liberties

Wow! What an interesting twist this story just took:

Gov. Sam Brownback apologized Monday for his office's reaction to a Kansas high school senior's disparaging tweet about the Republican during a visit to the Statehouse.

The governor's staff complained about a post by Emma Sullivan, 18, and the student quickly landed in hot water with administrators at Shawnee Mission East High School.

I really got to give credit to Brownback here. He did the right thing. From his statement:

"I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future," the governor said. "I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum."

"Again, I apologize for our over-reaction," he said.

Again - thank your Gov. Brownback for doing the right thing here!

We have been plagued by stories of computers that contain our personal information being stolen this year. Now we have a study out that shows how little privacy we have here in the United States:

U.S. privacy protections rank among the worst in the democratic world, a London-based privacy organization said Wednesday.

Privacy International ranked 36 nations around the globe, including all European Union nations and other major democracies, and determined that in categories such as enforcement of privacy laws, the U.S. is on par with countries like China, Russia and Malaysia.

Overall, the U.S. was determined to be an "extensive surveillance society,” the second-lowest rating in the study.

This is something that has happened under the watch of George Bush. He has pissed on the graves of our forefathers and worked to destroy what we once stood for. What for? In the name of revenge. He has used 9/11 and terrorism for his little revenge to go after Saddam. He could care less if Osama ever gets caught. Hell I bet he wishes we would have another 9/11, so long as it is after the elections and he don't have to worry about actually explaining himself to congress. That would give him a way to strip even more liberties away and start more wars. Make no mistake - George Bush is the gravest threat to this country that it has ever faced!

A great battle has been one. We are starting to fight back and get our
freedoms restored that we once cherished so much.

Yesterday the House voted 238-187 to block part of the Patriot Act. The part
they abolished was the power given to law enforcement to search library and book
store records without a warrant. Finally some members of Congress realize that
we enjoy our privacy and freedom and will not let it go.

That’s right. If you go to the library and check out the Kama-Sutra, you
won’t have to fear being arrested. Some pencil necked, neo-con geek isn’t going
to see that title and think it is an Al-Qaeda bomb making cook book. They won’t
know without having reasonable cause to subpoena those records.

We are not out of the water yet though. President Bush has threatened to veto
it, and if he does it will take a 67% vote to overturn his veto. However, even
if his veto does not get overturned it will send a strong message to the
American public that our administration is trying to steal America from us, and
will lead to even a bigger battle. This also shows that the Republican Party’s
unity is slowly slipping away.

So my fellow Democrats, stand proud today and feel the victory of this small
but very meaningful battle, for this is a day that our voices have been heard.
We have told spoken out about how we hold our liberties to heart and we have
been heard. Enjoy your day in the sun today, and watch as our true
representatives start the bigger battle of getting the truth out about Iraq, for
tomorrow we must go back onto the lines and fight even harder.