What You Read Is Your Business... For Now
With a 238-187 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to squash the provision in the Patriot Act that allowed investigators access to bookstore and library records. Finally, a glimmer of common sense coming out of federal government. Does the FBI really need access (without a warrant or subpoena) to the list of books I check out of the library, or buy from Amazon? I don't think so.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm still confused as to why it was ever felt that the Patriot Act was necessary. Just about all of the provisions in the Act were already available to law enforcement, only they required judicial review and approval. And that's what bothers me the most. I agree that wiretapping and records research is critical to tracking down terrorists and other criminals, but why give that much power to an executive agency without any regard for personal privacy or liberty?
Whoops, bit of a rant there. Let's just sum this up for now: One nasty provision down, several still to go.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm still confused as to why it was ever felt that the Patriot Act was necessary. Just about all of the provisions in the Act were already available to law enforcement, only they required judicial review and approval. And that's what bothers me the most. I agree that wiretapping and records research is critical to tracking down terrorists and other criminals, but why give that much power to an executive agency without any regard for personal privacy or liberty?
Whoops, bit of a rant there. Let's just sum this up for now: One nasty provision down, several still to go.
posted by DFMerrick at 11:24
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home