

Petition to impeach Judge Roger Vinson for authorizing NSA Verizon surveillance - fearless
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/impeach-federal-judge-roger-vinson-authorizing-warrantless-nsa-surveillance-millions-americans-phone/sKFwyNP8

======
nostromo
There's plenty of anger to go around, but my understanding is that it's more
productive to direct your efforts at legislators who approved the bad laws and
the executives who take full opportunity to abuse them -- and not the judges
who have a narrow role in this whole saga.

For example, if you live in California, perhaps you could call Dianne
Feinstein, who when asked about this program today said, "It's called
protecting America."

~~~
wl
Feinstein is a long-time advocate for the national security state. She is up
for reelection in 2018 in a state where she will not have a credible
challenger from another party in a general election or her own party in the
primaries.

You can contact her if you feel better. As for me, I have a folder full of
form letter responses from her office explaining why it's so important that
our civil liberties and privacy be curtailed to ensure our security. I don't
think adding another letter to my collection will help anything. And I doubt
her responses will do anything other than enrage you further.

The only sensible response at this point is to work to get her out of office
in 2018. But I don't have hope for that, either.

~~~
e40
100% agree here. I loath that she is has no challengers. I had heard that she
was going to retire and not run in 2012. I was so looking forward to that
primary and when I saw her name on it my heart fell.

Unfortunately, the best we can hope for is that she retires in 2018.

------
pseingatl
A bill of impeachment has to be filed in the House of Representatives. The
White House has nothing to do with this. This petition is a waste of time. If
you're upset, try to convince your Congressman.

~~~
cheald
I'm convinced that the Whitehouse petitions platform is just a pressure
release valve - a way to bleed off frustration so it's not manifested in more
politically-weighty ways.

~~~
stfu
This! Over and over again. Whenever I see one of those petition discussion I
am just baffled by the naiveté of people.

------
venomsnake
Is the judge really so at fault at this? Serious question - do they have right
to refuse approval under current legislation and can the administration just
judge shop until they find a more susceptible judge?

~~~
rosser
AIUI, no, the FISA court is pretty much a rubber stamp with a security
clearance.

------
cheese1756
I had put up a similar petition here, which targets more widespread change:
[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/cease-overbroad-
su...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/cease-overbroad-surveillance-
american-people/sMfwGWX5)

The more signatures on both, the better the chance of an official response.

------
coldcode
Until you can overcome the R and D machines and convince the 20% of people who
vote stupidly to do something different other than pull the straight party
lever nothing will ever change. You can also forget about civil war or
something like that as they have nailed before you even think about it.

------
biot
What authority does the Whitehouse have to force congress to hold a
congressional investigation?

------
shitlord
Wow, you guys are in full-jerk mode today!

Currently, I am seeing 16/30 articles on the front page describing the same
thing.

------
e3pi
So much press and attention on this today, when James Bramford surfaced even
more intrusive and comprehensive `See Clearly, Act Quickly' surveillance in
his 2008 book Shadow Factory. That's now five years ago.

~~~
foobarqux
What types of surveillance did he expose?

~~~
e3pi
Israeli(then, now BOEING) NARUS(R U NSA(?)) built `glass vampire' boxes at all
(6?) main trunk ATT overseas (routers?) scraping voice flagged words, names.
Lengthy detail of Bush administration free reign of (all?) domestic digital
surveillance. I may have this wrong, I read this some four, five years ago.
Scared me then scares me still. See Amazon review, Wikipedia, etc. There's
Youtube Bramford interviews, and more recently William Binney whistle blowing
-quite disturbing re: NSA execs revolving door with huge growth of vast
intelligence industrial complex.

------
godgod
I seriously don't get why people would ever submit their information to
wh.gov. It's like you are adding yourself to Obama's enemy list. I'm sure
Obama is going to overturn a spy program he signs off just because some rabble
rousers signed an online form. The US constitution is dead. He doesn't give a
damn.

~~~
PavlovsCat
oh, and here's to the button monkeys:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-
obamas-d...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-
dragnet.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

"The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the
truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse
it."

So it's okay to submit as an article, just not for a mere mortal commenter to
basically say _the same fucking thing_. Which reminds me, I use phrases like
"'n shit" to distance myself from you lot. I could "polite talk" like the best
of them, I just don't trust people who can't say "fuck", so I don't see a
reason to. Think of it as garlic to vampires.

