{"id":186520,"date":"2013-12-31T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/12\/31\/in-related-news-butterflies-are-going-to-fly-our-of-my-ass\/"},"modified":"2013-12-31T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T01:00:00","slug":"in-related-news-butterflies-are-going-to-fly-our-of-my-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/12\/31\/in-related-news-butterflies-are-going-to-fly-our-of-my-ass\/","title":{"rendered":"In Related News, Butterflies are Going to Fly Our of My Ass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are now starting to see reports that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2013\/12\/31\/obama-s-defining-fight-how-he-will-take-on-the-nsa-s-surveillance-state-in-2014.html\">Obama is planning to reign in the intelligence agencies<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Before he left for Hawaii, the president was sending signals that government surveillance programs need an overhaul to restore the public\u2019s faith on issues of national security.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Before President Obama left for his 17-day vacation in Hawaii, White House officials made it clear that his holiday reading would consist of a lot more than beach novels to escape the stresses of Washington. He\u2019d also be studying a 300-page report on how to rein in the government\u2019s controversial surveillance programs that had just been delivered to him by a high-level panel of experts.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Sure, Obama has gotten in plenty of rounds of golf with his presidential posse, as well as impromptu trips to shave ice joints and leisurely strolls along the islands\u2019 stunning beaches with his family. But weighing on him throughout the winter getaway has been one of the most consequential national security decisions of his presidency: whether to adopt a set of recommendations that would represent the most dramatic curbing of the intelligence community\u2019s eavesdropping powers since the Vietnam War. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Still, behind the scenes, Obama&#8217;s counterterrorism polices have continued to tug at his conscience. He has prodded his aides to re-address unfulfilled promises and occasionally chastised himself for not acting more in accordance with his personal convictions. His recent vow to \u201cgo back at\u201d closing Guantanamo has led to the most sustained progress toward closing the detention facility since the first year of his presidency.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This, &#8220;If only the Czar knew,&#8221; bullsh%$ is precisely that, 10 pounds of sh%$ in a 5 pound bag.<\/p>\n<p>Obama has been consistent on these issues, he has moved to expand powers for the executive, on the theory that because he is a good guy, there is nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n<p>It is why I call him the, &#8220;Worst Constitutional Law Professor ever<sup>\u2122<\/sup>&#8220;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are now starting to see reports that Obama is planning to reign in the intelligence agencies: Before he left for Hawaii, the president was sending signals that government surveillance programs need an overhaul to restore the public\u2019s faith on issues of national security.Before President Obama left for his 17-day vacation in Hawaii, White House &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[971,1062,1102,982],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-rights","category-espionage","category-intelligence","category-stupid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}