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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Pelosi Booed At Netroots Nation 2013 For Defending Obama's Domestic Spying; Update- Video Added

By Susan Duclos

[Update] Video added below the post.


It isn't often a far leftist liberal Democrat gets booed at the liberal annual conference the Netroots Nation, but it happened to Nancy Pelosi as she tried to defend Barack Obama's domestic spying program.

Via Politico:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was booed by progressive activists Saturday for defending President Obama on the NSA’s surveillance programs and suggesting that alleged leaker Edward Snowden broke the law.

Speaking in a wide-ranging Q&;A session at this year’s Netroots Nation conference, Pelosi said it’s unfair to equate Obama and former President George W. Bush on the issue of surveillance.

“People on the far right are saying oh, this is the fourth term of President Bush,” the California Democrat said. “Absolutely, positively not so.”

As Pelosi was saying the country needs a “balance” between security and privacy, Marc Perkel, a 57-year-old activist from Gilroy, Calif., started shouting at Pelosi during her answer and was escorted out of the room.

“It’s not a balance. It’s not constitutional!” he yelled. “No secret laws!”

Others in the room began shouting as well, saying things like “Leave him alone!” or “That’s what a police state looks like right there!”

This comes on the heels of of news that the Obama administration has charged the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden with espionage and that the top secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has ruled against the Department of Justice and determined it has no objection to the release of a court opinion stating that portions of the NSA domestic spying program was illegal and unconstitutional.

[Update] The first video below includes the original heckling as well as the loud boos when Pelosi refers to the NSA leaker and defends the spying. The second video is short, 41 seconds, comes after the heckling and just covers the loud booing.

Video below, the heckling starts at the 47 minute 40 second mark. Scroll bar can be moved to that point for those that don't want to listen to the whole thing.

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