A.K.A. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 The more I read about the Patriot Act, the more it pisses me off, and I'm not even a US citizen. Somehow, the idea of an administration using the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to further their own political agenda bothers me. Passed on October 26, 2001, this act is more of a violation of civil liberties and privacy than anything else. Counter-terrorism is just a lame excuse John Ashcroft cooked up. Anyways, the most shocking aspect is members of Congress who approved of this act never even read the damn thing. Most US citizens probably don't even know what "USA PATRIOT" stands for, or the lone fact that it's an acronym. So here's the question that begs to be asked: if people don't read the laws that are being passed, how do they know what their rights are? Well, even CONGRESS won't read it so don't expect anyone else to. For example, do people know that the government now has right to monitor our phone calls and emails as they see fit? This post that I'm typing now could even be spied upon! In previous times, the cops were required to obtain a search warrant to trash someone's home. NOT ANYMORE. The FBI could bust into your house right now any minute and they wouldn't even have to tell you they were there. All in the name of counter-terrorism. Remember when George Orwell said in 1984 that the leaders of our world need a "permanent war" to intimidate people? We're living in a culture of fear. Everyday the government is shifting the terror risk warnings, from red to orange to yellow to god-knows-what. It'll never go down to green (zero threat). For all the time and money they've spent scaring us sh*tless, Bush could certainly use more time reading those CIA reports given to him (he admits to never reading them). That's just a short excerpt from the Patriot Act. No wonder nobody understands it or bothers to read it because it sounds like a load of crap. Some people here would probably say "don't question the government, just trust our leader, he knows what's best for us". The real question is: do WE know what's best for US? Since when was the land of freedom and democracy replaced with Big Brother, the police state? Counterterrorism is truly a lame excuse when you have more chance of being killed in a car crash than killed in a terrorist attack on US soil. Maybe it's time the government take more productive counterterrorism measures instead of passing useless acts like these that only serve to curb civil liberties and personal freedom. Btw, if no one can be bothered to find out the rudimentary facts about a law that concerns each and every citizen in the country, you could always hire Michael Moore to read it to you. Some sources for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/
The best counter-terrorism action the US could take is getting the f*ck out of Iraq and the rest of the middle east. We're just pissing terrorists off more so they'll attack.
I've been speaking out against the Patriot Act for a while now, I even made a comic about it for my English class last year lol, I think I pissed off a lot of people in my school in doing so too. Anyways, I know a fair bit about it, enough to know its one of the worst laws ever passed. The people have been frightened into signing away their rights as citizens in order to help prevent 'terrorism' while we're busy promoting terrorism against the US through our actions in Iraq. Pretty little circle we've got here.
"Men and women of congress!; this is Michael Moore! I'm here to read you the patriot act!" -- Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11. From what I've read about it, it's completely ridiculous. It should be called the 'Distroying The Civil Liberties Of American Citizens Act.' And the fact that they didn't even read the damn thing makes me even more pissed off over the corruption of the government.
On that subject, the government will always have the upper hand because they know that the American people either a) Can't be bothered to read it B) Cannot read beyond a fourth-grade education Or c) Don't read it because they don't even know the damn law's been passed
i dont know what it does, but i think it is unnecessary to make fellow americans look like they are terrorists because of their actions before the law was made.