“Dubya would never have done this to us“…  Support/Approval for George W Bush now exceeds President Obama.

WASHINGTON DC – The FBI has dramatically increased its use of a controversial provision of the Patriot Act to secretly obtain a vast store of business records of U.S. citizens under President Barack Obama, according to recent Justice Department reports to Congress. The bureau filed 212 requests for such data to a national security court last year – a 1,000-percent increase from the number of such requests four years earlier, the reports show.

The FBI’s increased use of the Patriot Act’s “business records” provision — and the wide ranging scope of its requests — is getting new scrutiny in light of last week’s disclosure that that the provision was used to obtain a top-secret national security order requiring telecommunications companies to turn over records of millions of telephone calls.  (continue reading)

(CNSNews.com) – Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday that President Barack Obama is not to blame for the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program – former President George W. Bush is, because laws allowing it were enacted under his administration.

“These are laws put into effect under President Bush. There are plenty of Democrats who are upset about this too. I do not agree with the Patriot Act, but you can’t blame President Obama for it,” Sharpton said on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.”

In 2009, however, Obama extended three provisions of the Patriot Act – allowing roving wiretaps, which would allow monitoring of an individual instead of a specific number; seizure of financial, medical, library and other records of suspected terrorists; and monitoring someone suspected of engaging in terrorism who may not be linked to a specific terrorist group, the Washington Times reported on Sept. 16, 2009.  (READ MORE)