01-18-2004, 08:18 PM
Americans, for the most part and especially the conservatives, believe America is responsible for all the good in the world and responsible for ridding the bad in the world. Our current political administration is a good example. If countries don't want to live the way we think they should, we invade them. If other democratic countries disagree with us, we penalize them and don't let them 'play' until they get back in line.
As for the Patriot Act, there is a real need to take terrorist threats as real....should have been done years ago but it wasn't. However the Patriot Act is a smokescreen for limiting civil rights that Republicans and conservatives have wanted for years. In the 60s Republicans were against civil rights for blacks...today they claim they were for it the whole time. The fundamentalist churches spout how the only christians that fought against slavery were themselves. They ignore how close they are to the KKK and how religious the members of the KKK have been throughout history.
Holding American citizen 'suspects' indefinitely without access to council is against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The government is getting away with it because the public believes we would be in danger of terrorist attack if it wasn't happening.
The good/bad news is that like the 50s, 60s and other historical times, the government will overstep their bounds and make a mistake. Something bad will happen, the government will be embarassed and/or try to hide what they did, there will be a massive, albeit slow, investigation in order to give current guilty office-holders time to exit gracefully and the new political machine will utterly denounce what was done and we will start again.
If that wasn't enough to stir up the right-wing on the forums, consider this:
Thomas Jefferson stated that the 2nd amendment, the one the NRA and gun lovers embrace, was in place only for the use of a national militia. It seems the need for a citizen militia is outmoded since we have the most powerful military in the world.
-A card carrying ACLU member, liberal and civil rights activist
evil_admin
As for the Patriot Act, there is a real need to take terrorist threats as real....should have been done years ago but it wasn't. However the Patriot Act is a smokescreen for limiting civil rights that Republicans and conservatives have wanted for years. In the 60s Republicans were against civil rights for blacks...today they claim they were for it the whole time. The fundamentalist churches spout how the only christians that fought against slavery were themselves. They ignore how close they are to the KKK and how religious the members of the KKK have been throughout history.
Holding American citizen 'suspects' indefinitely without access to council is against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The government is getting away with it because the public believes we would be in danger of terrorist attack if it wasn't happening.
The good/bad news is that like the 50s, 60s and other historical times, the government will overstep their bounds and make a mistake. Something bad will happen, the government will be embarassed and/or try to hide what they did, there will be a massive, albeit slow, investigation in order to give current guilty office-holders time to exit gracefully and the new political machine will utterly denounce what was done and we will start again.
If that wasn't enough to stir up the right-wing on the forums, consider this:
Thomas Jefferson stated that the 2nd amendment, the one the NRA and gun lovers embrace, was in place only for the use of a national militia. It seems the need for a citizen militia is outmoded since we have the most powerful military in the world.
-A card carrying ACLU member, liberal and civil rights activist
evil_admin