President Obama and his inconsistencies with the Patriot Act
Yes it’s been a couple of weeks since the 1 year extension of the Patriot Act occurred in which the Congress overwhelmingly voted in favor of it and Mr. Obama signed off on it.
Didn’t know this happened? You are probably not alone. There was little media coverage of this important event.
photo donkeyhotey [email protected]
I guess my question for liberals who slammed Bush all those years over this violation of the 4th amendment (rightfully so I may add), are you getting a little disillusioned with Mr. Obama? Between this issue and the wars, you must be asking yourself, who is this man?
I didn’t support either Obama or McCain, but I do wonder how Mr. Obama can be so all over the place on the Patriot Act.
When he was a state senator in Illinois, the National Organization for Women (NOW Illinois chapter) provided a survey in which Mr. Obama did answer the questions.
One question was, “Would you vote to repeal the Patriot Act?”
Obama answered the question as follows: “Yes, I would vote to repeal the U.S. Patriot Act, although I would consider replacing that shoddy and dangerous law with a new, carefully crafted proposal that addressed in a much more limited fashion the legitimate needs of law enforcement in combating terrorism (for example, permitting a warrant for the interception of cell phone calls, and not just land-based phones to accommodate changes in technology.”
President Obama delivering the 2015 State of the Union address photo/screenshot whitehouse.gov video
He frequently slammed Bush, overtly or covertly, over this and other privacy issues. Here are some quotes:
“Every democracy is tested when it is faced with a serious threat. As a nation we have to find the right balance between privacy and security, between executive authority to face threats and uncontrolled power. What protects us are the procedures we put in place to protect that balance, namely judicial warrants and congressional review. These are concrete safeguards to make sure surveillance hasn’t gone too far.”
Source: In His Own Words, edited by Lisa Rogak, p. 99 Mar 27, 2007
“Americans fought a revolution in part over the right to be free from unreasonable searches, to ensure that our government couldn’t come knocking in the middle of the night for no reason. We need to find a way forward to make sure that we [stop] terrorists while protecting the privacy and liberty of innocent Americans.”
Source: In His Own Words, edited by Lisa Rogak, p.132 Mar 27, 2007
In a Boston Globe questionnaire in 2007, he answers the following question, “Is there any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised that you think is unconstitutional?
During the Bush years, Democrats loved to hammer away on the Patriot Act because it supposedly infringed on American civil liberties. They claimed that the Bush administration was making an unconstitutional power grab, an unprecedented abuse of executive power.
So it should come as no surprise that Obama is not exactly looking to advertise that he is following directly in Bush’s footsteps. Move along, nothing to see here. No big deal, it’s just the Patriot Act!
photo Donkeyhotey [email protected]
Politics as usual…
