[joesnuffy]

trade safety and security for liberty....

[Sir Gawain]

Do 309 House members really want to require the FBI to leave a nice note for the next Mohamed Atta, if and when agents have a chance to sneak into his motel room and copy computer files detailing the identities of his co-conspirators?

What if it's President Hillary's FBI?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The title of the article is misleading.

Libertarians have about as much in common with the ACLU as Democrats do with pro-lifers.

There are other ways to fight terrorism than Attorney General John Reno-Ashcroft shredding the Constitution.

[supercat]

If and when government starts making effective use of the powers it has, and can demonstrate that they are insufficient, then it may be proper to give the government more power.

As it is, there is a long-standing tendency that government personnel focus on easy targets rather than important ones, and use any new powers they get to go after more easy targets while continuing to ignore important ones.

[Jay D. Dyson]

Misguided Libertarians...

Isn't that redundant? Sort of like crapping on the Democratic platform...

-Jay

[vpintheak]

There needs to be a line drawn somewhere. I know this is a little extreme and I will recieve some flack for this, but I saw a cartoon that showed an elephant holding a sign that said "Give me your security" and a donkey with a sign that said "Give me your money." I believe that about summs it up. Look back on history and you will see that every crisis, large or small, our government has taken measures that limit our freedom. From the so called banking crisis (the war on money)shortly after the turn of the century, to this latest crisis. I want to feel safe, but I want to protect me, not big brother, and I want all of our constitutional rights protected.

[Noachian]

We fought a two theater war in WW2 without a Patriot Act, and there were spies and saboteurs walking our streets at that time. There were some security restrictions we had to obey but nothing as sweeping as this Patriot Act. We survived that war.

We went from WW2 to a Cold War that lasted almost a lifetime and we didn't have a Patriot Act. This was at a time when both sides were playing with H bombs, but we managed to survive the Cold War with very little restrictions on our liberties.

Now we're at war with Muslim fanatics who blow up buildings, but have no army, navy, air force, or H bombs, and all of a sudden we need a Patriot Act that will still be on the books when all the terrorists are dead.

The unintended consequences of a law can be worse than the law itself. Think about what happens to civil liberties the next time a liberal president is in office.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Bring Back the House Committee on Un-American Activities

[John Beresford Tipton]

This isn't about "terrorism", it's about more power for the government, and the concommitant ability to abuse that power.

Think about it.
Saddam might be the vilest person on earth, but go into your room, pull down the shades, take out a pad.

Make two columns.
In one column list everything that Saddam did to *you*,
add everything the nutty Talebin did to *you*,
add in everything that the fruitcake Kim Il did to *You*
Then sum up that column.

Go to the other column.
List there every way that some *other* government has screwed you around.
It might take you some time, hopefully you'll finish by next April 15th.
Then sum up that column.

Which column is bigger?
Sssh. Don't tell me, don't even say it out loud.
Just tell these "Conservative" Republicans" who come up with these scams, "Please, sir, can I have some more"?

[The Shootist]

We should be making it easier, not harder, for intelligence agencies to protect us

The writer asks that I "make it easier" for the gob'mint to protect my family and me? HA! Horse Hockey! The gob'mint and its Army might be good at breaking things but not much else. I'll protect myself, thank you very much.

If you want a picture of how "well" the gob'mint protects, just study the Airport Avoidance System (TSA) that has been put in place since 911.

Numbskulls, everyone of them.

Loss of freedom and liberty is the goal of the Islamo-fascists who attacked us in the first place. Dubya might be better than the alternative but he, and the rest of those self-centered, power-hungry, greedy and self-righteous career politicians, have done a pitiful job, at just about everything.

Re-elect no one.