German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi.…America, once home of the free, is now the land of the new Stazi.
Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens.…
Markus Ferber, a member of Merkel's Bavarian sister party who sits in the European Parliament, went further, accusing Washington of using "American-style Stasi methods". [Emph. added]
Not mentioned in the Reuters article is that Obama is also, reminiscent of East Germany, using the government to harass, attack, and intimidate his political opposition. The tactics range from using the IRS to silence opposition groups, illegal leaking of donor lists, to permitting the New Black Panthers to stand at polling booths with billy clubs.
The immigration bill winding its way through Congress promises to create tens of millions of new illiterate voters, creating the kind of electorate that is most vulnerable to demagogues.
In 2008, Obama promised to "fundamentally transform" America. He appears to be succeeding.
Hat tip: Ed Driscoll and Instapundit.
PREVIOUSLY on the state of freedom in the era of Obama:
•Creeping fascism
•Justice Breyer looking to overturn the First Amendment
•Obama administration: free speech does not include the right to criticize Obamacare
•Obama sells out free speech
•Physicians' group to sue Obama administration over suppression of dissent
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•Free speech and its enemies
•University upset at free speech
•The Right of Free Speech, Selectively Applied
•Tolerating free speech, IV
•Tolerating free speech, III
•More on tolerating free speech
•Those who cannot tolerate free speech
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