Eviscerating America’s Civil Liberties
BY Herschel Smith
5 years ago
Your political elites are experts at that.
Do we still need the PATRIOT Act? Did we ever? All laws are certainly a product of their times. But this seems much more acutely true of the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed in a rush and under duress without due consideration.
Particularly in light of the revelations from Edward Snowden – that the government is spying on everything they possibly can – it’s worth asking if there’s any walking back. He points out that the police state apparatus was originally for drug dealers, then for terrorists, but ultimately ended up being applied to anyone and everyone.
What’s more, Bob Bullard notes another frightful aspect of the USA PATRIOT Act: Terrorism-related cases are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. This means that there is little or no oversight. There is no surer hallmark of a police state than an all-powerful domestic surveillance agency with no transparency or oversight. While the USA PATRIOT Act might not create an American Stasi as such, it certainly paves the way for one.
It depends on the meaning of the word “need.” You don’t need it. I don’t need it. The writer doesn’t need it. But the political elites need it if they’re going to feed their insatiable hunger for omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence.
It’s not about terror or terrorists, and it never was. And recall who championed all of this. George W. Bush, a republican.
On October 28, 2019 at 7:45 am, Heywood said:
The Patriot Act was written LONG BEFORE 9/11. They just needed the “crisis” to implement it so the incident wasn’t “wasted”. (Than you Raum for actually saying it) You don’t think they have dozens more 500+ page monstrosities sitting around waiting for a crisis? Once the sheeple are conditioned well enough, they will await the right incident and they will be put in place no matter which administration is in charge. And the sheeple will cheer.
On October 28, 2019 at 8:44 am, Fred said:
@Heywood beat me to it. Yep, sitting on a shelf waiting, Clinton era Democrats tried or actually did introduce it in Congress (Senate?). Funny that, both Democrats and Republicans wanted it and passed it. Weird. Hmm? Eh, it’s probably nothing just keep watching Fox News and worshiping Trump.