Lih Young, Senate (D)

Responses: 1.Drone attacks – 2.NSA – 3.Military spending – 4.Police practices – 5.Nuclear weapons – 6.Encryption – 7.Israel/Palestine – 8.Surveillance of First Amendment protected activity – 9.Refugees – 10.Guantanamo, indefinite detention – 11. “Countering Violent Extremism” programs – References

1. Drone Attacks: U.S. strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries using drone aircraft have killed many civilians, with observers claiming that far more civilians have been killed than have members of militant groups and that these strikes create more violent extremists than they kill. Recent research [1] based on leaked classified documents suggests that nearly 90% of people killed in recent drone strikes were not the target. Moreover, targeted assassinations in foreign countries are contrary to international law.

Do you oppose drone attacks which kill numerous civilians, undermine democratic principles, foment new terrorists, and may trigger a new global killer drone arms race?
__X__Yes ____No

Comments: WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
See below and attachments. See also other Qs. Social issues are interrelated.
(I). Restore JUSTICE & FAIRNESS -fix “ROBBER-ISM” first; NOT benefit “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS” propaganda to help/benefit themselves; victimize others = destroying freedom, fairness, democracy; continuing, on-going; expanding; penetrating civic non-profit, women, minorities, churches, nonsense studies, proposals, block grants, think tanks; unjust practices, manipulation, influence; legislation; hidden agenda; false/ misleading excuses; divert resources for private gains; inc. private-public partnership, development, housing, school, transportation, abandonment of properties, roads
(II). WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER! Too much rhetoric, false, misleading, unjust manipulation! Meaningless! Restore JUSTICE -fix “ROBBER-ISM” first; NOT to benefit “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation.
The most urgent serious problems here and overseas: ROBBERISM”= “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation = bad guy propaganda to help/benefit/self-promotion among themselves; victimize others = destroying freedom, fairness, democracy, capitalism; continuing, on-going; expanding; penetrating every segment of our lives, including civic non-profit, women, minorities, churches, nonsense studies, proposals, block grants, “think tanks”, etc.

[more at link]

2. NSA: In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless bulk surveillance of Americans’ telephone and electronic communications and metadata. While legal experts, lawmakers, and courts agreed the NSA had overstepped its bounds,[2] the House of Representatives failed, by 7 “no” votes,[3] to pass an Amash-Conyers amendment [4] that would have stopped spending on these NSA programs. Representatives Van Hollen (8th CD) and Delaney (6th CD) were among the “no” votes allowing the NSA programs to continue.

a. Do you agree that warrantless collection of metadata is itself a violation of Fourth Amendment[5] rights?
__X__Yes ____No

Comments: SUPPORT: The repealing the PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act. These two clearly unconstitutional laws have allowed the NSA, FBI and CIA to run roughshod over our First and Fourth Amendment rights, and should be repealed.” ; end the NSA’s mass collection of U.S. information. This is especially so, considering its abuse, lack of transparency and serious problems of “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation, unjust practices which penetrate every segment of our lives.
The Section 702 of FISA—enacted by Congress in 2008 to codify the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program—authorizes
surveillance that is not only unconstitutional but that violates the long-established human right to privacy. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the U.S. ratified in 1992, has four primary requirements relevant to national surveillance programs.
Surveillance must be: limited by statute and clearly defined in nature and scope; narrowly tailored to address legitimate governmental objectives, such as threats to national security; subject to independent oversight systems to prevent abuse; and applied equally irrespective of nationality.
Section 702 programs – like PRISM – provide virtually no “protection of the privacy interests of non-US persons outside US territory.” That means there are few clear boundaries, little oversight, and no meaningful protections against surveillance for noncitizens. In its recent Concluding Observations on U.S. compliance with the ICCPR, the U.N. Human Rights Committee agreed:
NSA surveillance undercuts international human rights law that protects Americans, too. U.S. disregard for noncitizens’ right to privacy gives the green light to other governments to indiscriminately collect and surveil Americans’ most personal data. For the protection of its own citizens’ privacy, the U.S. must respect the rights of noncitizens.
The USA Freedom Act. The bipartisan bill would help bring an end to the NSA’s indiscriminate practice of collecting the phone records and electronic data of innocent Americans. The intelligence community needs more oversight—it’s time to demand transparency from the NSA.
The National Security Agency’s controversial call-records dragnet has never been much use at finding terrorists, as two separate government panels have concluded, but technological change has been gradually rendering it completely irrelevant. Now, under the guise of putting an end to that program—which sweeps in the phone logs of millions of innocent Americans for later analysis—President Obama has proposed a new authority that could force private corporations to act as government spies, circumventing constitutional privacy safeguards in the process.
The Fourth Amendment was being eroded long before the NSA began its current program of spying on millions of innocent Americans. The War on Drugs alone has done tremendous violence to it. But even when paramilitary SWAT units are kicking down doors in the dead of night because a homeowner is suspected of possessing marijuana—an atrocious practice that I’ve condemned on many occasions—they can at least say that they suspect the individualized target of an actual crime.
With its telephony-metadata program, the NSA sets the precedent that the state may force its way into the private affairs of citizens even when authorities themselves acknowledge that they are suspected of no crime. It’s a dangerous, radical notion that national security statists have managed to pass off as centrism. Clear-eyed critics like Fein are vital if this trend is to be reversed before grave damage is done.
See other Q’s.

