Draw Nigh, O My Children!

Repeat after me:

It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.
It doesn't matter who's running the Government.

From yesterday's Washington Post:

White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity.

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.

But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.

Government -- all Government -- acts the way it does, and arrogates more power to itself, for reasons that are almost entirely independent of who in particular is in charge. It is the nature of Government to expand, it is the nature of Government to intrude, it is the nature of the Government to "do things," whether those things make much sense or not.