Posts Tagged ‘patriot act’

Hey suddenly the Patriot act doesn’t looks so bad…

Posted: February 26, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
Tags: , , , ,

Let’s take the way back machine to December of 2008 in the first few weeks of this blog…

You can take this to the bank: Any successful attack on American soil during an Obama administration is going to be wholly owned by not only that administration but the Democratic party.

It won’t matter how diligent or responsible the administration has been. It won’t matter that they acted in good faith which any fair minded person must assume. It won’t matter if like Hornblower in Hornblower during the Crisis members of the current administration and people who understand how hard it is to be right every time rush to their defense. The public will remember who succeeded in protecting the country and who failed particularly if a major population center is successfully hit.

This was written in reference to trials (and lo and behold they will not take place) but they work equally well with this:

That brings us to the main point. Republicans have mostly supported this bill because they believe it a necessary tool for counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Democrats mainly opposed it as a way to rally political opposition to Bush and the Republicans. Now that they’re in charge and responsible for preventing attacks, that Patriot Act looks pretty darned good to most of them.

There is nothing like actually having responsibility to make people choose to act, well responsible, after all this isn’t just a question of a few dollars for pals, this is a question of life and death..

You know we never heard about this kind of thing actually happening…

Posted: May 8, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: ,

…when president Bush was in charge:

Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby’s bedroom in his mother’s Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere – on the bed, on the floor, on the wall.

But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.

Is there a chance that this kid is actually connected to the bad guys? Its not impossible or is it likely that he is being hacked? I don’t know but something smells.

Boyce said the Patriot Act was written with good intentions, but he said he believes it has gone too far in some cases. Lundeby’s might be one of them, he said.

“It very well could be a case of overreaction, where an agent leaped to certain conclusions or has made certain assumptions about this individual and about how serious the threat really is,” Boyce said.

Because a federal judge issued a gag order in the case, the U.S. attorney in Indiana cannot comment on the case, nor can the FBI. The North Carolina Highway Patrol did confirm that officers assisted with the FBI operation at the Lundeby home on March 5.

“Never in my worst nightmare did I ever think that it would be my own government that I would have to protect my children from,” Lundeby said. “This is the United States, and I feel like I live in a third world country now.”

As Classical Values from where I found the story says:

I think it’s time to reexamine or repeal the Patriot Act. Otherwise, because it is in the nature of power that those who have power will abuse it, we will only see more stories like this.

My gut says you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, a single bad application doesn’t make a law bad. The judge would have to be a real d*** to be covering up for a bad prosecution but it’s not impossible. If these guys are pulling BS to cover their rear ends they need to be nailed bad. The real point is this:

Don’t pass a law that you don’t trust your political opponents to enforce since eventually they are going to be in power. I’d like to think that the Obama administration can be trusted to enforce the laws fairly. I really would.