Yesterday I reported on four victories we had in Congress last week.
I described them as a potential “turning-of-the-tide” against endless wars and foreign meddling. I said I couldn’t remember the last time the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) lost four such votes in Congress.
And I also said that our one, close-call defeat — the Amash amendment to defund the NSA’s criminal spying — was still a significant step forward.
Today I’ll tell you WHY.
The White House and the MIC did everything they could to defeat the Amash amendment…
- The NSA gave members of Congress private scare briefings.
- Former Attorney Generals and past “spook agency” leaders signed an open letter of opposition.
- The Wall Street Journal attacked Amash as “unqualified” to introduce such a bill.
- The Democratic Whip's office even suggested that the Amash amendment “…pertain[s] to persons who may be in communication with terrorist groups…”
But the absolute worst tactic came from the House Republican leadership…
They offered an amendment that would supposedly protect Americans from the PRISM system that dragnets your Internet communications. Sounds good right? Well…
It was a fraud designed to peel away support from Amash. This PRISM amendment merely added an exclusion for “targeting a US person” to a section of law that already said “targeting a US person!” They simply added redundancy to the status quo . But…
This fake change allowed more than 195 House members to claim they voted to curtail the NSA while avoiding the Amash amendment’s extreme approach.
But really, they changed NOTHING.
Yes, you read that right: The “targeting US person” language was already in the law. And, as we now know, thanks to Edward Snowden, it has completely failed to protect US persons.
But this dirty trick was enough to kill the Amash amendment…
Just barely.
The Amash amendment almost passed, despite all of the above. We only needed fewer than a dozen votes to secure victory.
Could we have made the difference if we had pushed just a little bit harder? I think we could have. And I think we will.
Tomorrow I’m going to tell you about…
The strong signs I see of a growing rebellion. You’ll be encouraged. But for now…
I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP. I’m still $2,516 short of what we need to pay our bills for July. Can you help close the gap?
Maybe there’s one person reading this who could cover the whole amount, but it’s more likely we’ll need at least one $1,000 donation, one $500, several at $250, a few at $100, and the rest rounded out by donations of $75, $50, $25, and $10. Any amount will help.
My team, here at Downsize DC, is counting on you. If you haven’t given recently or ever, please join us now.
Thanks for your support,
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.