August 31, 2006 5:11PM # The Right That Was By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) --- SHARE Remember [FreeRe​pub​lic​.com](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse)? The right-wing web forum for Clinton-hatred, respectable and otherwise? I recently ran across an article, “The Secret FISA Court: Rubber Stamping Our Rights,” that somebody [posted on FR back in 2000](http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a27337612f5.htm). (Hat tip: [Glenn Greenwald](http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/).) The comments are precious: > This is beyond frightening. Thank you for this find. > > > This does not bode well for continued freedom. Franz Kafka would have judged this too wild to fictionalize. But for us — it’s real. And my personal favorite: > Any chance of Bush rolling some of this back? It sounds amazing on its face. Today, when NSA surveillance is in the news, as with the recent decision in [ACLU v. NSA](http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/nytimes/docs/nsa/aclunsa81706opn.pdf) \[.pdf\], you’re far more likely to read [this sort of thing](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685870/posts) over at FR. > Privacy is a false argument and has been for some time. Your insurance company and the credit bureaus have more on you than the feds do and you can do nothing about it. I would rather be secure knowing that the feds were looking over my shoulder and keeping me safe. I have nothing to hide, and in times of war, these steps are necessary. There are a few exceptions per comment thread, a few throwbacks to the pre‑9/​11 Right who think skepticism about power is justified even when the Red Team’s in charge. But they’re a distinct minority. Was it September 11th that “changed everything,” or Republican takeover of the executive branch? Either way, for the Right, it’s a different world indeed. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).