Once Critical of W, Now O-buma Emulates Him

According to The Washington Examiner, O-buma continues to out-Bush W’s policies.  Civil libertarians once looked to this president to right the constitutional balance. But what Obama has wrought is the same old 'Terror Presidency' with new rhetoric.  In some areas, '44' has gone even further than '43'.  Our new decider launched a war in Libya without so much as a by-your-leave to Congress.  It's nice to have a neocon back in the White House. 

Thirty plus unelected and un-vetted czars creating regulations reveal the president’s fundamental belief that he need not answer to anyone.  Cass Sunstein is Barack’s ideological soul mate and head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.  He is responsible for overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs.  Cass writes that the feds should cognitively infiltrate online groups and websites that have the temerity to expose and condemn the O-bumites’ Official Party Line.  Imagine it, using free political speech to criticize acts of the government.

This none too subtle indoctrination is designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of critics.  Trust me; I’m with the high command.  Sunstein proposed secretly paying propaganda purveyors to bolster the Government's messaging.  It is interesting that the head of O-buma’s Ministry of Truth holds these beliefs.  Close government scrutiny of citizens’ speech and behavior is one of the mommy staters’ favorite schemes.

This article in The Washington Times warns that the government does not need a warrant to access any personal information that has been stored in the cloud for more than 180 days.  The state takes the expedient position that the Fourth Amendment does not apply here.  Another author reports here that Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee harshly criticized the O-bumites’ chicanery.

When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry…many members of Congress have no idea how the executive branch is secretly interpreting the law, because that interpretation is classified. Members of the public have no access to the executive branch's secret legal interpretations, so they have no idea what their government thinks this law means.... 

Regulating Internet content is merely one part of the cost of maintaining the theft-welfare state.  This article concerning the Small Business Administration’s research on government regulation reveals that the cost of this form of state interference in the lives of individuals increased from $1.1 trillion a year in 2005 to $1.75 late in 2010…including a $445 billion increase in the cost of economic regulation.  $1.75 trillion is more than the government collects from us in income taxes; it is roughly equivalent to Italy’s entire GDP.  

Even more distressing is the fact that we still have not fully accounted for the costs of O-buma’s WelfareHealthCare.  While the financial costs are staggering, lost liberty through over regulation is perhaps the greatest loss of all.

This report by the American Civil Liberties Union advises that new reporting and customer monitoring requirements boost the expense of doing business and expose companies to lawsuits over consumer privacy.  The Patriot Act has eliminated the last vestiges of privacy in this nation.  It enables government to subpoena businesses for any tangible thing, including customer records, library check-out lists, medical records, bank account information, etc.  What makes this law so extraordinary is that Sec. 215 removes the normal requirement to meet the legal standard of 'probable cause'.
 

Revealingly, the reports that businesses are forced to relinquish to the feds are usually about wholly domestic transactions of people in the USA, and do not relate to foreign intelligence information.  There is no judicial review and no notice to the person [to] whom the records relate.
 

The government's totalitarian arrogance is eerily reminiscent of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial.  The state need not establish probable cause to arrest us.  The government’s philosophy is that being arrested is prima facie evidence of guilt.  After all, the state’s omniscience is such that it would not waste the resources to arrest and try us if we were not guilty.
 

May your gods be with you.