It’s only a matter of time until we hear press secretary Robert Gibbs place the blame for record snowfalls and sticking gas pedals on Toyotas on George W’s shoulders.

So can someone please explain to me how the Patriot Act, a law that President Obama called a “shoddy piece of legislation”, is suddenly a good thing?

Obama has called on Congress to extend three provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of this year.

The conditions that President Obama hopes to extend relate to wiretapping, business records, and potential terrorists acting alone.

The roving wiretap clause allows authorities to monitor the phone records of an individual, not just a particular phone number.
This is a handy tool in the fight against terrorists who can frequently change phones.

The business records provision allows law enforcement to seize various records of a suspected terrorist, the most important being financial records.
I don’t mean to sound flippant, but in the war against terrorism, as in many aspects of life, by applying the principle of  ”follow the money”, authorities can gain quite a bit of intelligence.

And the “lone wolf” provision allows for the monitoring of an individual suspected of being involved with terrorist activities while not being linked to a particular terrorism cell.

During the George Bush administration, the Patriot Act was derided as “an infringement of our civil liberties.”

During the Barack Obama administration, provisions of the same “shoddy piece of legislation”
are being renewed in the war against terrorism.

Or, to use the current White House terminology, against “enemy combatants.”

The “most ethical administration in history” is fast becoming the most hypocritical administration in history.

Also on The Freedom Medium

Let’s first consider Barack Obama’s mainstream media headlines where unemployment drops from 10.2% to 10%, Dec. 4, 2009.  Notice the gushing optimism of the headlines.

Barack Obama

• Unemployment Rate Falls to 10%, Wall Street Journal
• Unexpected drop in jobless rate sparks optimism, The Associated Press
• US job data gives boost to recovery hopes, Reuters
• Finally, Some Very Good Jobs News, New York Times

Now, let’s take a look at George W. Bush’s headlines when unemployment dropped from 5.5% to 5.4% in Sept. of 2004  Notice anything different?

George W. Bush

• Still Not Robust; Unemployment edges down to 5.4%, Los Angeles Times
• Hoyer: Employment Report Shows the Job Market Is Still Struggling, PR Newswire
• Spinning the jobs numbers, U.S. News & World Report
• Candidates give story a political spin : US jobless rate falls, New York Times

There will be specific areas of human freedom. And one thing different about the archives here in the institute is that we’re going to have a freedom repository, and that is a collection of works by dissidents and political prisoners, current ones, or ones like Vaclav Havel, who will be one of our first contributors to the freedom collection, who led the revolution in Czechoslovakia. And he was jailed as a dissident in Czechoslovakia and then finally became president of the Czech Republic after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

So that is going to be very interesting. And our first fellow that we announced that will be part o f the human freedom part and the freedom collection part of the institute is Oscar Morales Guevara from Colombia. He’ll start here in January.

He will produce a conference on cyber dissidents. He’s an engineer in Colombia, but he started a Facebook movement “No Mas FARC” against the FARC in Colombia. So he will be able to bring into the whole idea of dissidents and political prisoners this idea of being able to reach out beyond the boundaries of a tyranny through the Internet.

And so we’ll have a cyber conference here next March or next spring to talk about ways we can increase the voices of people, let people who are shut behind the tyranny be able to reach out to the rest of the world through the Internet.

For updates, and conference details as they become available, regularly check the GeorgeWBushCenter.com Also see EDUCATION, GLOBAL HEALTH, HUMAN FREEDOM, ECONOMIC GROWTH TO BE INITIAL FOCUS OF BUSH INSTITUTE; PROGRAMS TO BEGIN IN 2010 (.pdf)

As USA Today points out:

The Oval’s good friend Mark Knoller of CBS News reports that Obama on Sunday played his 24th round of golf since his inauguration Jan. 20 — matching Bush’s presidential total, which he racked up in two years and 10 months. …President Bush played his last round in 2003, telling reporters he didn’t think it was appropriate to play the game with the  U.S. at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previously, Bush’s mixing of golf and foreign policy had gotten him into trouble.

Despite two war locations, a massive recession, 10 percent unemployment, and a runaway spending, Obama’s golf game is not criticized by the media.  However, when Bush played golf he was demonized.  Can somebody say “double standard” out there?

The Washington Post on June 9, 2009, in an article with the headline “Just the Sport for A Leader Most Driven.” On August 5, 2002, The Washington Post wrote about President Bush golfing, “Before Golf, Bush Decries Latest Deaths in Mideast.”

The Washington Post mocked George Bush for golfing during a time of war, “wearing khakis and a knit shirt, was holding a driver in his gloved left hand… However incongruous the setting, the president plunged ahead…. His business out of the way, Bush barely paused for breath before saying, ‘Thank you. Now watch this drive.’”

Obama on the other hand, despite the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, violence in Iran, and an economy that Obama has described as the worst since the Great Depression, golfed several times in the past few weeks–on April 26, May 16, May 25, May 31, June 7, June 9, June 14 and June 21.  In return, a Google search will show he received countless praise by the press for his golf adventures.  Take the New York Times recent statement, “Obama was briefed on the latest events on the ground in Iran. Obama also played a round of golf at at Fort Belvior, Virginia, before spending the remainder of his day with his family at the White House. He also took his daughters out for frozen custard Saturday.”

The Wall Street Journal reports,

“Under President Bush, the federal government worked with manufacturers to accelerate vaccine development, stockpiled crucial antivirals like Tamiflu, war-gamed pandemic scenarios with senior officials, and increased the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) sample identification capabilities. These activities are bearing fruit today.”

Compare that to the Obamination which has yet to make the appointments of a surgeon general, or a head of the CDC.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. At least the Obamination gave New Yorkers a thrill on Monday.

This is what Americans who voted democrat, and Americans who didn’t vote, have given us. How is that hope thingy working for you folks now? [Cough! Cough!]

Also see:

• WSJ: How Bush Prepared for the Outbreak
• Michelle Malkin: Of Course the Swine Flue is all the Evil GOP’s Fault
• HotAir: Smart Power: Pentagon freaks out New York with Low Altitude Fly-By

On his last full day in office, President Bush commuted the controversial sentences of two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug runner in 2005.

The imprisonment of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean had sparked outcry from critics who said the men were just doing their jobs and were punished too harshly. They had been sentenced to 11- and 12-year sentences, respectively.

Their sentences will now expire on March 20 of this year…(more)

This is good news, in that Ramos and Compean will at least be getting over a decade of their lives back. Considering, however, that they should not have been in jail in the first place…this is hardly “justice.”

Also see: Michelle Malkin – Lame duck surprise: Bush commutes sentences of Compean/Ramos

Take the economy as an example.  He is proposing a stimulus package–guess what?–Bush Light.  When it comes to the war in Iraq he has back tracked and will allow the troops to stay potentially years–Bush Light.  The war on terror will continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere–Bush Light. He has proposed tax cuts for all but 5%–Bush Light.  His cabinet and political appointees are filled with Washington insiders who are not change agents–Bush Light.  Illegal immigration policy?–Bush Light.

In reality, the only change Barack Obama is providing from the Bush years is his skin color and a “D” besides his name.  Other than that, he is Bush Light.  Yet, the masses and the media will shout with glee the grand changes of the Messiah. In the real world actions should speak louder than words.  In the Obama world, WORDS speak louder than ACTIONS.