Obama Worst For Civil Liberties?

I was surprised to see this piece in the Los Angeles Times. The author criticizes Obama's record on civil liberties claiming Obama has been a disaster in that regard.

I'm certainly no Obamaton but I've mostly thought of Obama's record on civil liberties as simply a continuation of those from past administrations. Maintaining the status- quo for the most part. The writer is correct, though, in that the civil liberties as well as the anti- war movement seems to have been muted under Obama.

Take the L.A. Times commentary as you will, but don't try and accuse the writer of being some right- wing shill. Wikipedia shows him to be well known as a "...champion of liberal and progressive causes".

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As an aside, perhaps the reason I haven't been too critical of Obama's civil rights record is that, while troubled by post 9/11 anti- terror efforts, I tend to concentrate on more "home" type issues such as people being arrested by police for recording police officers while in the course of their duties or being told what they can or can't eat (yes, I consider food and drink restrictions a civil rights issue).

Along that line, here's a petition to the White House asking that all police departments receiving federal aid be mandated to record police actions with the public. I've signed the petition but can't help but wonder that if such a law was passed it may come back to haunt us?

Might a court somewhere rule that- assuming this law was passed- since the police are required to record their actions, private citizens have no reason to and thus could still be subject to arrest?