re: #193 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

The link shows that political “actions” are covered by “political opinion”: “Whistle-blowing against government corruption is an expression of political opinion.” in the context of the UDHR, which directly contradicts your argument in 171, and Charles’ echo of it in 172.

And no, I maintain that the Patriot Act as written did not authorize what has been done with it since. If it is interpreted as doing so, then the PA is flagrantly unconstitutional and therefore illegal, as are the programs, which of course explains why the Bush and Obama administrations have conspired to construct and maintain a secret pseudo-legal system to shield their interpretation from constitutional challenge in court. However, this conspiracy to commit vast law breaking free of judicial oversight may have now finally collapsed thanks to that weasel Edward Snowden: motherjones.com