Should it become permanent? Today some Reep got his undies in bunch and tried to shut down democracy over the argument: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061002110.html I tend to think the Patriot act is too much government, but I know a lot of "small government" so-called conservatives would disagree. I hope it goes away permanently.
I think I'm willing to be a single-issue voter in 2006, and will vote against any candidate who voted for the Patriot Act. I haven't decided if I'll include the first time around in that criteria.
I'm haunted by the realization that a mega-terrorist attack would completely end the American way of life for at least a generation. I'm willing to make some sacrifices now, even with regards to civil liberties, to reduce the likelihood of such a catastrophe.
Ask yourself this question. Do you, and your friends, families, co-workers, associates, feel LESS free because of the Patriot Act? If the answer is obvious, then the decision to continue it is equally obvious.
Hopefully, all Americans will be single-issue voters on the Patriot Act in 2006. Americans favor the Patriot Act by 59-39 percent. But, it won't be the first (or last) time you are in the minority opinion.
Yes we do-- you don't have to have been hit by the train to notice that its coming... power that exists WILL be used.
mmm federalism! Someone should really make listing of all the ridiculous uses of the USA Patriot in the last 4 years. There was a great one in Missouri (I think) in which they tried to prosecute a meth dealer with chemical weapons possession and use because he refused to participate in a sting. Chemical weapons... yep. There's another more recent one in which they tried to prosecute a NY street gang as a terrorist org. I'm pretty sure that one got tossed by the judge. Apparently the prosecution neglected to look up the US legal definition of terrorism before persuing their case. ---- As for the actual issue at hand: all the sneak and peak warrants and secret viewing of library records isn't gonna save us if someone really wants to blow some stuff up. Right now our civilian intel still can't find their own with both hands and a flashlight... that's the real issue that we should be worried about. Really though, the amount of liberty I'm willing to sacrifice for a highly debatable increase in safety is small. Provisions of this act are more likely to be used to conduct surveilence on me personally than to protect me personally from any attack. A counterpoint to be made for the spending extravaganza on homeland security is that it would be much cheaper (vastly, in fact) to work to prevent the conditions from a policy point of view as opposed to reacting to threats we have a large hand in creating. I rarely hear this discussed. Security; yes, paranoia; no thanks.
Then according to this argument ANY opportunity to exercise power will result in abuse. The self-deception of the Left continues to reach new depths.
hmm, so do YOU feel less free or more free because of it? Now I barely know the ins and outs of it, but if you feel more free, why? How can an act, which according to the hideous biased media we are all forced to watch out here, does little more than inhibit freedoms, make you feel more free? If you feel the same amount of freedom, but others feel less free, then surely you should acknowledge that scrapping it would be an improvement to others and do you no harm, so there's no reason to oppose scrapping it. If you feel less free, then you should agree that it needs scrapping.
The act is implying that people should give up freedoms in order to be free! So the terrorists want to install fear and limit freedoms and what do we (American Government) do...... Does the Patriot Act really make it safer for Americans or make a terrorist attack less likely? There were enough opportunities for the different organisations to stop 11thSep, including the memo given to President Bush. I think I read somewhere that the PA was actually made up but shelved some time ago and the 11thSep attack was used as an excuse to push it through the Congress.
It isn't the terrorists that can end the American way of life - it can only be the government. All the terrorists can do is kill people.
Those of us who live in the real world understand what the reaction to a mega-terrorist attack would be.
No, any opportunity to exercise power will be used... if you "design" an opportunity that includes range for abuse, abuse will result. We have been asked over and over if we personally have been abused, with the implied corollary that the Patriot Act must be harmless if we answer in the negative. I am saying that "not yet" does not imply "never will" and in this case doesn't even imply "not likely." This was sold initially as a short term measure, and when a great many of us predicted that its permanent extension would be asked for before it expired, we were shouted down as hysterics. Well the tranquilizers don't seem to have invalidated the prediction, folks...
I am absolutely convinced the Patriot Act was a necessity at the time of its inception. At that time, we needed something that was rather broad-based to assure that the chance of something slipping through was reduced. I believe it has served that purpose. In fact, there have been a couple of "rumors" flying around in this part of the Central Valley that the Lodi arrests were possible in part because of the implementation of certain parts of the Patriot Act. (BTW, I live less than 50 miles away and am d**n glad those folks are no longer on the street.) Now that we have had some time to see how it is all working, I would like to see more consideration given to some of the specifics points in the Act as I believe some modifications are appropriate. However, to throw the entire Act out because we are fearful that at some point in the future a point or two COULD be used against us is irresponsible, IMO.
Paranoia can be a good thing. Who cares if someone did something to you or not ehat matters is you think they did. If you act on this nothing bad will happen to you just to the other guy.
it will kill our economy. WTC 4000 dead caused us to increase the cost of security by Billions and billions of Dollars and mobolize the military even more billions of dollars. We went from a surplus to how much indebit again trillions. It probably cost the terrorists to do it less then a million.