News that the NSA is spying on us isn’t new

Date: June 17, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Americans have been in a tug of war over our privacy since our country’s inception, a debate that I think will continue for generations to come.

It’s been a little over a week since alleged whistleblower Edward Snowden told the story that’s been known for years: The National Security Agency (NSA) has been monitoring the Internet and international and domestic phone calls.

On May 11, 2006, USA Today’s Leslie Cauley wrote, “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA Today.”

Later, on June 30, the newspaper partially recanted the May 11 report writing, “AT&T hasn’t confirmed or denied,” and, “BellSouth and Verizon have denied” their participation with the NSA database.

Two years later Congress would grant retroactive immunity to these telecommunication companies as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008. Continue Reading

Low wages causing more to seek help

Date: June 10, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Why are applicants and recipients of food stamps, housing subsidies, and Medicaid increasing?

The only true answer to that is found by walking a mile in the worn shoes of the millions of struggling Americans applying for the assistance.

And I don’t understand how those downtrodden Americans can be turned away just because of the unnecessary, and inconsiderate congressionally-made crisis we call sequestration.

Less than five short years ago, our labor force was hit with a mighty blow. Manufacturing had been bleeding out for decades, but in the last quarter of 2008, our economy began hemorrhaging over 700,000 a month, and for months.

The U.S. was dangling at the edge of a second not-so-Great Depression. Many lost everything. Continue Reading

Non-scandals just another GOP ploy

Date: June 3, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

The Justice Department’s investigation into White House leaks has morphed into an Associated Press/First Amendment non-scandal. It’s an attempt by Republicans to dishonor the President, or was that Benghazi?

No, it was blaming the President for the IRS investigations into tea party groups. What was the IRS thinking, investigating groups who fight against taxation and were ultimately given tax exempt status?

The Justice Department’s investigation into security leaks began over a year ago, over classified information involving a cyber warfare program against Iran in May 2012.

How do leaks that become public knowledge, and then political, help keep Americans safe?

I’m sorry, but I can no longer refer to the GOP/tea party/RNC as the “Right.” While individual members may be truthful and accurate, their party is not right.

Continue Reading

Obama delivered just as he promised

Date: May 27, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

In 2008, candidate Barack Obama promised to cut our deficit in half by the end of his first term. He may be a day late but newly crunched numbers by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)) are projecting the deficit has fallen even farther than half — down towards two-thirds.

The spending deficit for fiscal year 2008/2009 was $1.4 trillion, reiterated in a Feb. 28, 2013 CBO report by Kathy Ruffing and Joel Friedman. Cutting better than half deserves accolades.

We could argue why the President didn’t get it done in his first term, but he did get there nonetheless, and with little help from Congressional Republicans, and little fanfare, too.

Isn’t it odd that these same folks who pushed back, then used his supposed deficit cutting failure as their political repartee during the 2012 election cycle, don’t want to touch his success now?

I guess the GOP/tea party/RNC are too busy politicking for 2014 with a repeat of 2010 and 2012, and not by identifying what might make them better candidates but rather by destroying opponents by any means. The 2014 re-election recipe calls for mountains made out of molehills. Continue Reading

Benghazi cover-up is a GOP fairy tale

Date: May 20, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

What happened in Benghazi Sept., 11, 2012, was tragic — and so is the Republican political grandstanding.

The preposterous claim that the Obama Administration lied to the American people about who perpetrated the attack in Benghazi because he failed to address it as a “terrorist” attack is absurd.

I’m pretty confident that most Americans could care less what the nationality, ethnicity or political beliefs of the murderers are — back in September, today, or if at all.

Does anyone care if these terrorists were a group of protesters angry over a derogatory film or if they were the scarier and notorious Al Qaeda terrorists? One group of terrorists doesn’t make you any deader than another group of terrorists?

It is absurd, with a capital A. Continue Reading

Libertarians are too extreme for Norwich

Date: May 13, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Could Libertarians candidates fix what ails Norwich? Perhaps, but these  so-called “authentic liberals” first need to win the hearts and minds of Norwich  residents, and that won’t be easy.

Libertarians basically share the doctrine  that freedom requires limited or no government at best, a life-less Constitution  interpreted as originally conceived, and champion and protect individual rights  to life, liberty and property rights.

If the aforementioned tenet were the  end of their story I might even consider voting for one or two Libertarian  candidates, but there’s more.

I don’t know exactly what their positions are  on segregation, affirmative action, etc., but Libertarians believe all human  relationships should be voluntary. That would be all well and good in a perfect  world, but the world’s not perfect.

For Norwich voters who might consider  voting for Libertarian mayoral and City Council candidates after reading their  collective dogma, they’ll also need to meander through a throng of individual  libertarian philosophies to decipher exactly what they’re selling. Continue Reading