Obama Is Our Big Brother

The NSA spying is double-plus-ungood, writes Maureen Dowd
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 9, 2013 4:27 PM CDT
Obama is Our Big Brother
National Security Agency plaques are seen at the compound at Fort Meade.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

In 2007, President Obama said he didn't want to run an administration that was "Bush-Cheney lite." No worries there, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times—with new revelations about the NSA's snooping on our phone and Internet activities, "there’s nothing lite about it." Sure, our "Big Brother" Obama says it's a "modest encroachment on privacy" and "under very strict supervision by all three branches of government," but that's hardly a comfort given the government "so rarely does anything properly" and the surveillance enjoys bipartisan support.

Back in 2007, Americans were inspired by Obama's words as he railed against Bush's "false choice, between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide." But "now that we are envisioning some guy in a National Security Agency warehouse in Fort Meade, Md., going through billions of cat videos and drunk-dialing records of teenagers," she asks, "can the Ministries of Love and Truth be far behind?" Click to read Dowd's full column. (More Maureen Dowd stories.)

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