My biggest knock against Obama during the campaign was his odious support of the bill to retroactively authorize warrantless wiretapping. Secret, unchecked, warrantless spying on Americans is just not ok. Period. It reeks of the worst abuses of power in the cold quiet places totally hidden from public scrutiny.
And now it seems my worst fears about the Obama DOJ are coming true. Give someone power and they will not easily give it up. The EFF and ACLU sued the federal government over the warrantless wiretapping in October and agreed to wait on the case until the new admin got in place and could respond to the allegations and provide their own briefs. And it looks like the Obama DOJ is not only backing the Bush DOJ arguments on States Secrets but is also putting forth a new Sovereign Immunity argument that says the Patriot Act bars any kind of law suits about any illegal government surveillance for any reason unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications by the government. I.E., they decide to tell everyone on their own terms. Fucking brilliant. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/06/obama/index.html And this, my friends, is why we should have never passed the Patriot Act in the first place. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:294314 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
