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[Svarte Troner]

WHAT!!!?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot-act-20110527,0,7749454.story

I must say that I'm incredibly proud to be an American this day. Considering my government continues to take the same liberties to spy on people as Communist Russia.

[Angel Of Death]

What's exactly the Patriot Act? I would read that, but I'm too tired.

[Svarte Troner]

What's exactly the Patriot Act? I would read that, but I'm too tired.

Well Demon Burger guy, it is an act that allows the U.S. government to: wiretap phones, search business records, and conduct surveillance of "Lone wolves" who are not linked to terrorist groups. A Bush era law that basically removes a bit of our privacy because we are all suspected terrorists.

And this is happening under Obama. Fuck me.

[Angel Of Death]

Either something's up that they don't want us to know, or they're annoyingly paranoid.

I'm going with the latter.

[Reelyanoob]

What's exactly the Patriot Act? I would read that, but I'm too tired.

I'm guessing you're not an American then? Or you just haven't heard the details.
It's pretty notorious even here in Australia

Is this the same act which allows spying on librarians and peoples library book habits?

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

num num num delicious liberties to eat.

[Grimshot]

 The more things change the more they stay the same.

heh, change.

Anyways, I dunno about you guys but I seen this coming from a mile away.

[Strife26]

Meh, it's really not that big of a deal, and I'm as paranoid personal liberty type as anyone.

[thobal]

Seriously, Carnivore and it's descendants have been listening to everything we say, write, or do for almost two decades and no one makes much of a fuss.

[mainiac]

I just wish they had a decency to make it look like they care about how much this pisses quite a few people off.  Change the name and split it into three different laws.  I fully expect our civil liberties to be trod on in some way or another, but they could at least have the decency to act embarrassed about it!

[Knight of Fools]

The government can phone tap me and go through my records all they want - Those silly agents will just get bored out of their minds.  They're going to be spending the tax money in places no one can agree to spend it anyways, might as well drive them crazy while doing it.

That's the thing, though - They don't have the manpower and technology to really make this law effective on a massive scale (Like some people seem to believe), so they have to choose who and what to poke into in order to not overwhelm their limited resources.  I don't think anything's ever really been accomplished by it since it came out, though, so I'm for getting rid of it.  They pretty much legalized something they were already doing just to get ahead of people being upset over privacy issues.

"Look, it's legal!  See?!"

Also, considering that Pres. Obama has continued a number of Pres. Bush's policies, his decision doesn't surprise me at all, but I didn't expect him to be so obvious about it.

[sonerohi]

I love the Patriot Act so much. Let's spend money trying to find a needle in the worlds largest haystack, by taking it apart straw by straw. Rather than, say, not letting assholes bring needles with them when they look at our haystack. Have we been seeing enough lone wolves for this to be necessary, or is it actually effective at catching them before we see?

[nenjin]

Presidents rarely give up that kind of power voluntarily. That's the thing about presidential power, it tends to only increase over time, rarely decrease.

[Sergius]

Y DO U HAET PATROITSISM!

[Nadaka]

The government can phone tap me and go through my records all they want - Those silly agents will just get bored out of their minds.  They're going to be spending the tax money in places no one can agree to spend it anyways, might as well drive them crazy while doing it.

That's the thing, though - They don't have the manpower and technology to really make this law effective on a massive scale (Like some people seem to believe), so they have to choose who and what to poke into in order to not overwhelm their limited resources.  I don't think anything's ever really been accomplished by it since it came out, though, so I'm for getting rid of it.  They pretty much legalized something they were already doing just to get ahead of people being upset over privacy issues.

"Look, it's legal!  See?!"

Also, considering that Pres. Obama has continued a number of Pres. Bush's policies, his decision doesn't surprise me at all, but I didn't expect him to be so obvious about it.

Laws. They are important, particularly foundational laws designed to protect people from tyranny like the fourth amendment. When you are breaking the law, you can't fix it by passing a law that is itself illegal. The solution to illegal wiretapping is a trial, conviction and jail time for the people who ordered and performed the illegal wiretapping.

As for the technology required not existing? You are woefully uninformed. As for the manpower required to check up on every blip not being available? possibly, but there is plenty of manpower to infringe on the rights of many.