"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Read Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother". How much of our privacy are we giving away in exchange for "security" of a dubious nature?

Robert,

That was a great link.

I love this line.

"“The case is highly unusual in a number of ways,” said Bugliosi, “not the least of which is that the defendant(Bush) is actually accusing himself.”

Thanks for the laugh.

my fav

http://www.nytms-se.com/2009/07/04/court-indicts-bush-on-high-treason-charge/

Julie, you have my sympathies. You can't believe everything you read. The July 4 paper was a spoof done some say to point out the credibility gap of a paper that helped sell many on the Iraq war with its made up stories. The spoof was well done but the stories are laughably optimistic if one is paying attention enough to notice.

http://www.nytimes-se.com/2009/07/04/patriot-act-repealed/

The above site is a spoof done by "the yes men" who also distributed a paper version in front of the Times one day.

New York Times

The Yes Men also claimed partial responsibility for a prank on November 12, 2008 where approximately 80,000 copies of a fake edition of the July 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times were handed out on the streets of New York and Los Angeles.[18][19] The fake edition shows their ideas for a better future with headlines such as Iraq War Ends and Nation Sets Its Sights On Building A Sane Economy. The front page contained a spoofed motto, "All the news we hope to print" from the famous phrase "All the news that's fit to print".[20] Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives, including an establishment of national health care, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s and an article wherein George W. Bush accuses himself of treason for his actions during his years as president.[21][22] There is also a Reuters photo of the fake cover page[23][24][25] and a fake website, http://www.nytimes-se.com/.

Alex S. Jones, a former Times reporter and media scholar, s

I stand behind the New York Times article.

Julie,

The Patriot Act has not been repealed. Check your source. It's a joke!!!

Abbe...I don't drink. Ever...It was a simple typo. If you don't believe the NY Times article, you have a computer, do the research.

Julie, I'm sorry you had too much wine at lunch.
I think you may have done the same today, too, because you said "You didn't know, Abe, because you're Abby: " I guess that was meant ot be an insult but whatever.
I'm neither Abe nor Abby.

However, The Patriot Act was instated in secret by people who never even read it so I'm not surprised to hear they ditched it in secret as well. It belonged in the paper shredder according to all original reports of what it entailed. There was a great deal of controversy, as there should have been when we could all of a sudden be legally wire tapped for no apparent reason, among other things.

However, I don't see any evidence that we still aren't being spied upon by our own gov't and our current president has made mention of those who oppose him being terrorists and right wing extremists.

And I also know that I've seen and heard recent references to the Patriot Act other than on these boards. In fact, it is on the news right this minute that unless the congress makes a move, it WILL BE history, not that it already is.

You didn't know, Abe, because you're Abby: from the NY Times: USA Patriot Act Repealed
By Sybil Ludington
Published: July 4th, 2008

Eight years after being enacted, and three years after being reauthorized, the controversial USA Patriot Act was repealed by Congress by a vote of 99 to 1 in the Senate and 520 to 18 in the House.

No fanfare greeted the repeal in either house. Absent were the 40-minute speeches and foam-core charts predicting Armageddon. The act was repealed with a simple vote cast late in the day by a Congress ashamed of what it had done and what the Act had meant for Americans.

In related news, Congress yesterday repealed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and agreed to permanently shelve the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. “These acts were worded in such a way that they could be interpreted to equate political dissent with terrorism. In any case none of these bills did a thing to protect Americans,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Most past supporters of the act refused comment, but Senator Jon Kyl (R-AR) explained his lone vote to retain the Act: “I wish I could say I was as principled as Russ Feingold [the only Senator who opposed the Patriot Act in 2001], but the truth is that I had too much wine at lunch, hit the wrong button, and then was too inebriated to notice.