The Associated Press: Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act

The Associated Press: Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act
US government rescinds 'leave internet alone' policy

Pentagon Discloses Hundreds of Reports of Possibly Illegal Intelligence Activities

Change! Uhm.... for the worse.

It's bush 3.0, but with more, more MORE, surveillance; more, more, MORE intelligence gathering on US citizens, more, more, MORE government oversight of private and public speech; more, more, MORE defending the rights of our corporate citizens against the
teaming masses
mobs who bully and rob the savaged and destitute multi-billion dollar software and media giants; and finally less, less, LESS transparency from government and corporate partnerships, such as the one between the NSA and AT&T. What a joy it is to know that the secret surveillance programs of the Bush era continue, only this time under benevolent guidance.

At least we were told back in July that "Einstein 3" would be put in place at some undisclosed future time. Don't worry, we've been promised that there will be no surveillance of private citizens. Shouldn't that promise be enough? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He's PROMISED us not to peek! And so now, there's no reason for transparency, accountability, privacy. I'm sure Einstein would be thrilled to learn this great privacy vacuum will fly a flag bearing his name.

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

It's about time the U.S. started throwing it's weight around

The U.S's old "hands-off approach" to the internet, which accepted the network as an forum for public communication, educational research, and an incubator for business and commerce, are no more: “the right policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and the right message to send to the rest of the world.” But, he continued, “that was then and this is now. As we at NTIA approach a wide range of Internet policy issues, we take the view that we are now in the third generation of Internet policy making.” - Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling.

Truthfully, this is no worse than I expected. In fact, many times I've described politics in the U.S. as a scene from Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit And The Pendulum, whatever way the pendulum swings, to the right or to the left, the only certainty is that it moves one step closer to dividing us in half. I guess I feel a bitter sense of justification, and an even more bitter sense of regret for even allowing myself to secretly believe in... change.

Ugh.