The 400 intricate pages of the patriot act were not written in the few days after 911 before it was passed and became law. It was sitting on someone's desk waiting for the appropriate shock that would let it be passed.
Who said (paraphrased), "This country would be a lot easier to govern if it was a dictatorship. As long as I was the dictator"? Huey Long? Nope.
It was President George W. Bush.
Where exactly did you get that??
Yeah, I know it's "real." So what? I read it. Sounds like a centralized 911 telephone system. Or calling up America's Most Wanted. Nothing I read about it scares me at all.
Seems to be a peeling away of levels of bureaucracy and training people to recognize potential terrorism. But so many want to believe it something else because a lunatic gave such an opinion about it.
And yes, I do know oppression can come in different guises. I don't see it here. The greatest recent invasion of rights came with the Bush/Demo/Repub rules on effectively abolishing medical and financial privacy, if the person who wants the info is a large corporation.