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JPL employees criticize government for pursuing background checks, Pasadena Star News
"JPL employees Wednesday criticized federal authorities for seeking a U.S. Supreme Court review of an appeals court decision blocking the government from requiring mandatory background checks. The U.S. Solicitor General's Office wants the nation's highest court to review the ruling, arguing that it could affect the government's ability to conduct background checks of contract employees. Robert Nelson, a JPL scientist and the lead plaintiff in the case, said he was disappointed by the government's decision to pursue the case to the Supreme Court level. "We particularly had hoped that the Obama administration would take a closer look at the unwise national security decrees of his predecessor," Nelson said."
Which is very sad and very funny.
They were played by the administration. And I mean deliberately played.
So if they relied on the Obama administration... whose campaign team cheerfully hammered progressives to allow passage of the abominable "limitless warrantless surveillance" FISA amendment even before he was elected... if they relied on his people to stop an executive overreach of surveillance powers then they were greatly misinformed as to the Obama administrations actual feelings on the matter.
Oh well... here's what happened, although it's probably too late for the information to do any good:
Despite the 2008 campaign rhetoric the Obama administration has been quietly indicating behind the scenes in a variety of decrees, findings, briefs and appeals in a variety of venues that it has never met a corporate giveaway, executive power grab, or Bush admin alibi that it didn't like.
And this administrations favorite tactic is to constantly attempt to boost questionable actions past any district or appeals courts as fast as legally feasible...
... or as fast as legally infeasible...
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/11/11/doj-circumvents-judge-walker-attempts-to-further-correct-previous-falsities/
... past any court competent to actually stand in judgement of the policies in question and straight to a favored appeals court or to the extremely pro-executive US Supreme Cpurt.
Which why there is macabre humor in the scenario of the far right shrieking nonstop that Obama is a "socialist"...
... Obama is dead-center corporatist who plays to the crowd, and plays the crowd, as a moderate leftist.
So the employees in question would seem to be screwed, basically. They mistook what Obama says for what Obama actually does.