Patriot Act

[90-percent]

Now that this pernicious piece of totalitarian evil has been foisted on us, has anyone ever done a study on how 9/11 WOULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED if this little assault on civil liberties and privacy was in place January 2001?

Seems the standing orders from the top to stay away from everything Saudi would have rendered the whole thing ineffective, anyway?

Just curious.

-85%

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Oil is thicker than water..... and probably blood as well.... eom.

[tofubo]

2. stop letting them frame the debate, it's the t.r.e.a.s.o.n.o.u.s. act

[wli]

3. It's got nothing to do with preventing terrorism.

It has everything to do with fascism.

[90-percent]

4. Facism?

Does this mean that our elected representatives that passed this infernal thing are IN FAVOR OF FASCISM?

How the fuck did these bastards get elected?

-85%

PS - My congressman John Larsen kept his word and voted against it!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. Agreed. I'm in the middle of the Dem. Judiciary Dissent

The one they filed this week. Frightening.

[G_j]

5. just days before the House vote, this story broke:

FBI Builds Huge File on Antiwar, Rights Groups
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/071805Z.shtml

Large Volume of FBI Files Alarms US Activist Groups
By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times

Monday 18 July 2005

Washington - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected at least 3,500 pages of internal documents in the last several years on a handful of civil rights and antiwar protest groups in what the groups charge is an attempt to stifle political opposition to the Bush administration.

The F.B.I. has in its files 1,173 pages of internal documents on the American Civil Liberties Union, the leading critic of the Bush administration's antiterrorism policies, and 2,383 pages on Greenpeace, an environmental group that has led acts of civil disobedience in protest over the administration's policies, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing this month in a federal court in Washington.

<snip>
But officials at the two groups said they were troubled by the disclosure.

"I'm still somewhat shocked by the size of the file on us," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U. "Why would the F.B.I. collect almost 1,200 pages on a civil rights organization engaged in lawful activity? What justification could there be, other than political surveillance of lawful First Amendment activities?"

..more..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How Did Your US Representative Vote?

Roll Call 414 - HR 3199 - USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll414.xml

[dogday]

7. The Domestic Terrorism Clause is the scariest

one of all. By speaking out against the government, they could label you a Domestic Terrorist.... think about that......