MSNBC : Ashcroft wants Patriot Act widened

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Zrom999

Banned
Apr 13, 2003
698
0
0
Attorney General John Ashcroft urged Congress on Thursday to expand the USA Patriot Act to permit the government to hold more suspects indefinitely and to extend the death penalty to more people accused of terrorist crimes.

Seems like some poor choice of words... extend death penalty to the accused? Should it be 'convicted'?
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: Michael
Please list and explain the civil liberties that I have lost. It is an empty claim. I actually spent a fair amount of time looking into it when the first gnashing of teeth started.

I love you guys, your opinion is right and mine is wrong.

I haven't lost anything.

Michael

I haven't lost anything either...well that is, atleast anything that affects me as of now. :confused:

CkG

Edit - oh wait - I did lose 10 mins standing in line at the airport waiting for the nice lady to NOT look at my ID and frisk me ever so gently ;) I guess I'll just get used to it ;)
 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Spyro
Originally posted by: Michael
I haven't lost any civil liberties and I've gained lots of entertainment. A huge win/win for me.

Michael

Stop being entertained and start thinking. I doubt that you'll be laughing when an out of control government keeps tabs on everything you do and every human being in the US is tagged like some mindless bovine and tracked like a rat in a maze :disgust:

It won't get to that point. People will only take so much. The gov't as we know it will find itself on deaths door if things such as you posted start to materialize. The problem though is where do we as a people draw the line. I feel we are closer to that line than ever :(

CkG

Normally there are warning signs when the government starts to approach the limit of what is tolerable, I haven't seen those warning signs yet. When I'm critical about our government, I feel as if I'm in a small, well-informed minority, while the rest of America enjoys its reality TV, doritos, soda, and tax cuts :disgust:
 

Michael

Elite member
Nov 19, 1999
5,435
234
106
"Am I a citizen"?

Not yet, application is in process. Slowed down by 9/11.

Michael
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
0
0
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Spyro
Originally posted by: Michael
I haven't lost any civil liberties and I've gained lots of entertainment. A huge win/win for me.

Michael

Stop being entertained and start thinking. I doubt that you'll be laughing when an out of control government keeps tabs on everything you do and every human being in the US is tagged like some mindless bovine and tracked like a rat in a maze :disgust:

It won't get to that point. People will only take so much. The gov't as we know it will find itself on deaths door if things such as you posted start to materialize. The problem though is where do we as a people draw the line. I feel we are closer to that line than ever :(

CkG

The only problem with that thinking is once this stuff gets passed, it's a lot harder to get it overturned. Sort of like you don't notice until it is too late.

 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
0
0
Originally posted by: Michael
Please list and explain the civil liberties that I have lost. It is an empty claim. I actually spent a fair amount of time looking into it when the first gnashing of teeth started.

I love you guys, your opinion is right and mine is wrong.

I haven't lost anything.

Michael

Your opinion is more self serving than wrong per se. If it doesn't affect me, who cares. That is quite the limited and short sighted view IMO.
 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: Zrom999
Attorney General John Ashcroft urged Congress on Thursday to expand the USA Patriot Act to permit the government to hold more suspects indefinitely and to extend the death penalty to more people accused of terrorist crimes.

Seems like some poor choice of words... extend death penalty to the accused? Should it be 'convicted'?
Convicted of what? The military is the judge, jury, and excutioner (AFAIK).

Originally posted by: Michael
Please list and explain the civil liberties that I have lost. It is an empty claim. I actually spent a fair amount of time looking into it when the first gnashing of teeth started.

I love you guys, your opinion is right and mine is wrong.

I haven't lost anything.

Michael
Ten years from now, you'll be feeling quite differently.
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: Insane3D
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Spyro
Originally posted by: Michael
I haven't lost any civil liberties and I've gained lots of entertainment. A huge win/win for me.

Michael

Stop being entertained and start thinking. I doubt that you'll be laughing when an out of control government keeps tabs on everything you do and every human being in the US is tagged like some mindless bovine and tracked like a rat in a maze :disgust:

It won't get to that point. People will only take so much. The gov't as we know it will find itself on deaths door if things such as you posted start to materialize. The problem though is where do we as a people draw the line. I feel we are closer to that line than ever :(

CkG

The only problem with that thinking is once this stuff gets passed, it's a lot harder to get it overturned. Sort of like you don't notice until it is too late.

;) I know - but up until this point people(average american) haven't seemed to be too concerned with the liberties they have lost. They must not be able to see the line yet. Once the general populace does see it, it'll be either too late to change or we'll have a civil war - the like of which the modern world has never known.

CkG
 

Michael

Elite member
Nov 19, 1999
5,435
234
106
It has nothing to do with "affecting" me.

Stop the aimless Bush-bashing, loosen up your tin foil beenie and be clear.

What civil liberty has been lost?

Do a little bit of research. There isn't anything.

Michael

ps - "privacy" is way overblown. The government long has had the right to "snoop" to protect society/enforce laws
 

BaliBabyDoc

Lifer
Jan 20, 2001
10,737
0
0
Not yet, application is in process. Slowed down by 9/11.
Well once you renounce your previous allegiance to the impotent, ingrates North of the Border you will probably have few problems (except for the government collecting information on all of your transactions). But if I were you I wouldn't travel internationally . . . you have no guaranteed right of return. Of course, it helps that you do not look like a terrorist . . . just a guess.
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
0
0
I know - but up until this point people(average american) haven't seemed to be too concerned with the liberties they have lost. They must not be able to see the line yet. Once the general populace does see it, it'll be either too late to change or we'll have a civil war - the like of which the modern world has never known.

