Through the enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act and subsequent executive directives and regulations, essential rights and freedoms that were once guaranteed to all individuals have been substantially degraded. Many Americans still do not realize the significance of what we have lost. The resulting expansion of government powers, and the erosion of 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendment rights and freedoms have transformed the United States. ~ http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/eroding_liberty.pdf ~ Short and interesting read...quite chilling actually.
Thankfully---there has not been any widespread use of many of the provisions of this act-----but these things are on the books and it is only a matter of time before such use occurs---I am sure at some point--just like the ways we do our wars---there will be some blown up incident that will serve as the pretext to make full use of those onerous provisions. The fact is---with the passage of this act----along with the Citizens United ruling--democracy as we have been taught about and known in America---are essentially----dead and gone.
