Many of us here are not all that overjoyed with the Patriot Act and all it implies, but have you considered any or all of the possible alternatives?
How about a formal declaration of war by the congress? Ever think about the civil liberties that are automatically suspended by that?
Censorship, allocations of materials and food, assignment of travel priorities, declaration of martial law to state but a few.
A federally declared state of emergency would be nearly as bad or perhaps worse, any thoughts?
So is the Patriot Act. But regardless, which would you prefer? This "War" against terrorism isn't going to be over quickly, I doubt it will be over in my lifetime or the lifetime even of my grandchildren.
The Bill is up for renewal and is scheduled to be passed without reveiw and without debate. This is inherently Un-American whether you support or oppose the bill.
When we loose the willingness to debate we loose part of our American Freedom and take one more step towards totalitarianism.
PS
Your house can be searched and property seized on suspicion alone under the Act. Who decides what suspicion is? Well,,, that would be the gov. along with any agenda they may secretly harbor.(Gun owners beware!!)
Have you contacted your congressman to protest that fact? If so what was their response?
Kevin1 and Ifferd nailed it here. No, the Patriot Act could be worse, but it's nowhere close to being good. This is one part of our policy that I strongly disagree with, and I will continue to do my small part to shoot PA 1 & 2 down so that we can have a chance to lobby Congress to actually read it before voting.
Please don't get me wrong on this, I don't like it at all. I would like to see some ideas as to alternatives though and thoughts on whether this is in fact the lesser of several evils or perhaps just another political move to keep people under the thumb of the beaurocrats.
Can you recommend a method for me to inform myself of the provisions of the Patriot Act?
I'm serious. I've heard a lot of moaning and groaning about it but have assumed there wasn't much to fear in it. But I'm not a real "just trust the experts, just trust the elected officials, just trust the policemen" kind of person. I'm looking for a source of information with minimal spin control applied, if possible.
Have you considered?
