Patriot Act Response

As if the author was not already sufficiently embarrassed by her internalization of the false left-right paradigm, she drones on with a knee-jerk analysis of national security failing to once mention the United States Constitution! In fact, the author's discussion of "civil liberties" is completely and utterly undermined by her choice to not talk specifically about any civil liberties, by her ignorance of certain historical contingencies, and by the so-called "experts" she cites to support her claims. Furthermore, the author's sweeping inferences on the topics of war, Osama bin Laden, and Congress's actions since 9/11 expose her as an apologist and shill.

In an essay of only 9 paragraphs, there are 8 attempts by the author to breathe life into the false left-right paradigm. Line 4, "the left has pitched fits," line 8 "loud objections from liberals," line 16 "least of all a conservative," line 30 "civil-liberties types go ballistic," line 39 (implicit) "a process of emasculation," line 53 "liberals are urging," and the last sentence's rhetorical question to the reader on line 70, "which direction would you lean?" Remove these contrived labels, and the essay's claims are suddenly baseless. The point here is that the entire Liberty/Security debate requires that it be formulated within left-right political schemes so that it may be digested by the people similarly to all other dichotomized political options (think here of pro-life/pro-choice, pro-gun/anti-gun, and demo

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ther occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not apply." (Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations, 1976) Consider the CIA's Operation Mockingbird which began in the early days of the Cold War. The goal was buying influence behind the scenes at major TV news networks and periodicals. Reporters were put on CIA payroll, and it has proven to be a stunning ongoing success (Louise, 2003). The author's statement "We should relinquish some liberty in exchange for security" misses the point. Did these rights even exist before 9/11 ? The author's use of an anecdote about Minneapolis FBI agent Colleen Rowley to segue into a discussion of "probable cause" being brought down a notch to "reasonable suspicion" is an obvious non sequitur. Anyone doing an actual reading of history will see the author's omission-that Colleen Rowley had to get permission from the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit (RFU) at FBI headquarters prior to obtaining a warrant, where she faced several obstacles. On 21 August 2001, RFU's agent Dave Frasca stopped the Minneapolis agents from obtaining a criminal warrant. On 22 August 2001, RFU agent Mike Maltbie st

Category: History - P