Historic clash: Obama, Rand Paul fight over privacy — and Paul Revere

The Washington Times reports:

President Obama on Friday cited Paul Revere as one of the earliest American intelligence-gatherers, riding through the streets to warn of impending British raids.

But Sen. Rand Paul disputed the president’s take on the iconic Revere and his overall understanding of the American Revolution.


“He mentioned Paul Revere, but Paul Revere was warning us of the British coming. He wasn’t warning us the Americans are coming,” Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, said on CNN just after the president concluded a speech in which he outlined changes to U.S. surveillance and data-collection efforts.

“The thing is, the lesson from the American Revolution that the president I think misunderstands is that we were upset about British soldiers writing their own general warrants — like national security letters — that allowed them to go into the colonials’ house and look at their papers. We didn’t like that so we wrote the Fourth Amendment to say the warrants have to be individualized … we didn’t want a dragnet.”

Some people know more about Marxism: just ask Barack Obama.