Our government could not legally do the kind of things that the government in Britain is doing now.

It doesn’t mean that PATRIOT Act is shelved – protecting my life is just as important a civil liberty as a private phone call. But I want those listening to my calls to my buddy in Pakistan fully accountable to someone if they listen to my call without just cause. They can listen first in case of an urgent situation that can’t wait for a warrant, but if they exercise negligence then their posteriors need to be nailed to the wall.

The United States has the most open intelligence services in the world, to a fault. People forget about that. I don’t think there’s a current problem at all, but I like the idea of constant vigilance and the absolute need for accountability. Because power corrupts sooner or later.

In the UK, it’s gone insanely out of hand. Read this story and be amazed. This makes a much more powerful argument than the “what-if” carping of the anti-PATRIOT Act folks. “Well maybe this could happen.” How about, “hey, look at what’s happened in the UK – what does it mean for us?”

The idea of using surveillance laws to investigate school eligibility is just insane. Crazy. These powers must contain accountability and proportionality before being granted by the people to their government.

In September, Wired magazine documented this collaboration between hotels and the FBI to turn over guest information.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/fbi-nsac/

In the NY Times Review of books, James Bamford discusses this facility being built by the NSA in Utah which is to be used to vacuum up massive amounts of receipts, emails, phone records and the like.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23231

Renewal of the Patriot Act allows for the government to access phone records to record meta-data such as phone numbers called and received; what is not clear is how much information it stores regarding email and text messages sent or received. Just today, Wired documented again that the telephone companies are openly acting in close collaboration with the FBI to monitor and record phone traffic.

There is a reasonable balance of power, between wanting to government to have enough power to catch criminals, while not infringing on liberty.
I think the wisest thing the Founding Fathers did was demand that “due process” be performed- that is, a warrant from a third neutral party like a court- be in oversight of the government.

Unless you want to just have faith in Obama to do the right thing.

It is absolutely necessary that we have people in positions of authority. It equally necessary that there be checks, limits and accountability in place to prevent those people from succombing to their own natural propensities.

The British government is long, far gone. We’re not far behind them if we don’t stop Obama and the Democrats from fulfilling their fantasies.

You will comply, one way or another.

Now, in hindsight, I believe that the Patriot Act served it’s purpose, and it is long past time to get rid of it. During the Bush years, the Leftists barraged Bush with every invective in their arsenal against what they said was an infringement on our privacy rights, an attack on us a freedom loving Americans and they claimed he was using the Act to spy on all of us US citizens. This isn’t the only Bush legislation passed, that opened the door for Obama and his thugs to barge through, and, actually widen the doorway. Now, I believe the language of the legislation has been expanded to include spying on your neighbors if they say anything bad against the Obamites, please post your info on their website with names, and email addresses, before the site was forced down. They have expanded the policy to include spying on those hateful groups like the Tea Partiers, and all those far right wing extremists, who want to overthrow the government. Trying to get information according to the Freedom of Information Act is getting more and more difficult, to the point of releasing only what this administration wants you to know. I suspect that alot of illegal spying, information collecting and tracking is being done that would incite even a fruit fly.

When you pass legislation, even with good intentions, it always has a way of backfiring, because powers not delinated in a loosly worded or vaguely worded bill, will always be expanded to what the current administartion wants it to mean. With an administration, that is bent on socializing the country or worse, who have no time or care for laws or the Constitution, this bill has actually become a weapon against the citizens it was undertaken to protect.

The same can be said about the Bush passed TARP legislation.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=40653