Today the U.S. Senate passed the renewal of the Patriot Act of 2002. Although there have been some changes from the original document in an attempt to calm fears of infringements on civil liberties these changes are far from enough as stated by Congressman Kucinich,
"I rise in strong opposition to this legislation because it offers only a superficial reform that will have little if any impact on safeguarding our civil liberties,"
As you all know I have been in strong opposition of the Patriot Act since its deput in 2002. Even then, when I was still a far right wing conservative who supported Bush on almost everything, I saw that it was a danger to our freedom and that it could be misused, and history has shown us that if something can be misused it will be.
There are those however that continue to say that the Patriot Act dose not infringe on our rights in any way however. As shown here:
"Intense congressional and public scrutiny has not produced a single substantiated claim that the Patriot Act has been misused to violate Americans' civil liberties," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "Opponents of the legislation have relied upon exaggeration and hyperbole to distort a demonstrated record of accomplishment and success."
What he is saying here could technically be true. The Patriot Act has been used exactly has it was designed to be used, the problem is that in it's design it violates the civil rights of all Americans. It clearly goes against the Constitution on matters of Search and seizure, Freedom of Speech, Fair and Speedy Trials, ect. I have gone into great detail on this in the past and so anyone wishing to read that can look in my archives.
What scares me here is that Congress, as well as the majority of the American people seem content to stand by has it is done, and not just regarding the Patriot Act. For a week straight all I heard about was the issue of spying on the American people, and then it just seemed to disappear. Before that was the torture issue, and then it disappeared, and so on. Even now the reason that Congress passed the Patriot Act again, because of the fear of terrorist action. Although the Patriot Act has yet to be proven to stop terrorism we still look the other way has our rights are taken away because we are afraid of terrorist.
When are the American people going to realize that giving up our freedoms is not the answer to ending terrorism. I do not claim to have all the answers on how to fight terrorist, but the one thing I know is that getting rid of the thing that we has a country have fought to keep for so long is not the way.
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