Presidential Power & Pressure Groups

In brief, the amount of power the President has is a regular and key question at A2; recent events have served to highlight the limits to that power, and to demonstrate how far the President can act in foreign policy before being called to account.

US Private Bradley Manning's leaks, and those of Edward Snowden have highlighted how far the US government (eg the NSA) has broken US law through surveillance of US and other activities, such as the one called "Operation Prism", which started under President Bush Jr. Interestingly, it took the actions of these individuals to bring attention to the issues at stake, and now there are various court cases going on prosecuting these individuals.

The New Yorker has an article which  highlights the US government's security operation and says that it has sinister intent; specifically, the prosecutions are not against dubious government actions, but against the leakers.

Arguably in this case, President Obama has carte-blanche to act in the way that his administration are doing as his actions are not being probed by the other branches of the US system.

Pressure Groups

A Pressure Group story caught my eye; that Netflix has taken advantage of the US Supreme Court's decision "Citizens United v FEC" and set up a political action committee, a "SuperPAC", which is designed to support political candidates who share their ideas about media and the internet. Their group is called "FLIXPAC".