How do you Americans feel about losing these freedoms?

Question

1st AMENDMENT FREEDOM OF SPEECH
• The Patriot Act broadly expands the official definition of terrorism, so that many domestic groups that engage in nonviolent civil disobedience could very well find themselves labeled as terrorists.
• The Government may now prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they reveal that the government requested information on their clients or members in the course of an investigation. It has become a crime for these individuals to try to safeguard your privacy or to tell you that you are under investigation.


1st AMENDMENT FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
• Government agents may now monitor the First Amendment protected activities of religious and political institutions, and then infiltrate these groups with no suspicion of criminal activity. This is a return to domestic spying on law-abiding religious and political groups.
• You may now be the subject of a government investigation simply because of the political, activist, or advocacy groups you are involved in, or the statements you make within these groups.


1st AMENDMENT RIGHT TO ACCESS
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
• A U.S. Department of Justice directive actively encourages federal, state, and local officials to resist and/or limit access to government records through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
• The Government has conducted immigration hearings in secret behind closed doors. Such proceedings were once open to the public. Hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrants have already been deported in secret.


4th AMENDMENT FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE
SEARCHES &SEIZURES
• Law Enforcement authorities may now conduct secret searches and wiretaps in your home or office without showing “probable cause.” They need only to claim that intelligence gathering is “a significant purpose” of their intrusion, even when the primary goal is ordinary law enforcement. They may also monitor where and to whom you send and receive e-mail, or where you go on the Internet, recording every e-mail address and website you have been in contact with.
• Law Enforcement may now demand any personal records held by any source including your doctor, employer, accountant, or library. All they have to do is claim that it is related to an investigation into “terrorism.” The record keepers may not reveal that your records were provided to the government.
• Judicial oversight of secret searches has been effectively minimized. The Patriot Act directs judges to consent to secret searches based only on the Government’s assertion that a "significant” purpose of an investigation is gathering information related to “terrorism,” as the government defines it.


5th AMENDMENT RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS & FREEDOM FROM BEING HELD WITHOUT CHARGE
• Americans can now be jailed without a formal charge & without the right to confront the witnesses or evidence against them. American citizens are now being held in military jails without charge and without a clear path of appeal for their indefinite confinement.
• Hundreds of Arab, Muslim and South Asian men were rounded up in the Ashcroft raids following September 11, and held for weeks without charges until all were cleared of terrorism charges


6th AMENDMENT RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION
• Hundreds of U.S. residents have been detained for months at a time, and denied access to the advice and advocacy of an attorney. The Government may now monitor conversations between attorneys & clients in federal jails.
• The Bush Administration filed papers in court that arguing that an American citizen held in a military jail without charge should be denied access to legal counsel because such access would interfere with the process of his interrogation.


6th AMENDMENT RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL
• The U.S. Government may now jail its residents and citizens indefinitely without charge & without a public trial.


8th AMENDMENT FREEDOM FROM CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS
• The U.S. Government has taken into custody individuals they identify as “material witnesses,” transported them across the country, and held them for months in solitary confinement without charge or contact with their family.
• According to the Justice Department’s own Inspector General, immigrant men rounded up in the Ashcroft raids following September 11 and held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY were subjected to a pattern of “physical and verbal abuse.”


14th AMENDMENT RIGHT TO EQUAL PROTECTION
• Over 82,000 men from Arab, Muslim and South Asian countries registered with the Government under the Special Registration program. Over 13,000 are now in deportation proceedings. None have been charged with terrorism.

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libbie? actually i am a conservative. i hate bush though.

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Answer 1

Fear is a great tactic to keep everyone under control.

Thanks for letting me know that our president endorses less freedom for our soldiers to fight for.
All I hear is freedom this freedom that, democracy this democracy that.
He makes a mockery of our country...and guess what? The terrorist are winning everyday thanks to the degradation of our liberty.

Answer 2

I think it sucks. Why do people still consider this administration conservative? I sure haven't seen much of a conservative trend in this country the last six years.

Answer 3

Of all the things you mentioned none are out of line with good common sense for controlling terrorism in this country. We still have more freedoms than anyone else. We should have tightened up a long time ago. All of our politicians on both sides want to be so dammm politically correct. People like you need to buzz off.

Answer 4

I have no problem with any of them except FOIA, this can be abused by Democrats in government like they are in my state to cover up their criminal acts and secret sessions. Other than that these are not a problem at all, no ones "Freedoms" are being taken away by any of these unless of course you are a criminal, but thats a good thing the libs just don't see that, therein lies the problem. I find it amusing how many liberals use the Nazi Germany comparison when it comes to the country protecing itself. In fact, its liberalisim that has thousands of paralels to Nazi Germany, not conservatisim.

Answer 5

I have a friend who is a lawyer and once, while visiting him at his office, I happened to read all the signs the office he works in has on the walls.
The one that caught my interest and made me laugh was one that said this:
"Every attorney knows and is assured of, that the Constitution is nothing but a piece of paper with writing on it. Writing that is open to interpretation. In fact, the Constitution is written on stolen parchment and written with stolen ink by a stolen pen."

I believe it was meant as a humorous thing, but, there is more truth to it than any would care to admit.

Answer 6

It is absolute Bullshit. That's how I feel. And just another question, has anyone actually seen the "Plane" that hit the Pentagon? not the video that shows the explosion, but one that actually clearly shows the "plane"? I do not doubt that the number one person responsible for 9/11 was someone with the initials G.W.B.

Answer 7

Although you are exaggerating a bit (especially the references to the 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th amendments) I do resent that my rights have to be somewhat curtailed.

I fully intend to extract revenge on the one responsible, Osama Bin Laden must pay!

Answer 8

It seems real convenient that you selectively failed to list the Second Amendment which the Demoncrats want to abolish.

Answer 9

Personally I think it sucks. This is not a free country anymore.

Answer 10

We fought to get these freedoms. This may very well destroy democracy and America as we know it.