[TexasKamaAina]

All easily anticipated fallout from the PATRIOT Act. Laws stay on the books, even though those in leadership change. And, of course, governments always seek to expand their control, power and authority.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"All easily anticipated fallout from the PATRIOT Act."

I have to disagree with you on this one. The Homeland Security agency was mainly just to put the FBI, CIA etc. all under one umbrella for better communication. We were following in the footsteps of a lot of other countries such as Britian. This type of abuse was around long before the Homeland Security department and the Patriot Act. Remember in the 90's when we had the FBI attempting to infiltrate militias? This is more of the same. The government has always had the capability for this type of stuff. It depends upon the head of that government as to whether they would carry it out.