Saturday, February 27, 2010

Patriot Act


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Remember when liberals shrieked and wept about The Patriot Act, claiming that it would allow the Bush administration to spy on people's library reading records and destroy the Constitution? Remember when Barack Obama tried to filibuster against the Patriot Act because, even after 9/11, he didn't think a President should be entrusted those kinds of powers?

Well, times have changed. The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, just quietly voted to renew The Patriot Act.

An optimist might say this is their belated way of admitting "Bush was right." A pessimist might say "the Democrats must really want to spy on someone." And a realist would point out that administration officials including Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, and Robert Gibbs have repeatedly singled out "right wing" types and "military veterans" as being high on the list of people to keep an eye on.

Of course, they still can't listen in on tea party participants without a warrant, or fancy bugging technology, right? Think again. The FBI can (and increasingly does) turn on private cellphones remotely to use as listening devices...with no warrant necessary.


All of which would really suck if we had a presidential administration that we couldn't trust with these powers. But fortunately, the Obama administration is GREAT! And we'll keep saying that until we can get the darned battery out of this cellphone...

5 comments:

Pete(Detroit) said...

and my lovely Crackberry, provided by my employer, is on my hip nearly constantly. Good thing I never say anything bad...

Anonymous said...

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Never allow the government to silence you no matter what intrusive tactics are used, cause if they succeed in doing so your liberty will be gone forever. Within a few years your phone will have a GPS transponder in it so when you call 911 they'll know your exact coordinate position with 12". This has come about because of people using their cell phone for emergencies calls, where cell phone towers aren't precise enough to do the job.

alan markus said...

Slightly off topic here, but looking at the Real Clear Politics Poll Average/President Obama Job Approval chart, it looks like the red line (disapprove)is getting pretty close to intersecting the black line (approve). Is as close as it has ever been (the spread is +.1 approve today). Maybe the lines will diverge again (it has happened), but maybe this time it won't.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.americagonestupid.com

Anonymous said...

I hope the black line takes the largest nose dive every seen in America's history. Obama is a joke. One Big Ass Mistake America.