Are We Incrementally Losing Our Freedom?

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Originally Posted by Alembic

I am wondering why the current administration has not yet overturned the Patriot Act. I know it was not popular, and there was an opportunity recently get rid of it, but that did not happen.

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It is most likely one of those things governments put in the bottom draw just in case they might need it one day!
Hope they are like me and forget where they put it :).

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Originally Posted by rastewart

Good point--I remember a little about that too. I think immigration was one of the few areas where Bush's instincts were pretty good, but as generally seems to have happened, he let his party's right wing call the shots.

~Rich

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Remember that GW Bush was a governor of a huge border state, chances are he actually had the good pragmatic ideas about this, but just like any other politician sometimes one has to be realistic and choose ideological BS.

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Originally Posted by Alembic

I am wondering why the current administration has not yet overturned the Patriot Act. I know it was not popular, and there was an opportunity recently get rid of it, but that did not happen.

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When candidate Obama became President Obama, he was immediately removed from the the fanciful world of being the opposition politician. Perhaps the national interest with the urgencies and necessities of the actual post-9/11 world asserted itself beyond cheap politics. The new President now, accountable had to be pragmatic and realistically offered few if any acceptable alternatives adopted what he formally criticized. Obama is doing it everyday, forget the denials, pay attention to what he is doing and, in this case, I cannot criticize him. A perfect answer does not work in an imperfect world. Perhaps not popular, but, true!

Recently, Caterpillar published claims that the new health care law would raise costs by $100 million, John Deere estimated $150 million. AT&T and Verizon released similar reports with even higher amounts resulting in the CEOs of these and other companies being summoned to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://straightrazorpalace.com/ /><st1:State w:st=Washington</st1:State> to defend claims that the health care reform law would cost them millions. Does this sound like <st1:State w:st="on">Washington</ST1:p</st1:State> intimidation to “shut-up”?