Erstellt am: 9. 4. 2009 - 13:32 Uhr
Today's webtip: Don't sue me Bro'
One of the things Obama supporters managed to ignore over the last couple of months was the fact that change doesn't always mean improvement. Especially when the changes taking place involve government surveillance, constitutional rights and invasion of privacy.
Remember that little bruhaha about the NSA doing illegal domestic spying? They worked together with various providers (like ATT) and basically wiretapped the nation (and anyone else who might have been talking to an American). When the whole thing was finally leaked, it was viewed as a prime example of just how little respect the Bush government had for the Constitution and citizens rights to privacy. And Laws. It became pretty clear they seemed to think themselves above the law.
So after a hard campaign based on words like Change and Hope, some people were pretty upset when then Senator Obama voted to support a bill that would give the telcos that aided the NSA immunity from prosecution. Obama told those followers who were dissapointed by the move that rather than sueing the companies that were strong-armed into helping the NSA, they would just have to wait and sue the government.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/08/eff-attorney-explain.html
Which made a certain amount of sense. Maybe ATT and co were just victims of an evil government too.
That was then.
Now the Obama DOJ has basically told everyone that they can suck it. Apparently the President really IS above the law. I know it sounds a bit sensationalistic, but maybe a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the groups that had been temporarily placated by Obama's explanation) can explain it better.
You can check it out here