It has been so depressing to hear my liberal friends defend domestic spying under Obama the exact same way my conservative friends defended that kind of thing under Bush. “I have nothing to hide” is easy to say when your not standing up for anyone, but it is a different matter when you feel the need to oppose something like an unjust war.
Is anyone really surprised that the National Security Agency has been caught overstepping its legal authority thousands of times according to the Washington Post?
“Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. emails and telephone calls, the Post said, citing an internal audit and other top-secret documents provided it earlier this summer from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, a former systems analyst with the agency.”
The report also claims that NSA agents were told to alter records when reporting to the Justice Department.
Here’s the thing. Humanity wasn’t born yesterday. The safeguards on our civil liberties that have been destroyed by Presidents Bush and Obama took thousands of years to win. Waving due process for arrests, and for trials and for invasions of privacy may seem safer in the short run, but history teaches it is a matter of time before unchecked governmental power loses every other value than its own preservation and expansion.
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=QQfNaeqz