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How Nancy Pelosi Saved the NSA Surveillance Program
- pstuart 13y agoSubmitting links that are subscriber-only kind of sucks. Yes, one can do the googlebot trick but one shouldn't have to.
- mpyne 13y agoMaybe it requires JS to work, I was able to read it fine on Firefox+NoScript. Though, now that I think about it, I remember making this same complaint a couple of months ago when Chromium still compiled here.
- hga 13y agoWorks for me, Debian Squeeze 32 bit, official Chrome 27.0.1453.93 (that's no longer being maintained by Google). I'm running Adblock Plus, nothing else relevant I think. Not that I disbelieve you and all the others who've reported this about this site, but what do you see?
- hmart 13y agoI think the OP did the right linking to the original article. If this is suscriber-only you can take the time to subscribe or circunvent the blocking. BTW I use getpocket.com, it works fine.
- Pwnguinz 13y agoIt's merely a JS based modal box. You can use your web browser's devtool/inspector to delete the two divs, one for the black transparent overlay, and one for the sign-up modal.
- marshray 13y agoI wish I had those two minutes back.
- malabar 13y agoThanks for the tip. Did exactly that in Win 7 / Maxthon Browser.
- adriand 13y agoOr you can simply load (or refresh) the page and when you can see the article, but before the overlay appears, hit the stop button in your browser.
- greenyoda 13y agoIt also displays fine if you have the NoScript add-on.
- freehunter 13y ago>Submitting links that are subscriber-only kind of sucks. Yes, one can do the [insert trick here] but one shouldn't have to.
- btian 13y agoWorks perfectly fine for me. Centos 6.4 with Chrome 26
- sweenster 13y agoThis bothered me as well, but at least in Chrome I was able to read the article by right clicking the dialog, inspecting elements, then deleting elements "TB_overlay" and "TB_window".
- hkmurakami 13y agoworked just fine on Firefox for android
- zenocon 13y agoset ids TB_Overlay and TB_Block to display:none
- cpleppert 13y agoI just automatically hit escape or press cmd/ctrl+r to try again; works 95 percent of the time
- donretag 13y agoVery gutsy move considering her congressional district is San Francisco. Are there enough local techies to vote her out of office, or is the anti-Republican bias too high?
- rdl 13y agoA Republican has basically no chance in San Francisco. (In local politics, it's kind of amusing. Anywhere but SF, Gavin Newsom would have been a Republican (except on the LGBT issue); basically in SF politics the Democrats are the right wing, and the Greens are the left wing; the Republicans are essentially as relevant locally as a party like UKIP is in the UK). A Democratic primary challenger won't work because she is minority leader. The best option is probably a Green Party or other left third party, overtly allied with the Democratic Party in the house otherwise.
- bratsche 13y agoCan you explain why it matters to SF that she's minority leader? Why is that reason enough to not allow a Democrat challenger?
- rdl 13y agoUsually there is a lot of value to a district or state in having a powerful member of congress (the right committees, leadership roles, etc.), in terms of what things he or she can bring back to the district. It's unclear how much value SF actually gets from her; SF people probably care about union and (especially) environmental issues, but don't particularly need direct government spending ("pork" or real). LGBT (marriage equality, etc.) and immigration are probably the other big issues, and "traditional left values" like abortion access, racial/etc. equality, etc., which arguably a powerful representative in the senate is likely to support -- and sending one from SF to do it rather than a potentially more conservative democrat from elsewhere should help those issues. However, even on those issues, Pelosi is a pretty worthless congresswoman. I don't think there's much real value in having her in Congress for anyone (except her and a limited number of donors), but perception and reality may not be the same.
- fsck--off 13y agoTo clear Foreign Policy's lightbox, use this bookmarklet: javascript:%20(function(){document.getElementById("TB_window").style.display%20=%20"none";document.getElementById("TB_overlay").style.display%20=%20"none";}()); Courtesy of Sean McLemon (HN username smcl): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5644021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5644021
- cek 13y agoTechies in NoCal think they carry a lot of weight. If they really do, she will be voted out of office next election. If she gets elected again it will indicate either tech hasn't the voice it thinks, doesn't vote, or are confused on what's important.
- hkmurakami 13y agoI hear ya, but will a credible opponent arise in that district? no democrat will run against her given her clout. is any republican electable in sf?
- smsm42 13y agoDon't hold your breath. SF is one of the liberal strongholds. Reps probably won't even bother to go there - unless of course they see a real chance (see Scott Brown) but they wouldn't. Which means Pelosi is free to do anything she wants, as her own party would never restrain her (especially at the time she promotes the agenda of the President from her own party) and Reps have no real political power to oust her. Be thankful to the people of California for this gift that keeps on giving.
