The Legislative Branch has no oversight responsibility over the White House.

[Beestie]

Luckily we now have The Patriot Act which fixed some of those problems.

What problem? The problem the government has when rights granted us under the Constitution and Bill of Rights impedes their ability to do police work even a moron could do within the parameters of our civil rights?

Fine. Effective immediately, judicial approval of search warrants is no longer required. Warrants will be issued by and executed by local law enforcement without judicial review therefore the entire legal principal of illegal search and seizure has been nullified - no searches can be characterized as illegal since searches are now conducted at the discretion of the police force. Seized property cannot be deemed illegally seized since seizures are conducted at the discretion of local law enforecement.

Now with that pesky requirement out of the way, LET'S GO GET US SOME CRIMINALS!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

"Pardon me, miss but I'm going to need to search your house."
"Why?"
"There might be something illegal going on in there which, under the new 'Patriot Act' is a supposition which cannot be legally challenged since there is no threshold for making such a determination."

Tell you what, Mercenary, I'll be in charge of deciding who to apply the provisions of the Patriot Act to. Since the requirement for judicial approval has been voided and since there is no recourse to citizens because their rights against search, seizure and habeus corpus can be suspended at the sole discretion of the government then technically your rights haven't been violated (the right itself has been revoked).

I'll decide who is spied upon. I'll decided who's records are requested without a warrant and I'll prohibit the parties providing the records from acknowledging that they were provided. I'll review them in secret and decide what police action shall be taken against you and I am accountable to no judicial authority.

Is this the world you want to live in? That's what the Patriot Act provides for. And as if that weren't bad enough, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and other agencies are acting in flagrant violation of it and no one can do anything about it except tell them to stop.

That's not America and anyone who foolishly supports such unchecked revocation of rights afforded us under the Constitution is no American.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Beestie

That's not America and anyone who foolishly supports such unchecked revocation of rights afforded us under the Constitution is no American.

I don't buy that hype. It is not unchecked.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I don't buy that hype. It is not unchecked.

The current "check" appears to be "congressional investigation if and only if Democrats are in power" (this morning). Something more systematic is called for.

Like, for example, warrants.