WyBlog

Obama grants FBI wide power to watch us surf the net, librarians strangely silent

Remember the brou-ha-ha which erupted when George Bush pushed the Patriot Act, one facet of which allowed the FBI to peek at our library records. According to the American Library Association the mere idea of our borrowing habits being potentially examined by the Feds was tantamount to imposition of a police state.

So imagine my surprise to read the Barack Obama has requested broad powers to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity to the FBI without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history.

Comparable postal mail records are protected by more than a century of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Warrants, court orders, probable cause, the whole nine yards. We're insulated from unreasonable searches.

But somehow email is different? Whatever the Feds want, whenever they want it? And nary a peep can be heard from the ALA, or any of the other civil liberties organizations which so vehemently opposed the Patriot Act.

Yeah, it's almost as if they don't mind overarching government intrusions so long as it's their version of "the good guys" doing the intruding. Obama is going to target those racist Tea Party jerks first anyway, and it isn't like they don't deserve the extra scrutiny, right?

Liberal fascism is alive and well. Just don't send anybody an email objecting to it.

Posted at 19:00 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Obama FBI wiretap Patriot-Act library   |   Tweet