Acting Patriotic

Authored by Michael Pate on December 30th, 2003 at 11:34 PM

The collateral damage wrought by Mr. Bush’s war is not confined to Iraq. What that war is doing to the fabric of American freedom, justice, and law is already ominous. The War on our Freedoms is a calmly reasoned report on what the administration has contrived against our liberties in the name of homeland security. - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Right. We can’t afford to lose this one, folks. If we do, we’ll have to set our watches back 60 years. If they even let us have watches in the camps, that is. - John Perry Barlow

I’ve heard Republican spin masters say that we need a positive optimistic vision for the future, not people who are angry about the past. Remember, when you hear that bullsh*t, they’re not wanting you to think about the Fourth and First Amendments which are being dismantled. Do you think Uncle Sam was angry about Pearl Harbor or the Nazis? Yeah I’m angry. And that’s the correct way to be. - Dave Winer

I am not a big fan of the Patriot Act. Why? Because I remember what America was like in the years prior to January 20th, 2001: The White House reading through FBI files, deaths being investigated by Park Rangers, federal agents taking children from their bedrooms at gunpoint, and 76 people dying because of an arrest warrant serving was botched.

It is important to remember that throughout history, the loss of civil liberties by individuals and the aggregation of too much unchecked power in the executive go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. - Al Gore

I trust the current administration to do the right thing in the War on Terror. But I don’t know that we can trust the next.