Ruh Ro....Cad and I agree again... :p :D


<---looks out window for signs of the impending apocolypse..

;)

 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Insane3D
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Spyro
Originally posted by: Michael
I haven't lost any civil liberties and I've gained lots of entertainment. A huge win/win for me.

Michael

Stop being entertained and start thinking. I doubt that you'll be laughing when an out of control government keeps tabs on everything you do and every human being in the US is tagged like some mindless bovine and tracked like a rat in a maze :disgust:

It won't get to that point. People will only take so much. The gov't as we know it will find itself on deaths door if things such as you posted start to materialize. The problem though is where do we as a people draw the line. I feel we are closer to that line than ever :(

CkG

The only problem with that thinking is once this stuff gets passed, it's a lot harder to get it overturned. Sort of like you don't notice until it is too late.

;) I know - but up until this point people(average american) haven't seemed to be too concerned with the liberties they have lost. They must not be able to see the line yet. Once the general populace does see it, it'll be either too late to change or we'll have a civil war - the like of which the modern world has never known.

CkG

Even at the worst possible event, I don't see this happening anytime soon. If an all-expense paid trip to a moon colony was advertised tomorrow, I think that most of the passengers would be those "in the know".
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: Michael
It has nothing to do with "affecting" me.

Stop the aimless Bush-bashing, loosen up your tin foil beenie and be clear.

What civil liberty has been lost?

Do a little bit of research. There isn't anything.

Michael

ps - "privacy" is way overblown. The government long has had the right to "snoop" to protect society/enforce laws

Umm, I think it should be pointed out that this is an Asscroft bashing thread ;) If it was a Bush bashing thread Moonbeam would be all over it ;)

CkG
 

BaliBabyDoc

Lifer
Jan 20, 2001
10,737
0
0
The government long has had the right to "snoop" to protect society/enforce laws
Yeah but people like Ashcroft often forget the flip side of that coin called responsibility. Furthermore those rights come with explicit limitations not the carte blanche implied by Ashcroft's DOJ.
 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: Michael
It has nothing to do with "affecting" me.

Stop the aimless Bush-bashing, loosen up your tin foil beenie and be clear.

What civil liberty has been lost?

Do a little bit of research. There isn't anything.

Michael

ps - "privacy" is way overblown. The government long has had the right to "snoop" to protect society/enforce laws

Umm, I think it should be pointed out that this is an Asscroft bashing thread ;) If it was a Bush bashing thread Moonbeam would be all over it ;)

CkG

Bush is a nice guy, but Ashcroft...... He wants it, he begs for it, and when it arrives he just doesn't care. If anyone could be a 21st century big brother, then it would be him.
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
0
0
Originally posted by: Michael
Stop the aimless Bush-bashing, loosen up your tin foil beenie and be clear.

Interesting...we are conducting "aimless Bush-bashing" yet the only person in this thread that mentioned his name is you Michael. We must be really getting good at it now that we can do it without even mentioning him....

rolleye.gif


 

Electrode

Diamond Member
May 4, 2001
6,063
2
81
Originally posted by: Michael
Please list and explain the civil liberties that I have lost.

Here's an example that DOES affect you: Say you're a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation. There is only sketchy circumstancial evidence against you. The state AG needs some convictions to give the appearence of being tough on crime for his reelection campaign. He asks Herr Ashcroft's office to label you a terrorist.

As a terrorist, your mail can be intercepted and your phones tapped without a warrent. One slip of the tongue, one sound bite that sounds incriminating when taken out of context, and it's all over. Your home is raided in the middle of the night. You are dragged out of bed at gunpoint while your home is ransacked, your every worldly posession taken from you as "evidence".

You get locked away in a military brig for what may very well be the rest of your life. Your trial date is pushed back over and over and over again. You are not allowed to speak to a lawyer. To even let your family know what has happened to you would be considered a "threat to national security."

Welcome to America. Please have your papers ready.
 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: Electrode
Originally posted by: Michael
Please list and explain the civil liberties that I have lost.

Here's an example that DOES affect you: Say you're a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation. There is only sketchy circumstancial evidence against you. The state AG needs some convictions to give the appearence of being tough on crime for his reelection campaign. He asks Herr Ashcroft's office to label you a terrorist.

As a terrorist, your mail can be intercepted and your phones tapped without a warrent. One slip of the tongue, one sound bite that sounds incriminating when taken out of context, and it's all over. Your home is raided in the middle of the night. You are dragged out of bed at gunpoint while your home is ransacked, your every worldly posession taken from you as "evidence".

You get locked away in a military brig for what may very well be the rest of your life. Your trial date is pushed back over and over and over again. You are not allowed to speak to a lawyer. To even let your family know what has happened to you would be considered a "threat to national security."

Welcome to America. Please have your papers ready.

I couldn't have put it better myself :) Excellent example of where today's government is leading us! :|
 

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
81

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
--Benjamin Franklin

I'd have ashcroft ass widened...
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
0
0
Originally posted by: halik
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
--Benjamin Franklin

I'd have ashcroft ass widened...

Bah, Benjamin Franklin was just a "bush hater". :p ;)
 

BaliBabyDoc

Lifer
Jan 20, 2001
10,737
0
0
Ashcroft is a close, personal friend of Pat Roberts. If that doesn't say enough bout the man I don't know what does.

He believes Jesus would advocate the Jews colonize all of Idumea, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Anyone previously occupying those areas should either pack up and leave or learn to speak Hebrew. Of course if those Jews live in America . . . they need to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. The Southern Baptist Convention welcomes all men willing to renounce evil, love Jesus, and keep the wife two steps behind.