From Bush to Obama, the snooping goes on The Patriot Act's section 215 – just renewed by Congress – permits almost unlimited powers of surveillance of US citizens

President Obama's approach to civil liberties has been similar to that of his predecessors: for them, when convenient; against them, when upholding our rights would interfere with his exercise of untrammelled executive power. Last year, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero pronounced himself "disgusted" with Obama's civil rights record. 

George W Bush and Dick Cheney remain outliers because of their embrace of torture, secret rendition and the like. Otherwise, though, Obama fits into a long pattern of presidents whose actions on civil liberties are very different from their pious words.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/27/patriot-act-civil-liberties