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U.S. House Votes to Extend Patriot Act
Rick Zeman writes "In the wake of today's 4 dud bombings in London, the U.S. House has voted to extend the Patriot Act by a vote of 257-171. This includes 10-year extensions to the two other provisions set to expire on December 31, one allowing roving wiretaps, and another allowing searches of library and medical records."
CAN YOU TAP THIS?
GREAT JOB US GOVERNMENT!! FUCKING WONDERFUL!!
CAN YOU TAP THIS?
GREAT JOB US GOVERNMENT!! FUCKING WONDERFUL!!
CAN YOU TAP THIS?
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If you're not doing anything wrong, you have absolutely nothing to fear from the Patriot Act. Hence me not being worried about it. I'm not planning on blowing anything up so I have nothing to fear.
Don't you know how fundamental a right it is check out communist literature anonymously from public libraries? Our right to breathe will be next!
WooHoo!
http://digg.com/
It's like Slashdot, only without the disgusting gays, and like del.icio.us, only without the AJAX-Ruby-On-Rails-finger-in-ass-wiggling monkeys
It starts being a conspiracy theory when you simply state facts and assume that in someway backs up your view.
"The list goes on" So continue the list? You were getting shaky by the end of it I suppose so you probably can't do so.
How about just maybe there are some fucked up people out there doing bad stuff because thats what they know to do, and the men and women who we elect are just trying to do their job and stop them?
Ever stop to think that it might be just that simple? No oil theories, no aliens, no secret governments..just normal people doing their day to day jobs (be it in government or as terrorists) and going about their lives killing time till they die?
Jose is an enemy combatant -- a terrorist caught in the act on the battlefield. The battlefield just happens to be US soil and he just happens to be a traitor.
I see no issue holding an enemy combatant until the war is over. From where I'm sitting, the war is still being fought -- just watch tonight's news.
Why should your "right" to not be wiretapped trump my "right" to wiretap you?
People with your mentality often have skeletons of their own in the closet, Mr. Rove.
It's already saved lives, by allowing the FBI to bust up terrorist cells in Lackawanna NY, Lodi CA, Oregon, and elsewhere. Hard core jihadists who were ... planning to KILL AMERICANS.
The Patriot act allows the FBI to arrest people for providing material support for terrorist organizations, instead of waiting until the very nick of time before terrorists blow people up. As had happened in the past.
Libraries? One of the 9/11 hijackers had used a library computer to check his flight reservation on the Internet. So yeah that's needed.
People here need to grow the hell up and not act like they're twelve.
1. We have real enemies who want to kill us for who we are, see: Embassy Bombings 1998, Cole 2000, 9/11 (3000 dead and only a miracle it wasn't as much as seven times more).
2. Our enemies are steadily escalating the attacks, from blowing up empty airliners in Amman Jordan in the early seventies to 9/11. Sam Nunn no loon and other informed national security folks have said publicly on NPR that a nuke attack on a western city is inevitable.
3. If millions die in a US or UK or even a French City (like Paris) then hundreds of millions of innocents will die in retaliation. Lose NYC and DC and we WILL use our strategic nuclear weapons to simply kill most of the Muslim world. Ask the folks of Hiroshima, Dresden, and Nagasaki what happens when democracies fight to the death.
4. The Power of Nightmares is crock, and objectively WRONG. Same doc says terrorism is not a threat when fifty people are killed by native born Britons of Pakistani descent (quick, who is occupying PAKISTAN?) motivated by Islamic ideology. By the grace of god no one was killed in London today.
Defense in depth, by fighting jihadis abroad, killing them wherever possible, and measures at home to arrest jihadis before their plots spiral out of control will save millions of lives. Maybe even yours. Or your families.
Stop sticking your head in the sand. We NEED the PAtriot Act. J Edgar Hoover had no Patriot Act but kept secret blackmail files on everyone. He even corrupted every President but Truman and Eisenhower into his blackmail for favors schemes. Asst. Attorney General Lawrence Silberman wrote in the WSJ (you know, an ADULT newspaper for actual ADULTS) that even Bill Moyers (that liberal icon of morality) had Hoover check for gays in Goldwater's 1964 campaign. Guy admitted it. No Patriot Act enabled this, just horrific leadership and corrupt or timid Presidents unwilling to take Hoover on.
PEOPLE matter, the worst guy in the world won't be stopped by laws and constitutions. In the same way if you hamstring government and it's ability to protect the people, you'll just get a regime that will sweep away checks and balances, limited government into some awful Napoleonic tragedy.
[I can't believe someone is DEFENDING "dirty bomber Padilla" but then that's the juvenile attitude here at Slashdot, mostly. You'd feel different if he'd succeeded and you were dying of cancer. Reality check: Islamic terrorists are not common criminals and are NOT soldiers. They pose an existential threat to the US and deserve a serious not childish response]
Feel free to let him go. I know I like dirty bombs going off in my neighborhood.
Well said, I wish I could piss on every single asshole we have as a government official.
When expecting to find intelligence in a person, do not look at their age but instead look at their IQ and maturity firs
An impeachment hearing about perjury, dunce. And you'll note that, in addition to not violating civil rights, he also did nothing else. Among the things he didn't do was attempt to defend our country or respond to the growing oragnization and temerity of our enemies. through the Clinton years Al Quada et al kept blowing up bigger and bigger things as they realized that tehy could get away with it. Clinton sat around seducing interns and let American citizens die without a blink, often even helping the incidents fade from the media by completely ignoring them days after they occurred. Well, he fed their confidence enough, and they found a really big target to knock over. Yeah. The glorious reign of the Democrat. Real nice legacy, there.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
Has anyone here has even read the Patriot Act? Or do you simply know that it's politically correct to despise it, therefore you do. If you disagree with it, fine... That's your right. If you want to debate it because you think it's wrong, fine. But please stop being a bunch of lemmings and regurgitating the same hateful crap over and over again. Here's a crazy idea... Come up with a better solution to deal with terrorism in a free and open society. And if you think that the US is no longer a free and open society, remember that in many countries around the world, you would be hunted down, arrested and maybe even executed for expressing the thoughts that you've so thoughtfully shared in this forum. Flame away!
So was your girlfriend a politician or a terrorist?