Wednesday, 4 January 2006 - 7:43 PM CST

FISA since 2001 is FISA-Patriot Act. The Patriot Act electronic surveillance laws are not stand-alone, they are post-9/11 ("wartime") modifications of FISA. He asked for it. He got it. Then the sumbitch wiped his ass with it and walked off. Now he says he can't live without it. He treats it like a battered wife.

http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/terrorism/hr3162.pdf

Sec's. 201-225

Wednesday, 4 January 2006 - 10:23 PM CST

No. No government gets that right. Not in America anyway.
They may try to take liberties, but that doesn't give them the right.

You know, it's kind of stupid to think that terrorist cells are going to straight up communicate "in the clear" using a cel phone and that any remote uplink wiretap is going to get anything worth a damn.

Odd though, I did hear of DIA attempts to monitor that awful and sinister group the QUAKERS because of their religious views on war and their efforts to keep recruiters out of local schools. I also heard reports of federal agents writing down license plates at an anti-war rally.
It's amazing what some people who call themselves Americans will accept when you sell it to them with a little fear and a nice flag to snuggle.

The fact is that these enemies of ours are not going to come and invade us. They are not going to be able to kill us in any sufficient numbers. Clamming up and turning into a bunch of mindless cunts is not warranted. Rolling over and spreading our cheeks to big government shouldn't be in the mix either.

Thursday, 5 January 2006 - 2:09 PM CST

H.R. 3199 -- “USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005"--—created to “extend and modify authorities needed to combat terrorism, and for other purposes”. (I love the "other purposes part")(WTF?)

Rep. Sensenbrenner introduced/sponsored the creation of a “United States Secret Service Uniformed Division” (USSSUD) --to be headed by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of DHS.

Nice to have an unaccountable goverment brute squad that can override local law enforcement at any time for any reason. Yeah, that's about as American as...hmmm...maybe...Hitler!

Goodbye, Constitution. Hello, fascism.

You can be angry at all the liberals you want, but it won't change the fact that this administration has done more to build itself up as a totalitarian regime than has any other in recent history.

Thursday, 5 January 2006 - 3:17 PM CST

Arkady:

You can be angry at all the liberals you want, but it won't change the fact that this administration has done more to build itself up as a totalitarian regime than has any other in recent history.

That must mean that the Government has reverted to something like an acceptable level of intrusiveness at some point in the past, right? That would be after having trampled on the Bill of Rights during some other time of danger. So maybe it's just a cyclical thing that periodically requires you to oversell the danger and for people like me to justify it.

Then again, the scope and scale of the intrusiveness increase geometrically as new technologies emerge. We are trackable, knowable quantities in hundreds of different ways.

So wouldn't it be best to recognize that reality and accept that the Government has a duty to protect the lives and property of average Americans who aren't calling or e-mailing psychotic Muslim dirtbags overseas about their plans to destroy some bridge or building here at home?

Thursday, 5 January 2006 - 3:29 PM CST

Sluggo:

The fact is that these enemies of ours are not going to come and invade us. They are not going to be able to kill us in any sufficient numbers.

It took nineteen men with box cutters and a little knowledge ---in a single morning--- to kill 3,000 people, destroy the World Trade Center, seriously damage the Pentagon, shut down the nation's air traffic for most of a week, significantly harm the national economy through losses to travel, tourism, and trade, and drive this country into a protracted sense of danger and wariness.

When this society went after anarchists and communists in the previous two centuries, there was a reason why, you know.

Your problem is that you just don't like the characters who are running the show. Because if it were Democrats in charge of fighting the Islamofascist menace, they might put on a smiley face that would please you, but circumstances ---and maybe even a rediscovered love of country--- would still drive them to use the very same methods that you now fault the Bush Administration for using.

Thursday, 5 January 2006 - 11:44 PM CST

I'm a real conservative. As for the pieces of shit who pulled the 9/11 attacks...good job. You killed 3000 civilians. That's a mighty good sucker punch. Now you've got 1/3 of a billion left to go. I'm not afraid. I don't walk in fear. I'm not going to let them win.

I don't see the government doing much to protect us though. The borders are a joke. They keep giving visas to people from the middle east. They haven't rounded up illegal arabs. In fact, they haven't even done anything about Bin Laden.
on that note, maybe they can detain bin laden's dad, who hangs out with george bush's dad..and all bin ladens brothers, mom and kids and rendition them to Aral'sk. Let me put out a few papirosi butts on his mamas eyelids until the bitch gives him up.
but no, we've got to hold it down on some muthafuckin quakers & crusty hacky sack playin' stink asses.cause they're a real threat.
your tax dollars at work. Government, dumbasses in action.