Civil Liberties in the Government
cn | 10 January, 2007 15:3127B Stroke 6, a blog over at wired.com, has an interesting piece about the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, which is a 5-member board and is under the umbrella of the President. Apparently, the Democrats want to make it a more independent board with more jurisdiction and responsibilities.
Each member would serve for a six-year term (meaning they could not be fired), the board would have to report to a bevy of Congressional oversight committees, no more than three members can be from the same political party, and the board can issue its own subpoenas to require people not in the government to turn over records.
Additionally, other agencies, including all intelligence agencies, will have to appoint privacy and civil liberties officers, who themselves will have to report often to Congress and the Privacy and Civil Liberties boards on their activities and investigations.
My question would be, how are we the people assured that the members of said board and those appointed as officers in other agencies are really looking out for the best interests of the country and our civil liberties? The more I look into this type of issue, the more I realize that this is truly a media issue. Granted, the government has power and can stonewall, lie, and spin, but if the media is persistent, objective, and fearless, eventually the true nature of the government will become unmistakable apparent and we will have the ability to make clear decisions on how to move forward productively, rather than spin our wheels in the sand, which is what the current state of our society seems to be...
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