an hour in room 101 with john ashcroft and i think you will change your opinion of your government trancer-x

If you're worried about a lot of the things in that quiz, I suggest you take it up with Wal-Mart and your credit reporting agency, not John Ashcroft. Most of it regards corporate intelligence techniques for tracking sales, customers, and shoplifters. America has very few government controlled cameras, and the ones that exist come in the form of automatic traffic/speeder cams.

Also, the disinformation over the Patriot Act is incredible. There is hardly anything in the bill that authorizes any new kind of domestic intelligence gathering. It's about coordinating existing government resources, and updating laws to reflect new technology.

Three cases:

1) People are up in arms that the government can go to the library and find out what books you checked out. This isn't new! The government has been able to do it for years.

2) Before the Patriot Act, when the feds got a wiretap, they could only get it for a specific phone number, not for a person. The law was written well before mobile phones. So a suspect using throw-away cell phones could easily evade surveillance. Law changed, problem solved, and adapted to new technology.

3) Finally, people have complained that the Patriot Act allows for warrantless searches of a home. This isn't new either! Going back several decades, if police believed that criminal evidence was in immediate danger of being destroyed, they were able to enter without a warrant. THEN, the judge would determine if the entry was warranted. If not, the evidence is excluded, and the suspect is protected. It's also interesting to note that there have been no such searches since the enactment of the Act.

Frankly, the Ashcroft-bashers contribute little to a debate other than drawing Hitler moustaches on him.

quote:

Originally posted by Trancer-X The ACLU's new quiz is fun, fast and informative. Take it now and find out who's been watching you. Take the quiz and find out, "Are You Being Watched?"

Hey!!! That quiz wasn't fast, fun, or informative!!

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quote:

Originally posted by Yoepus Hey!!! That quiz wasn't fast, fun, or informative!!

Yeah...EVERYONE knows the feds are watching Yoepus

MrS

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quote:

Originally posted by imokruok

just the way the Patriot Act was forced down our throats (like the War in Iraq) makes it highly unsavory.

When it came time for the entire House to vote, however, the leadership allied with the Bush administration and refused to consider the amended PATRIOT Act. They forced a floor vote at 3:45 a.m. on the original 342-page bill, one that most members of Congress had not even read, said Barr in an interview. Barr conceded that he too caved in. In light of what happened, I would not do so again, he added. Post-9/11, postanthrax scare, it was very difficult to get members of Congress to go against an administration who says its primary mission is to fight terrorism, said Barr. There is a great hesitancy to vote against something that could be portrayed as anti-patriotic.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm..._laweekly/48469

This "Are you being watched" issue is highly over exaggerated by paranoid individuals.

If the government wants to watch and scrutinize every move by a criminal, that's fine by me. The government has no need, or even want to be "watching" individuals who do nothing with their life, and are of utter unimportance to the welfare of the country and community.

Do you honestly think the government has surveillance upon senior citizens? No. Or how about little children? Highly unlikely. The average Joe? No. Where's the need in that?

As I stated clearly before, people need to get over their paranoia about the government watching every move they make. Perhaps they are feeling guilty about something? (hehehe) Or maybe they just need to lay off the movies for a while.

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anuneventrade, you make an excellent point. It reminds me of what an attorney once told me:

'The paranoia felt by people who feel like they're constantly being watched only means that those people think they are more important than they really are.'

Everyone may want to check out this article: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/o...nists/12613.htm

It came out today, written by a Republican and a Democrat, and makes the very points I made above.

quote:

Originally posted by imokruok 1) People are up in arms that the government can go to the library and find out what books you checked out. This isn't new! The government has been able to do it for years.

hmmm.....yes they have been able to do that for years....but they needed a subpeona signed by a judge, now they only need a writ of intent signed by a clerk.

i'm not sure but i think a judge should be a little more important than a clerk in an office, just my 2cents.

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1984, anyone?

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