On the upcoming extension of the Patriot Act

From the public record: Back in 2001, the outgoing Clinton administration desperately tried to warn the incoming illegitimate Bush administration about the threat posed by al-Qaeda.  "Hahaha!", laughed the Bushies.  They "knew" Russia was the real threat to the world and set about a foreign policy based on curtailing Russia's return to super power status.  Except for Dick Cheney that is.  The last few years he had been a busy boy by secretly selling off parts of Iraq to the highest bidders in Europe as if he knew (wink wink) that there would be an upcoming war with Iraq.

Later that year, 9/11 happened which has just been great for authoritarians and war profiteers. 

A few days later the heinous and unconstitutional Patriot Act was passed into law.

Now the Patriot Act remains a great stain upon a nation that claims to value freedom and liberty.  Let's face it, when you are no longer secure in your person or homes, when the government has spies on you at will, when your mails or e-mails or phone conversations can be searched without warrant, when you can legally be assassinated by order of the White House, when you can now legally be detained indefinitely, you are not a free person nor do you have any liberty.  You have the privilege of the illusion of liberty only insofar as the government deems you worthy of such illusions (delusions?).

Today I read that the Senate and House are preparing to extend the Patriot Act.  Julian Sanchez, a research fellow at the CATO Institute recently declared:

"I don't think there's much doubt that the reauthorization will pass. Marginal fixes might be able to be produced, but so far there's been pretty stark opposition to even the most lukewarm sorts of changes.  Nobody wants to go into an election year with a national security vulnerability."

This gives a fairly good indication to how uninformed the general populace is and how apathetic they are towards their rights, liberties and freedoms; a freedom loving people would have taken to the streets in mass protest over such abominable measures.  That politicians are more concerned about looking weak on national security than they are about the continued subversion of the Constitution of the United States and leaving it with as much value as the toilet paper we collectively wipe our asses with also proves this apathy.  They just aren't concerned about people like me who are crying, "But what about our liberty!?"  And why should they when the majority of folks in this country don't care either?

Not that it would matter if they did. 

Even if some miraculous occurrence caused each and every senator and representative in Washington to repeal the Patriot Act this very afternoon, the Pandora's Box has already been opened.  There's no going back to our former pre-9/11 days because the US military and state and local law enforcement have been inextricably intertwined to the point that they are near indistinguishable one from the other in their abuse of power and authority.  

It would take at least a decade to fix this issue if not more.  And that depending on when and if we ever get politicians with enough courage to allow the Patriot Act to expire or repeal it! 

Exacerbating this problem is the fact that as more and more time goes by, the American people get used to it and learn to love the police state, forgetting their former rights or liberties. 

Further, with each incoming presidential administration, these abuses of the American Constitution will become worse and worse, just as we are seeing now under President Obama.  He inherited his vast, sweeping, illegal powers thanks to the previous illegitimate administration and we can only imagine what the next president will do.

All of this because some idiot governor from Texas via Maryland couldn't be bothered to read intelligence reports or daily briefs.  I reckon it made his brain hurt.  We Americans have let his crimes go unpunished, washing our hands of him like so many Pilates.