Hey FBI, Search This!
So at first glance I thought, no big deal, the government is already surfing the Internet looking for clues to crimes. Then I thought, now they don't need a reason, they don't even need to be looking for something. In fact, what's to stop the feds from collecting all the information on the Internet? All the chat room conversations, all the email, all everything. They probably have the Cray supercomputers and all the storage space they need to perform the task. Now they can collect it and go back after a crime has been committed and search for information, or just search on people like you and me for the hell of it. I'm going to bet that very little impact will be made in preventing terrorism but many americans will have their privacy violated in the name of stopping some yahoos from planting a bomb somewhere. I'm not buying the terrorism ploy. Protecting our rights is far more important than protecting a bridge or a building. We've lost a lot more lives protecting the intangibles of freedom than we ever will to some idiotic terrorist.
Remember the Fouth Amendment to the Constitution: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
A stretch? Maybe, but why did they have to get approval before?
