Congress was giving spies a pass back in 1975, too

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I dunno if the word “radical” is appropriate to describe Abzug. I mean, she did some good work, but her work and legacy is decidedly liberal.

Sincerely,
a nitpicky radical

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Do go on.

We have a pattern in this country where people periodically realize that something did routinely happen here as recently as about twenty years ago, and somehow convince themselves that it doesn’t still happen now, even though the government denied it just as strenuously and people dismissed it just as easily as conspiracy theories back then.

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President Carter was the last to push back however gently against the National Surveillance State. Every President and most Congressmen and Senators since have had their tongues lodge firmly a foot or so up the Police State cloaca.

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Not to be an apologist, but at least in 1975 there was a concrete, credible, and serious foreign intelligence threat for the NSA and CIA to counter. You can make a somewhat better argument for overreach in the face of a Cold War opponent who really does have embedded agents who really are trying to get info on your secret weapons programs and whatnot than you can in the face of suicidal ragtag goat herders.

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Oh, I remember Sam Steiger. The type of character they call “interesting”. Also “inconsistent”.

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Yes, except then, as now, the ginned up threat was actually designed to encourage the spending of mega-dollars on a vast military-industrial complex. The process of distributing taxpayer dollars for programs of dubious benefit continues unabated. The process of unaccountability continues as well.

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