Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

-=> ROY J. TELLASON wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 RJT> Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to All:

 WC> [W]ASHINGTON, Sept. 27 -- The Bush administration, which calls the
 WC> USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting
 WC> terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in
 WC> many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to
 WC> terrorism.

 RJT> Big surprise there,  eh?

 WC> None at all from me.

I should've bracketed that with  and  tokens maybe?

 WC> This is EXACTLY what I feared and in fact predicted from the very 
 WC> first :-(

Oh,  I've got some more info to post on that.  I just need to get it over
to this machine...

 WC> Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the
 WC> Judiciary Committee, said members of Congress expected some of the
 WC> new powers granted to law enforcement to be used for nonterrorism
 WC> investigations. But he said the Justice Department's secrecy and
 WC> lack of cooperation in putting the legislation into effect made him
 WC> question whether "the government is taking shortcuts around the
 WC> criminal laws" by invoking intelligence powers -- with differing
 WC> standards of evidence — to conduct surveillance operations and
 WC> demand access to records.

 RJT> No,  really?!  Duh...!

 WC> Guilty until proven innocent, if they let you attempt to do so :-(

If you ever freakin' make it to court,  instead of just "getting
disappeared"...

 WC> "We did not intend for the government to shed the traditional 
 WC> tools of criminal investigation, such as grand jury subpoenas 
 WC> governed by well-established precedent and wiretaps strictly
 WC> monitored" by federal judges, he said.

 RJT> If they expected something other than what they got,  they really
 RJT> oughta get their heads outta their butts...

 WC> Justice Department officials say such criticism has not deterred
 WC> them.

 RJT> "Sticks and stones..."

 WC> They need to rename that Department to reflect it's new goals... 
 WC> Injustice Department?

I _really_ need to get myself another copy of 1984.  And maybe Brave New
World,  while I'm at it.  I've read both,  don't know what happened to the
copies I used to have.  But I think it's time for a refresher course,  so
to speak...

 WC> "There are many provisions in the Patriot Act that can be used in
 WC> the general criminal law," Mark Corallo, a department spokesman,
 WC> said. "And I think any reasonable person would agree that we have
 WC> an obligation to do everything we can to protect the lives and
 WC> liberties of Americans from attack, whether it's from terrorists
 WC> or garden-variety criminals."

 RJT> Lives _and_ liberties?!  Right.

 RJT> They're gonna do what they want to do,  and any excuse that's handy
 RJT> _will_ be used...

 WC> And the sheeple will cheerfully support it because it's called 
 WC> "The Patriot Act."

Until their ox is gored,  yeah.

 WC> The incredible lack of critical thinking in this country today is 
 WC> depressing to me.

I saw a post elsewhere that suggested that at least how people _feel_ about
this stuff and how they're reacting to things may be changing...

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