From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Sun Jun 22 2003 - 21:29:54 PDT
Hi Ryan,
For some reason I only received your email and none of the previous ones.
But I would like to comment...
>From everything I've seen, heard, read, and spoken to people about,
>the Patriot Act is astoundingly bad law from the standpoint of
>individual rights. Its pushes things further down the slippery slope
>and makes the job of the Federal agent that much easier (rights be
>damned). The founding fathers would be rioting in the streets if they
>were here today.
It seems that nobody disagrees that in its basic form the Patriot Act is
bad from the perspective of individual civil liberties. Like you I have
heard stern criticsm from left, right, and center on the act's impact on
rights. I heard someone defending parts of it, yet in the end agreeing
that there is a bunch of crap in there that should be removed. So it
would seem that even supporters have only qualified support. I would say
the ONLY disagreement I have heard about is exactly how bad it is. That
ranges from "we will all be in the gulags by a week from next Tuesday" to
"well, such and such in and of itself isn't bad, but it slides things
down the wrong side of the slippery slope, thus opening the way for
things which are in and of themselves bad."
BTW, law enforcement had this wish list ready for quite some time. After
9/11 they basically put the wish list into the form of legislation and
rammed it through with the insulting name of "Patriot Act" in order to
keep people from voting against it. "What, you didn't vote for the
PATRIOT Act? You must not be a Patriot"...
Steve
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