Government Finally Releases Secretive Court Rulings Sought by EFF

eff.org

53 points·DiabloD3··4 comments

Interesting read. As someone who had just turned 20 around the time of 9/11 and was in college in upper Manhattan at the time, I went along with all of the "Patriot Act" nonsense because I was angry and because I didn't yet fully understand what happens when you give the government more power. It never gives it up and it almost always ends up abusing it.

I think a lot of people regret their support for the various responses to 9/11. Hopefully that means that we (in the immortal words of The Who) won't get fooled again.

I see no scenario in which the current system of government would ever give up the current legal rights they have on surveillance. It's just too useful at maintaining order and the status quo.

And it's not like we can just elect a president who actually supports reducing the power of the state, we have an elaborate system of guidelines and election primaries to ensure any candidate is pretty firmly a member of the existing political ecosystem...

Where are all the "small government" republicans when you need em?

> "And it's not like we can just elect a president who actually supports reducing the power of the state"

There's one guy who's pissed off enough at the beaurocracy that he might just do exactly that.

Can't seem to remember his name at the moment though...

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