Is privacy from government intrusion no longer an option?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/04/AR2007080401744.html?hpid=topnews
Does the new FISA bill grant the federal government the power to wiretap anyone they choose? Even inside the US without a warrant?
For those of you expressing the “it doesnt matter” stance, the point of this new bill is that it removes the checks and balances of the existing one. Namely, obtaining a warrant from a judge. And as history has shown time and time again unchecked power will be abused to its fullest extent. So for example, the current administration could start wiretapping the phone of political “enemies”. And the next administration could do the same. And if I’m not mistaken, this is exactly what happened with Martin Luther King Jr.
government is intrusive by its very nature. The very existence of government is derived from the consent of the governed. By installing a representative government, so wrote John Locke, we voluntarily give up certain individual rights.
The problem is that the government is “unlockeing” America. Now, the government is trying to set the precedent of having the American trust the government enough to let the government decide when we need to give up our rights. This is done, of course, (so typically Hobbes) in the interest of preserving order in society. We have morphed from the individualistic state of John Locke into the veritably despotic state of Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher whose writings have been quoted and used by virtually every totalitarian government since he penned his ideas.
Privacy from government intrusion is, in fact, still an option. But, we must do two things to bring it about. First, we need to vote out all of those frilly panty congressmen who lack the emotional and political fortitude to understand that what will probably be needed ultimately to stabilize the Middle East is to nuke Iran back into the Stone Age. Second, Americans will need to become more politically involved, and take an active part in cleaning out the manure pile that is the US Congress.
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