I have voiced repeatedly my concern over the rapidly disappearing freedoms in America. I have hailed again and again the dangers of the police state now taking hold. I have argued repetitively against the expanded powers of the federal government to spy on, detain, arrest, investigate, collect and correlate data on, violate the rights of (constitutional and otherwise), and invade the privacy and lives of ordinary American citizens. Then marniac sends to me an article on MSNBC about the FBI using Patriot Act provisions against people in this country who have no ties to terrorism. By using the Patriot Act, the FBI is able to invade the private lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year without any accountability to anyone — not the courts, not Congress, not the American people, not the law.
"The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms." Why haven't you heard about this? That is because these letters carry sworn secrecy as a provision of the law and, should you report receiving one, you get arrested and the key is thrown away.
Our government is spying on us. Our government is tracking information on us. Our government is hastily reducing our rights and freedoms. Our government can nullify our constitutional rights simply by labeling us enemy combatants. Our government has enacted policies in the name of security that clearly violate the Constitution.
The Patriot Act was a knee-jerk reaction to the September 11 attacks. At the time, it likely seemed like a good idea so long as its reach was temporary and monitored. We have now found that not to be the case: it was not temporary, it has been expanded, it is not monitored, tracked, reported, overseen or otherwise watched, there are no checks and balances for these increased powers, and all related activities are shrouded in secrecy and hidden from the public. This is truly a violation of all America has ever stood for, everything the Constitution embodies, and has turned America into the Soviet Union of Cold War days. We are now the enemy we so hated back then, yet the all inclusive "we" do nothing about it.
Dissent is squelched. If you disagree, you are called a traitor and anti-America, and your patriotism is questioned. Jingoistic radicalism is the sign of conformity with the new America. This is not the country in which I grew up. This is not the place I fell in love with and called the greatest state in the world.
Just read the article. It's quite disturbing whilst not surprising.