I live in Canada Vince, I am not concerned with the Bush admin taking away my rights, im concerned about them taking away YOUR rights and providing the wrong example for the world. America has always led the world in freedom and liberty, when you start to lose your way, the rest of the world will follow. I provided a littenay of examples of how the Bush admin has really just acted shamefully and have used the innocent deaths of 9/11 to steer policy as far right as possible.

I know what your saying and Im sure you believe it and have no intention of letting them take your rights, but saddly they are. I should make it clear that they are not "planning" to take away right in the future sometime, they have activily started and have already eroded some of the most sacred rights we should all hold dear. You mentioned the key amendmennt rights and those are excellent examples. Just the Patriot act alone puts your first, fourth and fifth amendment rights in danger. The first amendment protects your freedom of expression and free speech and is nesecary in a safe and free democracy. However under the patriot act, expressions and statements can be used as probable cause or cause for suspicion. And Im not talking about dumb people who say things like "ima gonna kill the president!," that is a threat and is cause for alarm. What the patriot act does is make it so particpating in protests, or critizing the governmen, basically saying things they dont like can theoretically be used a grounds for searches and questioning. If people have to fear that what they will say will land them in jail or even just get put them in a position where they will be intimidated by police, then your freedom of speech and expression is in jepordy.

The fourth amendment protects the sancity of your home and your rights to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. Basically it means the police and other agencies need a warrant to search your home, you and anywhere else and to get a warrent they must demonstrate probable cause that you have commited a crime. With the patriot act, government agencies no longer need a warrent to search your home and all your records so long as they claim it pertains to a foreinge terrorist investigation. However, there is no oversight to ensure that these searches and seizures have anything to do with terrorism. In fact, they don't even have to insinuate that you are the terrorist, they just have to say that it came up in the course of a terrorist investigation. They don't even have to tell you that they have performed a search or have siezed records on you anymore. So now were up to a place where expressing your opinon can land you in the hotseat and the governement can go into your home and search through your private belongings and can even seize all your bank, libary, electronic ect records without even making you aware that they are investigating you. I am all for the war on terror and I believe that the laws regarding police searches need to reexamined but this is going too far. A place where anti-government statements lead to midnight searches and covert survalicance is not America.

The fifth amendment guarantees that no one will be held or imprissoned without due and fair leagal proceedings. This is the key that makes up a democracy, we think before we chuck people in a hole. The Pat act though lets them hold suspected terrorists or those that may come up in the course of a terrorist investigation indefniately and without due process or defenses or anything else that makes up America. Am I saying "boo hooo those poor terrorist"? Hell no! What I am saying is that with their board definintion of what they consider a terrorist, the fact that you don't even have to be a terrorist, you just came up in an investigation you can be held just the same, and the criminal lack of oversight and accountability, your giving them a blank cheque to abuse power. You give anyone that much power with so little accountability and they will abuse it. I realize we live in a different world now, and I have no sympathy to terrorist assholes that would harm the innocent, but we can't just say to the government "here, do whatever you like" because that is not America and that is not the America to lead the world.

We need to protect ourselves from terrorism and we need to reexamine our legal system, but that does not mean we have to chuck all the rights and freedoms that make up America in the dustbin. Instead of focusing on real terrorists and real threats, the Bush admin has waged a war on its own people under the guise of security and it sickens me. Be really careful when someone asks you to trade in your liberty for security, you probably won't end up with either.