou 13y agoThe claims are that no one looks at it unless they are specifically chasing down a lead - c.f. their redefinition of "collecT" from "acquire" to "look it up in the database of acquired data." Presumably they would have just as many analysts working cases without this database.
- kumarski 13y agoMy logic, is that if it becomes apparent which companies/organizations are funding the pro-NSA politicians, then something can be done about it. Whether it's nudging the SEO of donor companies in a negative direction or calling up companies and asking them why they support the NSA. You might find this useful: https://optin.stopwatching.us/ https://optin.stopwatching.us/ Edit: Also might find this useful: http://defundthensa.com/ http://defundthensa.com/
- mullingitover 13y ago> It would result in hundreds of lost jobs in his district. I'm just imagining a bill like this being debated in hypothetical 1980s East Germany, and legislators being concerned about the loss of all the good-paying Stasi jobs.