Flashback a few years, and there would be howling outrage from those on the Left, screams that Boooooosh!!!! is shredding the Constitution, that he is spying on Americans, well, it would look something like this
No one could scream like Sam Kinison. Surprisingly, none on the left are doing it when we flash forward to July 3rd
The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials.
President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve “monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic,” and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems.
But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the officials said, because of uncertainty about whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency’s involvement in warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bush’s presidency would draw controversy. Each time a private citizen visited a “dot-gov” Web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employee, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network.
Gotta love it. The WP manages to blame Bush. I have news for them: Obama is President now. And he seems to be doing the exact same thing. Oh, and it wasn’t wiretapping.
Moving on, notice the highlighted portion in the second paragraph. Does this mean that any email you send to a government computer will be monitored? Seems rather an intrusion on your privacy as you send an email to your Representative or Senator, or even the White House, does it not?
And remember when the Left freaked about AT&T’s systems being used? Now, crickets.
To be clear, I’m not blaming Obama, the program seems wise, though, when people get involved, there is a chance for abuse. I’m just highlighting the hypocrisy of the Left.
Email to and from Gov’t computers are already being monitored. I work on an Air Force base, 100% monitoring goes on every day. I don’t know the monitoring criteria, but I’ve had some incoming emails deleted due to “content”.