Among the many concessions Kevin McCarthy had to agree to before winning sufficient support for his Speaker bid from the holdout Freedom Caucus members was the agreement to allow “Church Committee”-style hearings to investigate the FBI, CIA and other appendages of the surveillance state.
According to likely committee member Thomas Massie the hearings will have genuine teeth and investigators will have plenty of leeway to look into a wide range of potential deep state misdeeds. This is great news.
On the Jimmy Dore Show, guest host Aaron Maté and comedian Kurt Metzger discussed the prospects for such a committee and the displeasure its creation is already engendering among intelligence community defenders.
Another demand of the Freedom Caucus is to bring the U.S. military and aid to Ukraine under the same budget oversight as the rest of the government.
I’m not a libertarian or a Republican myself and I don’t agree with the full program of the Freedom Caucus, but how is this wrong?
Senator Frank Church, who led the investigation of CIA assassinations and other abuses of power in 1975, was a well-respected and strongly liberal Democrat. Where are liberal Democrats today? Who is the equivalent of Frank Church?
Of course the whole investigation could turn into another partisan Republican fiasco – another false dawn. One can hope.
LINKS
America’s Open Wound: the CIA is not your friend by Edward Snowden for Continuing Ed.
House Republicans Get Set to Investigate by the staff of the Arkansas Democrat & Gazette.
Freedom Caucus earns major concessions from Kevin McCarthy by Jon Levine and Mary Kay Linge for the New York Post.
McCarthy weighing $75 billion defense budget cut in quest for speakership by Conor Echols for Responsible Statecraft.
Portraits in Oversight: Frank Church and the Church Committee by the Levin Center.
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
January 13, 2023 at 8:51 am |
If it was about taking on the the surveillance state and protecting liberty there are plenty of things these Conservative Republicans could do like :
Repeal the USA Patriot Act
Pass Federal legislation to close Git MO
Bar the NSA from keeping domestic phone records of US citizens
But none of this is the goal of their investigations. This is revenge for Trump and a showcase for their extremist ideology to fire up their base. It will also target people like Dr. Anthony Fauci over the handling of COVID 19 before they are finished too.
Center left liberals have been failing for years to better defend civil liberties which is ironic and disturbing considering our classical liberal inheritance. But don’t trust rightwingers like McCarthy and the current House GOP to be any better. They are the same people who have backed Trump and went along with the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
It’s all smoke and mirrors for these reactionaries who don’t have a constructive agenda or any intention of governing to help ordinary people.
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January 25, 2023 at 8:03 am |
Have you heard about the military term V.U.C.A? If not , you may be interested in reading one of my blog article https://authorjoannereed.net/what-is-the-secret-to-survive-thrive-in-this-chaotic-world-its-vuca/ – Hope to see you there…
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January 25, 2023 at 3:11 pm |
Hey Phil. I decided not to move forward with a blog at WordPress and instead continue with Blogger. Its called The Other Liberal. However I will continue to visit you here. Best of luck this is so cool.
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