disneydream06

To show that I am not going to tow the party line just because there is a Democrat in charge, today's WTF Moment Pt. 2 is brought to us by President Obama. He apparently isn't quite the same dude that candidate Obama was.........

In the heat of the presidential campaign, then Sen. Barack Obama cast his lot with major telecommunications companies — and AT&T specifically — by voting to give big telecom retroactive immunity for allegedly helping the White House illegally spy on Americans. It was one of the most disappointing moments of the campaign.

However, as a candidate Obama did forcefully oppose the Bush administration's use of the "state secrets" privilege to get cases thrown out of civil court.

But now, President Obama is using the "state secrets" defense to make the case that the United States government can never be sued for surveillance that might violate federal privacy statutes.

On April 2, President Obama's lawyers invoked Bush's radical theory of executive power to argue for the dismissal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans.

Of course, the government should be able to argue before a court that the public release of some information would unacceptably damage national security. But many courts have handled national security information with appropriate safeguards, and the mere assertion of "state secrets" without persuading a judge with evidence is just plain wrong.

When it comes to the abuse of "state secrets" defense, we agree with candidate Obama, not President Obama. If EFF's case against the NSA is dismissed, we may never know the extent of the Bush administration's illegal spying on Americans.