Wave Goodbye to Horrible, Surveillance-Defending, Snowden-Slamming Rep. Mike Rogers

Michigan Republican Rep. Mike
Rogers puts pretty much every other political defender of the
National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance tactics to shame. As
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he even manages to
outdo Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) defense of NSA intrusions
with his fearmongering and accusations that Edward Snowden is under
the
influence of the Russians.

Rogers was still
pushing that story last weekend, with no real evidence. He has
introduced his own version of NSA “reform” that experts say is
anything but. His “End Bulk Collection Act” doesn’t end bulk
collection at all and could actually allow the NSA to analyze even
more of our data without oversight (Trevor Timm of the Freedom of
the Press Foundation explains more
here).

But raise a glass and toast: Mike Rogers is
retiring from Congress. He announced this morning that he will
not run for re-election at the end of his term and will, instead,
start a conservative talk radio show. He
told a Detroit radio show, “It’s a pretty rare opportunity.
They don’t come around very often.” I don’t think I need Politifact
to assess the accuracy of that observation.

Some more from the parade of awfulness that is Rogers’ political
career since he joined Congress in 2000:

• Rogers introduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection
  Act (CISPA),
  which promoted sharing of data between the government and private
  Internet companies for the stated aim of preventing cyberattacks.
  It was criticized for lacking civil liberties safeguards and died
  after President Barack Obama threatened to veto it. He referred to
  critics of CISPA as “14-year-olds in their basements clicking
  around on the Internet.”
• He has argued that publishers could or should be charged with
  espionage for
  printing classified information if they were paid for their
  work.
• He called for American intervention in
  Syria, saying, “This is the time to act. Don’t wait until we
  have 5,000 dead. That’s too late.”
• He has co-sponsored multiple bills to outlaw Internet
  gambling.
• He was the primary sponsor of the censorious
  Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act, the legislation
  targeting the
  Westboro Baptist Church that makes it illegal to protest within
  300 feet of a military funeral on a federal cemetery an hour before
  or after the services.

Read his consistently terrible stands on choosing security over
liberty
here. Farewell, Rogers. Tech and privacy journalists probably
beat the candy out of the Big Security piñata you represent weeks
ago.