A fine day in the news for civil libertarians and opponents of authoritarianism, such as myself.  

Major provisions of the nefarious Patriotic Act appears to be going down to defeat in the Senate, on the same day that the media breaks news of government spying on Americans, based on a secret Presidential order.  

The fourth amendment protects us from search without a warrant.  That’s the American way, folks.  The idea that the government can be trusted to spy on us without judicial oversight is absurd.  Of course, the attorney general is using fear language to object to the senate action, as expected.  Fascist.

The quote of the day on Google is:

The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.
  – Henry Ward Beecher