[more at link]

b. Will you work to stop continued warrantless electronic data and metadata surveillance by the NSA by funding cuts, the Surveillance State Repeal Act[6], or other legislative means?
__X__Yes ____No

Comments: WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
See below and attachments. See also other Qs. Social issues are interrelated.
Identified “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS”: law enforcement, FBI; Rockville/ Gaithersburg city staff, police

[more at link]

3. Military Spending: U.S. military spending accounts for 54 percent [7] of U.S. discretionary spending and 34 percent [8] of the world total; it exceeds the combined total of the next 8 [9] highest spending countries. Cuts in military expenditures would allow the federal government to expand health care, cut college costs, develop a green economy, and rebuild crumbling infrastructure. (1)

Would you support legislation to significantly reduce the military budget and redirect the savings to social needs?
__X__Yes ____No

Comments: WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
See below and attachments. See also other Qs. Social issues are interrelated.
DOD, Military budgets, other government agencies can be cut tremendously.
Eliminate bad legislative bills, bad appropriation, pet projects, corruption, or to benefit a few (inc. corporation, legal occupation, financial institutions, “official misconduct- government gang-“MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS- SYSTEM” which cause most serious “social- political- election- media- budget problems”. Most likely the legislative bills are bad, and often with serious hidden agendas and appropriation to benefit a few. A lot of legislative bills are unnecessary, except to keep legislators busy, without time to think, or to deal with more important bills or tasks/issues: e.g., resolving and provide proper remedies against “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks: operation, unjust practices; actually prosecuting/eliminating frauds, crimes or corruption (public or private, corporate or government).
There are Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other existing good laws, which need to be enforced, implemented; but are often ignored, violated intentionally, as by the rampant of “official misconduct- government gang-“MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS- SYSTEM” with endless immoral, unlawful acts, frauds/crimes; breed more corruption, violence; domestically, globally. Government: 3 branches, local- federal, inc. DOD, DOJ, law enforcement, government attorneys, prosecutors failed to carry out their responsibilities to enforce the good laws, protecting people, their LIVES, rights, resources, properties, reputation, due process, etc. Important but often ignored, suppressed, conspired, covered-up.
Major transaction or land deal should be rigorously reviewed objectively by academically very well trained, based on merits, priorities, cost- effectiveness, social cost-benefits, etc., through competitive processes, general soliciting, fair market mechanism; not arranged by the developer or inner circle; should be openly discussed with residents, in official meetings; not rushed through as the consent agenda items as small purchases of goods/services. Eliminate/prevent: abandonment of public land/resources/properties to benefit a few or “official misconduct- government gang- -“MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS- SYSTEM”, including developer, government attorneys, lawyers, law firms, etc.) at the expense of general public/future generations, including other jurisdictions; grants, public debts; local-state-federal-global; e.g., sold, leased out (secret hidden agenda, even huge acres, decades-long lease) with zero or no fair compensation, despite citizen’s objection; unnecessarily leased private properties for government use at very high costs even with short lease (a few years or shorter); with extra high costs to construct building, furnish expansive equipment; and when construction is done, lease expires, completed products abandoned or free to a few; often disguised by partnership, economic development, school, education, public safety, etc.; several rounds of unjust abandonment and purchase; misleading public roads, highways, when in fact abandoned to private; unjust projects, appropriation; misuse, abuse, misappropriation; false road construction, maintenance; false records: land, roads, maps; unjust demolition of building even in good condition to initiate new construction, project, purchase, including library or school.

[more at link]

4. Police practices: In recent years, the public has been galvanized by heightened exposure of police abuses, especially of minorities and their communities: racial profiling; use of excessive force, including shooting unarmed suspects; and the deployment of surplus military vehicles and weaponry to quell protests. In Maryland, the ACLU has documented at least 109 police-involved deaths between 2010 and 2014, with nearly 70 percent of victims being black and over 40 percent unarmed.[10] Local efforts to hold police accountable for abuses and to improve police practices are not uniformly vigorous or successful.

Will you support federal legislation including the End Racial Profiling Act[11] and the Stop Militarization of Police Act[12] to prevent police abuses, uphold the civil rights of suspects, and rein in the Pentagon’s 1033 program[13] transferring military equipment to police departments?
__X__Yes ____No