[Kaylee]

So this evening I walk down to the courthouse to see what the whole PATRIOT hubbub is about. Apparently there's a group here who's trying to get the council to pass a resolution saying "we're not gonna play."

While I could go on about what the police chief said, or what their milktoast solution is likely to be, one thing struck me above all. The sheer DIVERSITY of the folks opposing the act. No, I don't mean diverse in the usual lefty sense of a token black, a token hispanic, etc etc..... I mean real AMERICAN diversity.

Imagine a grizzled 'ol guy in a Tyranny Response Team tshirt sharing a room with a half dozen rainbow-haired college socialists, some hippytrippers that never left the 60's, and a lot of just plain workaday folks.

Any other setting, if politics got brought up, I'd expect these folks to be at each other's throats. But no.. they were actually all ON THE SAME SIDE.



..... that alone speaks volumes to me.


-K

[KC]

It is good to hear someting positive from the vox populi. I'm jealous.

[Bigjake]

i need to move to idaho

[SodaPop]

Any other setting, if politics got brought up, I'd expect these folks to be at each other's throats.


You've just described the last family picnic I was at.:uhoh:

[C.R.Sam]

Maby there is still hope that the needed revolution will be political and not armed.
And successful.

Sam

[Leatherneck]

I find it extremely disappointing to see General Ashcroft out stumping for not only Patriot I but Patriot II as well. I generally find his politics agreeable. But not on this issue.

TC
TFL Survivor

[rock jock]

The Patriot Act is a difficult issue. Clealy there are troubling aspects to it. Clearly it has the potential for serious civil-rights violations. The problem, though, is that I have yet to hear any practical solutions that should take its place, i.e., methods that our federal and state LE agencies can use to proactively investigate and gather intelligence on terrorists and their networks.

[El Tejon]

Patriot I und II make my tilecrawler sense tingle. They can/will be bad news.

Wait until President Schumer focuses on the next "terrorists", the gun culture.:eek:

[TallPine]

The problem, though, is that I have yet to hear any practical solutions that should take its place, i.e., methods that our federal and state LE agencies can use to proactively investigate and gather intelligence on terrorists and their networks.

Well, it might help if the FBI headquarters would listen to its field agents when they want to investigate a suspicious person who is taking flying lessons ... :rolleyes:

Some of the 19 alleged 9-11 hijackers were already on a "watch list" - so what was wrong with our previous investigative capabilites?

(oh, I know what was wrong ... we couldn't catch Bob looking at dirty pictures)

[Tamara]

James Bovard (author of Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years) has just released a new title in hardback, Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. About 45 pages into it, and thus far it looks like the man the WSJ called "the roving inspector general of the modern state" has written up another humdinger. :cool:

[Richardson]

Rock Jock,

How about instead of spying on our personal buying habits, we monitor our borders and integrate Law enforcement databases? The federal, state, & local authorities are not yet even sharing information freely. How about infiltration into questionable groups instead of instrusion on our right to be secure in our papers?

Richardson

[rock jock]

Well, it might help if the FBI headquarters would listen to its field agents when they want to investigate a suspicious person who is taking flying lessons ...
I couldn't agree more. My understanding on that situation was that the brass dropped the ball because they didn't want to be accused of profiling, thus telling the field agents to let it go.

How about instead of spying on our personal buying habits, we monitor our borders and integrate Law enforcement databases? The federal, state, & local authorities are not yet even sharing information freely. How about infiltration into questionable groups instead of instrusion on our right to be secure in our papers?
Border patrol has improved some, I don't know how much. But I agree more needs to be done. As much as I am concerned about the flood of illegals coming in from Mexico, our north border may actually be more inviting for Middle Eastern terrorists to cross.

As far as agencies sharing info, that situation is also starting to improve. One example: the new Integrated Threat Assessment (?sp) group.

As far as our personal buying habits and checking libraries, this bothers me too. Realistically, though, there is no way they can look for terrorists by doing random checks or statistical/stochastic models. There has to be some type of tip that leads them to look at a person in the first place. There are not enough resources in the entire federal LE community to investigate everyone who reads The Turner Diaries for example or buys fertilizer.

[TallPine]

There has to be some type of tip that leads them to look at a person in the first place.

Yes, and that is just what they had in the Massouai (sp?) case - a tip from a private citizen at a flying school that the local agent thought was important but the FBI headquarters dismissed so they wouldn't be "profiling"

WHAT ???????????????

Just who is attacking us here? Guys named Bob surfing the internet, or guys named Achmed or Mohammed who hate our guts and have publicly vowed to destroy us? (with apologies to all you loyal Americans out there of Arab descent - I'm not talking about you)

The fact is that the FBI (you don't even want to know MY interpretation of those letters) dropped the ball and as a result over 3,000 innocent people lost their lives.

And now they want to take away our freedoms so that they can "protect" us ... ?

:barf: