Richard Salsman over at Forbes.com in Kill The Un-American Patriot Act: makes the case for repealing this monstrous act:
[…] The misdirection and dishonesty so emblematic of the Act is dramatized
by its acronym, “USA PATRIOT,” which stands for “Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” No law that so violates Fourth
Amendment rights can be said to “unite” or “strengthen” America. The Act
effectively jettisons that long-cherished principle of civilized
criminal law and American jurisprudence: that one is presumed innocent
until (and unless) proven guilty. Under the Act we’re all assumed to be
guilty unless we prove our innocence. What could be more un-American than that?[…] Americans have been made no safer since 9/11, even though the PATRIOT
Act has dramatically enhanced the prerogative and power of the CIA, FBI,
DHS, DEA, IRS, ATF, TSA and the police to search phone records, e-mails
and medical documents, or to issue search warrants absent judicial
pre-approvals. The Act also has expanded the Treasury’s power to invade
financial privacy and transactions.The Act has significantly broadened the arbitrary discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities to detain and deport even legal immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts or financing. With the TSA, perfectly innocent American travelers are subjected to horrible and invasive treatment which if experienced at their workplace would be deemed unlawful sexual harassment. In the end, absolutist governments are staffed by officials just like these – those who operate above and beyond the law which others must abide.
That quintessential American, Benjamin Franklin, wrote correctly, in 1759, that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Indeed, without liberty we must lack the prosperity and righteousness needed to defend our security. These principles are embodied in the U.S. Constitution, specifically in its Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to ensure that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The PATRIOT Act and its auxiliary measures work slowly but surely to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment.
[…] By definition, anyone who dares to oppose the PATRIOT Act is presumed to be “un-patriotic.” In fact, by opposing it we oppose an American police state. That’s precisely where this horrid Act inexorably moves us, especially given the open-ended nature of the so-called “war on terrorism,” which is an unwinnable war aimed at a tactic which involves no specific end date yet also no specific place on earth where it might not occur. This irrational, self-defeating scheme of “security” entails an eternal and ubiquitous state of emergency – a setting which only empowers government to impose “extraordinary measures” to curb and quash our rights and liberties, without end or limit. It’s well known that today’s conservatives care little for our Fourth Amendment rights, but what about those hypocritical civil libertarians, who were right to protest and fight when Mr. Bush violated rights with the Act, but now stand by silently as Mr. Obama does the same thing?