- refurb 13y agoLast voter data I saw has registered Republican's in the low teens as a percentage of registered voters. The only way I could see a Republican winning SF is if he/she were a fiscal conservative/social libertarian.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> Last voter data I saw has registered Republican's in the low teens as a percentage of registered voters. Not that high; per current registration data [1], 37,719 registered Republicans of 437,529 total registered voters, so Republicans are 8.62%. Low teens is about what the typical Republican running in San Francisco gets on election day > The only way I could see a Republican winning SF is if he/she were a fiscal conservative/social libertarian. If the political mood in San Francisco was running in a way that social libertarian positions were strong enough that they'd get enough liberal voters to hold their breath and vote for a fiscal conservative, then a left-libertarian would probably end up as the Democratic candidate in the general election, and win. (Although the main effect, given the way California's "open primary" works, would likely be a contested primary among Democrats resulting in the two candidates that make it to the general election both being Democrats.) I suppose, though, if you the the surge of social libertarianism happens after the primary but before the general election, and the Democratic candidate isn't a social libertarian, you might end up with a chance for the Republican. But that's a pretty freakish scenario. [1] http://www.sfelections.org/tools/election_data/ http://www.sfelections.org/tools/election_data/
- codex 13y agoIt's a shame the article doesn't go into why she worked to scuttle this amendment even though she can sometimes be a harsh critic of intelligence programs.
- hkmurakami 13y agomy thought exactly. even the letter to the president seems like a toll made precisely to respond to press inquiries like this one
- gorbachev 13y agoShe worked against the amendment because the President was against it. It's all about partisan hackery.
- hkmurakami 13y agothe article states that pelosi is wary and concerned about intelligence, but doesn't give any real concrete examples. the only thing that can be construed as such would be "I didn't vote for prism last time it was up" which doesn't mean all that much to me. is she actually a surveillance skeptic or is this a facade? her recent actions don't supple this claim at all.
- od2m 13y agoHey San Francisco-- do the nation a favor and stop voting for this disaster. She's an embarrassment.
- whyenot 13y agoMaybe the people of San Francisco aren't single issue voters. She has been a very strong supporter of gay rights, for example.
- staunch 13y agoAs would be virtually any replacement.
- rdl 13y agoActually, that might be a great way to get a third-party challenger in SF -- so far there have only ever been two openly gay people elected to congress as non-incumbents (i.e. they came out while already in office, but got re-elected), in Florida and Wisconsin. If anywhere is a good place for an openly gay person to run for congress, it's SF. I assume an actual gay or lesbian person would have higher LGBT cred than Pelosi.
- dev1n 13y agoYes well she is also a politician and chooses what portions of the Constitution to uphold based on what will keep her in office [1]. This was the part of the constitution she decided to uphold two days ago. [1] http://www.examiner.com/article/nancy-pelosi-congress-must-uphold-constitution-by-passing-gun-control http://www.examiner.com/article/nancy-pelosi-congress-must-u...
- smsm42 13y agoI'm pretty convinced you can find supporters of gay rights in many political circles[1], you don't have to elect this disaster for that. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/01/cheney-offers-his-support_n_209869.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/01/cheney-offers-his-s...
- jjjeffrey 13y ago> "Well, I didn't vote for the PATRIOT Act the last time it was up," she said today, at her weekly press briefing. "I don't want anybody to misunderstand a vote against the Amash resolution yesterday." Er, I don't think there is any way to misunderstand a vote. It's really as simple as it gets. I doubt that some supposed underlying strategy holds more truth than the vote itself.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nostromo 13y agoEven though this didn't pass, it's still bad for Pelosi. If you're minority leader and you don't even manage to get half of your party to vote against an amendment introduced by a republican, despite extensive lobbying, what good are you? There has to be at least one tech industry person with beaucoup bucks and an interest in politics that can take on Pelosi. Every Democrat insider would oppose a primary challenge, but I can imagine a scenario where someone with a lot of resources could bypass the establishment and speak directly to voters. Jerry Yang comes to mind. He could perhaps even mobilize the Taiwanese population in SF.
- rdl 13y agoI think the catch-22 is that you'd need a lot of money to run outside of the political system, but SF voters are anti-capitalist (at least, a fair number are) and wouldn't elect a rich person. Of course, Pelosi has $58mm, but she didn't earn it through something big and impressive, but through normal sketchy congressional investment dealings.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 13y ago> I think the catch-22 is that you'd need a lot of money to run outside of the political system, but SF voters are anti-capitalist (at least, a fair number are) and wouldn't elect a rich person. San Francisco has a history of electing wealthy people to public office. Reality disagrees with your stereotypes.
