Homeland Security

Nearly hidden in the introduction to Obama's acceptance speech was a single sentence by Senator Durbin that alluded to an issue that I have been concentrating on for the past few weeks. This relates to the loss of personal liberty by US citizens in the name of increased security. I've written on this topic repeatedly in recent weeks. This morning I looked deeper into Obama's website to see what the candidate has to say about this issue. Here is the statement quoted directly from the website:

Barack Obama believes that we must provide law enforcement the tools it needs to investigate, disrupt, and capture terrorists, but he also believes we need real oversight to avoid jeopardizing the rights and ideals of all Americans. There is no reason we cannot fight terrorism while maintaining our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the current administration has abused the powers given to it by the USA PATRIOT Act. A March 2007 Justice Department audit found the FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the PATRIOT Act to secretly obtain personal information about American citizens. As president, Barack Obama would revisit the PATRIOT Act to ensure that there is real and robust oversight of tools like National Security Letters, sneak-and-peek searches, and the use of the material witness provision. 

This is a statement that I strongly support. It provides a good balance between the need to protect us from terrorist activities while, at the same time, protecting us from unwanted and unneeded government intervention into our private lives. I would invite you to look into the statements of John McCain on this subject. Does he have a similar sensitivity to the loss of personal liberty by US citizens?