Barack Obama wants the Senate to do what Bernie Sanders led the House in doing: stop that part of the PATRIOT Act that allows spooks to raid library and bookstore records.
Libraries should be "sanctuaries of learning where we are free to read and consider what we please without the fear that 'Big Brother' may be peering over our shoulder," Obama said in the keynote address at the American Library Association's annual conference.
Well, yeah. Bonus points for the Big Brother reference, which is exactly what this is about.
The ALA, and their supporters such as Arthur Fonzarelli, are pleased and hopeful.
David Gelertner, however, whose attitude and visage are so similar to Muqtada al-Sadr's (though without, of course, Mr. Sadr's aspect of physical and moral bravery)*, thinks that the efforts of the Librarians, Sanders, Obama, and civil libertarians are misguided and dangerous. For good measure, he adds the accusation that the civil libertarians are cynical and partisan: if they really were concerned about Big Brother, says Gelertner, they'd focus on the IRS. Uh-huh.
*By which I mean, both are corpulent troglodyte reactionaries, but at least Sadr will put himself in harm's way for his beliefs.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 9:52 PM
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