"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state."- Charleton Heston as Det. Vargas in A Touch of Evil (1958)

[url=www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030609/EDITORIAL/306090309]The government wants your rights[/url]

John Ashcroft thinks you still have too much freedom. He wants to take more of it away. It would be for your own good, of course. It always is.

The attorney general seems to believe that the terrorist threat justifies every power that the FBI and other federal law-enforcement people have ever thought might make their jobs easier.

Apparently it's not enough that, thanks to the "Patriot Act" passed during the panic after Sept. 11, they can spy on us.

Not enough that they can arrest foreigners without charging them with a crime and keep them locked up – in secret and without having access to a lawyer – until the FBI gets around to deciding they're not guilty.

Called before a worried Congress that nonetheless seems inclined to let the administration do pretty much what it wants, Mr. Ashcroft did not apologize for what the Justice Department's own inspector general found was the legal and physical mistreatment of more than 762 foreigners arrested on immigration charges but suspected of possible ties to terrorism.

Only one of those 762, Zacharias Moussaoui, has been charged with such a crime, and the government's case is looking anything but airtight. Most prisoners have been sent back home, where, no doubt, they will make new friends for America by telling everyone about the rule of law and the liberties that we hold dear.

Perhaps that failure to find terrorists is what motivated Mr. Ashcroft to confirm what had long been known – that the administration will push for new provisions to further unshackle the government.

The argument is that these radical measures will make us more secure. If terrorist attacks take place, the government won't conclude that giving up those freedoms didn't protect us; on the contrary, it will conclude that we hadn't given up enough. Either way, it will argue for more power over our lives and more power to lock us up.

A Republican congressman told Mr. Ashcroft that "short-term gains (against terrorism) … may cause long-term harm to the spirit of liberty and equality which animate the American character." A Democrat said, "We have the great traditions that … separate this country from our adversaries."

Or used to.

How's the weather in your state guys?

Right now it's a pretty nice day out but my allergies are bothering me.

[img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=327[/img]

Good one!

No, actually it was pretty stupid.  

Good one!

I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how NAFTA = Nazi.

Maybe I'm just stupid...[rolleyes]

War on crime?  Yeah, that ones really henious.

How can I expect to hijack Imbroglio's threads when no one responds to me?

Looks like maybe a little rain...

At least it is warmer today...

Started off cool but rumour has it it'll be hot enough to boil frogs.

Hard to trust the weatherman.

yeah, it will be heinous when [b]YOU[/b] as a law abiding gun owner become a felon as part of the "War on Crime".

Hot as hell.

No need to worry.  The Republicans will fix it in the next 2 Presedential elections [rolleyes]

It's getting too hot in here where my computer is. Time to go out on the porch. This thread made me decide that. I've never responded to Imbroglio before I don't think. Man it's beautiful out. A little warm though. Well.....

There should be an IBTL type code for Imbroglio posts. Just something to bump the old post count up without having to reply.
How about.. HAIA (He's At It Again)? Or, HWGA (Here We Go Again)?

It was nice earlier but it is getting way too hot now.

I just checked, and it's 80 degrees out.

They'll fix the weather, you mean they will let the Air Force use thier weather control satalites for good instead of evil ?