MrMarbles
Member
rtwngAvngr said:No they are not. You are still free to do as you please while being monitored. You can still shoot up, masturbate, sue fast food companies, villainize wal-mart, demonize republicans, whine about the succes of others, inflame envy, sew division, etc.. knock yourself out. You are still free.
The patriot act allows your gov't the right to invade your privcy. A invasion of your personal rights. It goes into your home and watches you shoot up, masterbate and knbock yourself out. Our speech laws keep you from publicly advocating hate and violence. They are different in that respect, but the same as they take some of your rights away.
Well, the USA Patriot Act, for one thing. Although it passed in Congress almost without dissent in the aftermath of Sept. 11, it's suddenly being revisited, and this time around some of the folks holding opinions have actually read the thing. Among its detractors are 152 communities, including several major cities and three states, that have now passed resolutions denouncing the Patriot Act as an assault on civil liberties. More than one member of Congress has introduced legislation taking the teeth out of its most invasive provisions. And in a huge shock to the Justice Department, in July the so-called "Otter Amendment"—which de-funded the act's "sneak-and-peek" provision—passed in the House by a vote of 309-118. Introduced by a conservative Republican congressman from Idaho, C.L. "Butch" Otter, the amendment revealed the extent to which the Patriot Act engenders jitters across the political spectrum. Then there are the lawsuits, including one filed recently by the ACLU, urging the court to invalidate provisions of the act that threaten privacy or due process. All these reforms are wending their way through the system and the national consciousness as Americans start to take a sober second look at what the act really unleashed.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2087984/