- rayiner 13y agoHer husband is a businessman that owns a real estate firm.
- rdl 13y agoShe made a lot of money from various non-public stock deals, such as Visa, which were pretty shady. A lot of people in congress do. Marital wealth is less "obvious" to voters. Voting in a person who actually made a bunch of money through business is much more overt. Inherited wealth is also safe by comparison.
- skirunman 13y agoI live in SF and have met Ms. Pelosi. I am against 90% of her policies. I tweeted this today @NancyPelosi Shame on you for voting to continue to fund the NSA and unwarranted spying on all Americans. The only answer is a constitutional amendment to add term limits for both houses. I'd like to see 2 - 6 year terms for Senators and 4 - 2 year terms for Reps. Our legislators were not meant to have jobs for life. Do your public service and then get back to the real world.
- appleflaxen 13y agoThe American public is losing the battle of words. We need to start calling these policies what they are: fascist Pelosi and others who support the NSA surveillance dragnet are American fascists.
- jacoblyles 13y agoMy understanding of historical fascism is that it includes a strong sense of national identity combined with a muscular state and usually some sort of narrative of national superiority. When's the last time someone flew an American flag un-ironically in downtown SF? We're nowhere close to fascist.
- shredfvz 13y agoWhen's the last time you made a politically incorrect statement to an American citizen living outside of SF? At first I agreed with you, but on a broader basis your sentiment just doesn't match up with reality.
- ndesaulniers 13y agoBecause patriotism is being used to justify evil. If you don't support the "Patriot Act" then you must not be a "patriot", apparently.
- newbie12 13y agoThat's not really a useful definition. More specifically fascism elevates the interests of the state over the interests of individuals. While similar to communism in that regard, fascism uses private economic production rather than state ownership of production. So hallmarks of fascism are things like state-granted monopolies to specific companies, organized cartels, and heavy handed industrial policies. Fannie Mae, U.S. Farm programs, and subsidized green energy loans are little slices of American economic fascism.
- uptown 13y agoAnd the second you use a word that most Americans need to look in a dictionary to understand, you've already lost them. In my opinion - you need to find a way to combat the concept that "if I'm not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to hide - and they're doing it for my safety" rationale in a very real, tangible, personal way. If you can win that argument in a convincing-enough way that people you've convinced actively refute that concept to others going forward - only then will you start to win the battle of words. Unfortunately, I fear that may only start to happen if (when?) some of the data collected under these programs is abused or leaked.
- fpgeek 13y agoSigh. Other than from a purely theatrical perspective, the vote wasn't close at all. Even if you think this amendment could have magically gotten past the inevitable Senate filibuster (and I don't see how), the margin in the House was nowhere near the two-thirds majority required to override the guaranteed veto.
- dllthomas 13y agoThe veto isn't guaranteed - this is a defense appropriations bill, and the President can't veto just this amendment. The eventual alternative without an override, if both sides stick to their guns, is no funding for any NSA activities (or drone strikes, or anything else...).
- Stwerner 13y agoDo any of you think it would it be useful to have a site where it would be possible to donate time to different campaigns on certain sides of issues? Imagine if you had a place where you could donate engineering time to a campaign for someone who voted to defund the NSA, or donate your time to the campaign of someone who is running against a rep who voted against it. Think... a marketplace where you could donate your expertise, be it engineering, SEO, SEM, design, etc to campaigns on the sides of issues you care about.
- yankoff 13y ago.. and there's a street in SF named after her: Nancy Pelosi Dr.
- ajays 13y agoPeople can bitch and moan all they want on HN, but how many actually took the time to call her office? I did and the aide wrote down my support of the amendment. If the 1000s of readers of HN had all called, she probably may not have voted against it (but may still have convinced others to do so). What we need is someone to run against her. Someone sane and not a cuckoo. She's old-school, represents the establishment, etc.; someone young, tech savvy and willing to spend the time could put up a tough fight. Anyone thinking of running against her: I can promise you that I will work for your campaign for free and pound the pavement like crazy. Let's do it!
- goldfeld 13y agoHey now, why isn't there a platform where people can get in-kind crowdfunding for campaigns? Just like open source projects get a lot more help in terms of man-hours than money, so could people from the tech community running for office.
- ajays 13y agoThat's a good idea: crowdfunded elections for the underdogs.
- lancewiggs 13y agoDailyKos has been doing this for years.