What Happened to the Democratic Party?

What has happened to some parts of the Democratic party nowadays?

First we hear of Big Brother-esque spying from the government, in which "metadata" from personal e-mails and phone calls is collected and placed into a colossal database of intelligence. Rather that actually issuing condemnations for the obvious Constitutional concerns that are caused by such programs, many top Democrats chose instead to defend the program! "It's called defending America" said Feinstein several days ago.

(NOTE: I am excepting Senator Franken, who also recently defended the program. I respect and trust Franken, and his support of the  program carries more weight with me than "party flaks" such as Feinstein)

Now I hear that in the wake of allegations of widespread sexual assaults in the military, which is undeniably a major problem that prompted John McCain to stop short of recommending that women join the military, Senator Carl Levin is now blocking efforts to fix the problem!

The plan was to add to the Defense Authorization Act (DAA) a proposal which would take investigation of sexual assaults out of the chain of command, thus ensuring that such assaults would receive due diligence instead of being whitewashed by top brass. The proposal, offered by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), reportedly had twenty-seven cosponsors, including four Republicans.

Unfortunately, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, stripped the proposal out of the DAA:

An effort to place military sex assault cases in the hands of an independent prosecutor was thwarted late Tuesday when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin sided with the top brass – and against a fellow Democrat.

Levin (D-Mich.) will strip a proposal by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) from the policy-setting Defense Authorization Act and replace it with a measure that instead requires senior military officers to review decisions when commanders refuse to prosecute a case.

Source: NBC News

To be fair, the article later mentions that:

Levin, who is not seeking re-election, is expected to accept an amendment from Senator Claire McCaskill to prevent commanders from overturning jury verdicts.

At the same time, the Democratic party that I know - the one that I have proudly supported for nine years - is not one that supports an ever-increasing police/surveillance state and efforts to whitewash sexual assaults!

That is not to say that Democrats are necessarily becoming Republicans. For that to happen, they would collectively have to lose several dozen IQ points and begin showing utter contempt for women, minorities, and work getting done in Congress.

Support for Big Brother because the face of Big Brother is now a Democrat, however, is not much better...

"Meet the old boss, same as the new boss"

Big Brother Government....From An Unlikely Source

We've known for quite a while that the government has been collecting information such as telephone and library records in the wake of the September 11th attacks.

What we haven't known, at least until The Guardian broke the story a few days ago, is that the government has been collecting the records of its own citizens, aided by major technology companies, since at least 2006:

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.

The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers.

Source: The Guardian

It's one thing to collect information about those who are suspected to have links to terrorists, but it's frankly appalling to hear the the government has been collecting records of its own citizens - in complete defiance of Constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantees of privacy.

Perhaps even more appalling, however, is the fact that many Democrats, who claimed to be so outraged when Dubya was doing this during his presidency, have tried to tell us that these new revelations are "no big deal":

“It is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress,” Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told reporters at an impromptu news conference in the Capitol. “This is just meta data. There is no content involved. In other words, no content of a communication. … The records can only be accessed under heightened standards.”

“I read intelligence carefully. And I know that people are trying to get to us,” Feinstein said. “This is the reason we keep TSA doing what it’s doing. This the reason the FBI now has 10,000 people doing intelligence on counter-terrorism. This is the reason for the national counter-terrorism center that’s been set up in the time we’ve been active.”

“And it’s to ferret this out before it happens,” she said. “It’s called protecting America.”

Source: TPM

No, Feinstein - it's called turning America into a police state in the name of national security".

I expect this kind of behavior from Republicans, who claim to care about the Constitution but have often been the first to violate it in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. I expect better from Democrats.

When I voted in 2008, I didn't just vote for Obama, but against the egregious power grabs and abuses that had happened on Dubya's watch in the name of 9/11: the torture - pardon me... "enhanced interrogation techniques", the PATRIOT Act, "Total Information Awareness", warrantless wiretapping, etc etc etc.

Now I find that Obama is not necessarily any better on these issues than Dubya. He puts on a good front for Democrats, claiming to be "transparent" and above the aggressive national security tactics while continuing many of the Bus-era programs.

It is, to say the least, disappointing.