Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy says the NSA spying scandal could lead to government control of the people if left unchecked

 Clearly misunderstanding the Constitutional issues millions of Americans have with the NSA spying scandal Barack Obama addressed the American people last Friday and told us the program will go on whether we like it or not, but in order to make us feel better about this the Federal government will no longer store the information, a private corporation store the data instead. The issue at hand is not where the information is stored but rather whether or not the information should be gathered in the first place, that is what Barack Obama does not seem to understand.

  This is about an overreaching Federal government which feels unencumbered by the Constitution or for the privacy rights of its citizens, this is something that Barack Obama might not understand (or care about)  but Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy does understand–to a point. 

  Here is what he recently had to say about the NSA spying program:

“The concern everybody has is allowing our government to have such a reach into your private life, my private life, and everybody else’s, that we are, we have the government controlling us instead of us controlling the government.”

“I just think that there should be oversight,” Leahy said. “Think back in the history of this county, in J. Edgar Hoover’s day and all — if he had had the power when he was spying on protesters and those against the Vietnam War and Martin Luther King — if he had had the power that’s in here, think what might have happened. We Americans believe in our safety. We also believe in our ability to be private.”

  Barack Obama told us that we should not be worried about the program because the NSA and the Federal government is not abusing the information it is gathering but the information gathering is an abuse in and of itself so how are we to trust the government not to abuse the information it is gathering in an abuse of power in the first place?

  If the government is collecting information on virtually every single American it goes without saying that the government is collecting information on its political opponents and we are supposed to believe they will not use it? The temptation is just too great, especially when the checks and balances have been removed and the decisions on search warrants are left up to a secret court.

  For once Patrick Leahy is on the right side of an issue and if he is worried about the NSA we all should be…..