With No Modification and Little Debate, Democrats Send Patriot Act Extension to Obama

the parties are just window dressing,
until the the citizens of the nation give some kind of act of no confidence in the govt , one with teeth
we will be treated like subjects

The irony here is that Democrats think they “have” to vote for this stuff in order to get our support, because the Beltway class has told them that Americans will punish them at the polls if they aren't “tough on national security”.

And while it's true that the Republicans will try to use/manipulate/twist a vote like that, it's also true that if you stand up for your Liberal values bravely, it's really quite easy to shut up any NeoCon wackjob who pops up to try to bully you. Like most bullies, they are cowards at heart, who can be easily cut down to size with a swift kick to the groin, and who, when challenged, fade away like the weaklings they truly are.

The larger problem is, the USA PATRIOT ACT has exactly crap to do with national security, which is why the entire argument is a false construct. In fact, in many ways, it makes us LESS secure, and sacrifices our most rudimentary values in the process.

It, along with similar measures like torture and rendition, do to America what no silly terrorist in cave ever could — it makes us less free.

Terrorists can only take my property or my life. They can't take my freedom. But we can give it up out of fear, thus giving the terrorist a victory he couldn't DREAM of.

It really IS TRUE that, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”

don't you love how it's harder to buy cold medicine than it is to buy whiskey, ammunition, or porn.

Well if big pharma would ever agree to a single regulation, you might be able to buy that cold medication over the counter. But the drug companies won't remove the one chemical in their medicine that is being used by drug dealers to make cheap meth. And of course the corporate whores especially in the Senate are too well-paid to exact any stringent regulation that might force them to behave honorably. So, it's behind the counter.

Its the same reason why we don't have chemical markers on explosives, even though it would help us track terrorists. Clinton tried to get that passed through the Congress, and the Republican majority in Congress shot him down on behalf of their corporate campaign donors.

This same sort of stupidity continues with the prohibitions on liquids onboard planes. The type of hydrogen peroxide that's used to make things go boom, isn't the same as what you buy in a drug store. The bad stuff is industrial grade. All they'd have to do, is give the TSA personnel sterile test strips to dip in any liquid that change color if the particular chemical is detected. And you can keep your drink or whatever.

But it's so much easier for these political hacks to restrict you as an individual, and make YOU jump through hoops, than it is for them to say to industry, “You must do this.”

Right now, dollars are the only thing with a vote in this country. And that's the MAIN reason why we're having problems. And the radical conservatives on the Supreme Court just made that whole thing MUCH worse.

its a backbone depleting disease,many in congress are sufferers,with the exception of ron paul,dennis kuchinich