Everyone is concerned about privacy, from President Bush to regular citizens

Even as the president refuses to send emails in order to maintain his privacy, the FBI director was asking for broad powers to search through people's private records. However, it seems that privacy is returning somewhat, since a federal judge struck down several portions of the Patriot Act, rendering it less invasive.

• US prez George Bush has admitted he does not send personal emails to daughters Jenna and Barbara for fear that his "personal stuff" might end up in the public domain.
• Bush made the admission on Thursday to the American Society of Newspaper Editors during a discussion centring on whether the US government is sufficiently forthcoming to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, Reuters reports.
• We leave it to readers to imagine quite what exactly any email between George and Jenna and Barbara might contain which - were it released into the wild - could threaten national security*.
• Bush says it's a personal privacy issue: "I don't want you reading my personal stuff," he admitted, adding: "There has got to be a certain sense of privacy.
• Well, United States District Judge Victor Marrero last October gave that particular provision the legislative heave-ho, although FBI Director Robert Mueller earlier this month begged (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/0...) the Senate Judiciary Committee for "expanded powers to issue an administrative subpoena - essentially a demand for information such as medical, banking, and phone and internet records without a judge's prior approval".
• Of course, the Patriot Act is there to defend the US against the long shadow of terrorist menace.
• The FOIA is there to allow people some hope that they might one day find out just how their government defended them against the long shadow of terrorist menace.
• Bush concluded by admitting that his avoidance of email correspondence was because "everything is investigated in Washington".
• We further suspect this was on personal, rather than national, security grounds - to prevent a furious Hillary using the FOIA to get FBI transcripts of the correspondence with which to soundly thrash her miscreant hubby.