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"....Today terrorist scum, tomorrow your children. Enjoy the sunlight while you may....."

You know what? If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights....why do you fear so???

Look, we need coordinated effort to go after the enemy that is already here. The Washington establishment was so hopelessly mired down that it was paralyzed in many respects. What Bush wants/needs is a fast-response (read:non-union) organization. This will lead to the non-unionization of other Federal agencies, IMHO. Why are you so afraid of that?

"You know what? If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights....why do you fear so???"

Three points.

1) The right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure has been greatly eroded. (Though as another poster above noted, the "Patriot" act is much worse on this point.)

2) Whether one is a terrorist or not is something that is determined *after* the exercise of these new powers. It is not possible to employ these new powers *only* on terrorists. The ostensible purpose of the new powers is after all, to *identify* terrorists. So the fact that I am not a terrorist provides little, if any, protection against these new powers.

3) The stated purpose of any law is seldom the only purpose for which it is eventually used. In fact, stated purposes of laws often have *nothing whatsoever* to do with the law's eventual effects. Rather than examining stated purposes, it is better to analyze laws according to the incentives and constraints they create, and the actual legal language that defines exceptions or constraints upon the law.

You know what? If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights....why do you fear so???

The people whose FBI files were used by Clinton to bring them into line, do you think they were terrorists?

I thought we were supposed to get a "coordinated effort" the last time the goobers in Washington screwed up. We poured billions into anti-terrorism and got a miserable failure. It's the same old song every time, "If we'ed just had adequate funding", "If we just had more "tools"". What does it take? If anyone takes a pro-constitution stance they are branded a traitor or non-patriotic. Is it treason to not want some Ninja-suited moron looking in your underwear? "If you don't have anything to hide why are you so worried?"

"You know what? If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights....why do you fear so???"

Okay, so if we want to dedicate ourselves to the "war" on terror, let's allow the government to conduct random, warrantless searches in our homes. After all, if we're not terrorists, and keep our noses clean, basically law-abiding citizens, why should we be afraid of such infringements?

You know what? If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights...why do you fear so???

Hello? Homeland Security? I want to report another one carrying on about those old *Constitutional Rights*...You'll send a team for him right away? Fine.

If you're not a terrorist, and you keep your nose clean, basically a law-abiding citizen and still entitled to your Constitutional rights....why do you fear so???

See, if they search you and follow you to prove that you're not a terrorist, you've already lost your Constitutional rights. This will be an era marked by future generations.