Sorry Dubya, better ask Santa for something else this year

[cabenson]

Senate rejects Patriot Act.

Comments

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Excellent! That's some of the best news I've had all week (even if it isn't quite definitively dead yet).

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

(even if it isn't quite definitively dead yet).

yeah, but I think they administration is finally getting the picture that they can't continue using the threat of terrorism to justify invading Americans' privacy. I think that Bushco is just as guilty of inciting terrorism becasue they keep trying to frighten American's into submission with "OMG!They are gonna kill us all if I can't listen to Joe Arab Guy's phone calls" I ain't buying it no mo!

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell, yeah; I've been more "terrorized" by this government than I ever was by the threat of a terrorist attack (which I tend to think of as getting struck by lightning - if it happens, it happens).

Combine this with the passage of McCain's torture bill, and it's clear that for the first time the spoiled child in charge of the country is getting his hand slapped. I really hope you're right that that's the "message" they'll take away from this....

[theholyinnocent.livejournal.com]

Thank God, some common sense finally being displayed.

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

I we didn't even have to pull out the blackmail pics...damn.

[maroukian.livejournal.com]

This was on my mind too, early this morning. Particularly this:

...the two most controversial parts: roving wiretaps and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

That stuff is just SCARY... what exactly is a "secret warrant"? Only your best friends get to know you got a judge to approve a personal property search?

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

No...that would be a "seekrit warrnt" and only your LJ flist would be privy.

[maroukian.livejournal.com]

"seekrit warrnt"
Hey! Yinz quit makin'fun a'd'way I talkinn'at.

[babeeaimee.livejournal.com]

Hee! I misread the link as Santa rejects Patriot Act)
Maybe he is real after all!

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

haha. That or Satan cause you know Teh Debbil doesn't like snoops either.

[lostingeekdom.livejournal.com]

Wooo Hoooo! About bloody time the dems showed some spine. That act is scary enough for the citizens. For international students like me, bloody frightening.

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

Wasn't just the dems...some key Republicans voted against it as well.

[betsybanger.livejournal.com]

Why would this be frightening to you as an international student? Not that I am defending the Patriot Act. Do you in reality have anything to hide? Are you committing any illegal acts? Are you a terrorist? Or do you simply love your privacy?

I personally don't give a shit if some flat head military idiot listens into my phone conversations. They will be bored to tears. And they can use a secret warrant to take all my Accounting manuals/books and self-help books off my shelf.

I agree that I love my privacy, but I also have nothing to hide.

It all smells too much like the Third Reich and Nazi Germany... in the name of fighting terrorists.

[lostingeekdom.livejournal.com]

It's not that I have anything to hide, but I am a privacy freak. And yes, the thought that someone would be listening into even my most random conversations disturbs me. Beyond that, the number of hoops that you have to jump through as a foreigner has more than tripled. I understand that it's a matter of security for the citizens, but you can't help but grit your teeth when time and again you're pulled off the line in an airport for an extra search, just because your skin is brown and you carry a foreign passport. Not to forget mandatory fingerprinting. It sometimes feels like you're treated as a terrorist even before you get in. Add to that living in a deep south red state and dealing with red state attitudes .. it's enough to make anyone paranoid.

[wingsfan.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on the fingerprinting. Waste of time, really.
All the ten thousand paperwork I need to fill out is just crazy.
And the wait time for any type of response from the government is usually measure in months, not days or weeks.

[betsybanger.livejournal.com]

I understand your issues, but we are a nation of immigrants/foreigners, and it was certain foreign terrorists that took down the twin towers in NYC. It is just something that you as foreigner have to deal with. Security in Israel is much tighter than it is in America.

There is discrimination everywhere you turn, not just in airports. Gays are not known terrorists, yet I am and have been highly discriminated, and not just at an airport. I also live in a deep south state with back-assward Duke's of Hazzard mentality... a Bush state.

I agree that as Americans with a constitution, we have rights that should not be infringed upon at the sole discretion of one man. For that, I could move to Cuba.

[godessillyria.livejournal.com]

Oooh yay!! Christmas came a little early this year!!

Break out the booze!!!

[eclecticfan.livejournal.com]

damn, this was a good day all the way around...

patriot act & the shrub get a black eye and work didn't suck