OT Bush and Canada

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Fri Nov 22 13:01:47 2002

Mike Feher <n4fs_at_monmouth.com> wrote:
> Well if you miss your Civil Liberties so much move to Iraq. Or, for that
> matter just move anywhere outside of the USA, and enjoy your civil
> liberties there.

You make a valid point that we still have better civil liberties in the
US than most other countries.

However, that does NOT mean that we should be complacent about it and
happily allow Congress and the administration to eliminate or circumvent
some of those rights whenever they happen to find it expedient. For
instance, it would be hard to claim that the PATRIOT Act last year or the
recent Homeland Security Act don't reduce our civil liberties. The
questions to ask are whether the reductions are justified, whether they
are constitutional, and whether they will actually solve the problems
they are supposed to. Any time you give the government more power in
order to make part of its job easier, that power also gets used in other
ways, some of which may be undesirable.

I get the impression that you're somehow mistakenly interpreting complaints
about the recent decline in civil liberties with an assertion (which I don't
think anyone has made in this discussion) that other countries are better.
Looking at legislative trends with a critical eye and pushing for better
protection of civil liberties is a GOOD thing.

If we don't keep an eye on what Congress is doing, and use the courts to
ensure that they keep our civil liberties intact, we will eventually find
that we no longer have them.

Anyhow, since this is so far off-topic, I won't post any further messages
on this thread.

Eric
Received on Fri Nov 22 2002 - 13:01:47 GMT