Congratulations! That wonderful tool for violating your privacy, the USAPATRIOT Act, has been extended. Among other beauties, it includes provisions for something called roving wiretaps, where a suspect’s phone conversations or internet traffic may be intercepted, without even the need to identify the subject or limiting it to a specific phone.
I can already see marvelous uses for this.
I swear I thought I was wiretapping a terrorist, and not that investigative reporter.
Or…
We’re sure the fucker’s a terrorist. Can’t tell you who he is, or how many phones he has. Devious bastards. Here’s a blanket wiretap warrant for the Washington area, sign here…
I can’t possibly think that it’s coincidence that this got voted not even 24 hours later after the most incompetent bombing attempt in recent history.
Benjaming Franklin said that a great empire, like a great cake, is more easily diminished around the edges. It cuts both ways, and great empires are now using the maxim to diminish personal freedoms.
As long as it is in bite-sized chunks, people won’t fight it. They may not even complain at all.
A follow up: this only means that the act passed in the House of Representatives. It could conceivably still be stopped at the Senate level. Will it? We’ll see, but I don’t expect so.