I am wholeheartedly against the Patriot act. It doesn't do what it claims to, there are clearly HUGE problems with civil liberty violations, and the power it grants to the government are too ill-defined. To me, it really comes down to the fact that the government can spy on me without my knowledge based on any suspicion. That's just scary.
I think that the amount of power the Patriot act grants would probably corrupt the best person in the world. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that politicians are all bad people, but there are always people who will abuse power if it's available.
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Originally Posted by LegoAddict  Oh.
Well I'd say at first glance that would infringe upon privacy rights. There's too much ability for misuse of that.
If they do that, they should have to get a judge to approve it first, like a warrant. |
Yeah, they should. And there is a system in place to do so--it even gives a grace period (45 days, I think) so that the government can begin surveillance, THEN apply for a warrant to do so. That covers cases where the surveillance needs to start immediately. Even that makes me really uncomfortable, but that system has not been used in a lot of phone tapping cases...big scandal here in the US.
The Patriot act was passed immediately following 9-11 when everyone was scared and would accept ANYTHING that claimed to keep them safe. I think a lot of politicians who voted to pass it probably regret it now, but the mass hysteria following 9-11 clouded a lot of people's thinking.
Summary of my opinion: the Patriot act scares the poo out of me, violates my civil liberties and right to privacy, and is a completely ineffective tool for preventing terrorism.