Patriot Act Abused. In other obvious news : Breathing is good for you
Turns out those whacky nuts who decried the dangers of the USA PATRIOT ACT were not totally misguided after all. Over the last couple of weeks or so the FBI has been stuttering and stammering in an attempt to explain their gross misconduct involving their use of National Security Letters. This is one of the issues that I am most passionate about when it comes to politics in general. The systematic destruction of our rights as Americans and as human beings makes me ill and outrages me to no end. No doubt I will be writing more about this subject on this little blog, but the point I want to make in this post is that FBI has proven that government cannot be trusted with the kinds of powers that the Patriot Act bestowed. Kudos to congress for at least acting upset about this, but I doubt this will lead to any real change, with or without Democratic control. To see the direct impact of the use of NSL’s, click here. And for some anecdotal evidence of more abuse of power that affected regular people like you and me, click here. Please give this topic some serious consideration as it affects you whether you know about it or not. Please read some of these articles and ask yourself, “If it doesn’t stop here, where will it stop?”
2 comments:
This article made me want to gag.
good info though, kinda scary.
In answer to the question posed at the end of your write up, it will never end. The goal was never to fight terrorism, or to increase security. The patriot act was simply a hodgepodge of power expanding tools that law enforcement had tried to ram through congress before and failed
(sometimes more than once). http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17326res20030403.html
The only purpose of the patriot act is to expand government power.
To show why snooping, gag orders, and opacity in the ruling power do not, and cannot increase security (or, as it is sometimes put in true double-speak ("preserve the American way of life") imagine an environment where the police can search your dwelling or person for any reason or no reason. As a matter of course, they tap your phone, they read your mail, and they watch you 24/7 both in person and with cameras. You are not allowed a weapon of any kind, but they constantly scan the horizon, automatic weapons ready for use at the first sign of trouble. Imagine a world where privacy is not an option. Where those in power choose what you read, what you watch on TV, even what you wear. It might not sound fun, but it would definitely be considered secure by those who support the patriot act.
This world already exists: it's called prison.
Would you feel safe in prison?
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