[IP] Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Bill Daul [bdaul@pacbell.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 5:24 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

Do Americans Care About Big Brother?  (Time  March 14, 2008)

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1722537,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

A quick tally of the record of civil liberties erosion in the United States since 9/11 suggests that the majority of Americans are ready to trade diminished privacy, and protection from search and seizure, in exchange for the promise of increased protection of their physical security. Polling consistently supports that conclusion, and Congress has largely behaved accordingly, granting increased leeway to law enforcement and the intelligence community to spy and collect data on Americans. Even when the White House, the FBI or the intelligence agencies have acted outside of laws protecting those rights — such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — the public has by and large shrugged and, through their elected representatives, suggested changing the laws to accommodate activities that may be in breach of them.

-------------------------------------------