CONSERVATIVES AREN'T THE ONLY ONES HURTING AMERICA

Pres. Obama's defense of the NSA's spying is the single biggest threat to American civil liberty and it doesn't seem that anything can change his mind, including independent reviews of the NSA:

Independent review board says NSA phone data program is illegal and should end
By Ellen Nakashima, Published: January 22
Washington Post

In a strongly worded report to be issued Thursday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) said that the statute upon which the program was based, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, “does not provide an adequate basis to support this program.”

“We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation,” said the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “Moreover, we are aware of no instance in which the program directly contributed to the discovery of a previously unknown terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist attack.”

The Administrations response is unacceptable:

White House Rejects Board Urging to Halt Surveillance
By Arlette Saenz & Steven Portnoy
ABC News
Jan 23, 2014 4:47pm

The White House sharply disagreed today with a report from an oversight board that concluded the government’s surveillance program is illegally collecting phone records of Americans and recommended the practice be discontinued.

“We simply disagree with the board’s analysis on the legality of the program,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.