more on much of PATRIOT is neutral legislation for civil liberties

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:59:07 -0800
From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on much of PATRIOT is neutral legislation for civil
 liberties
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 05:08:23PM -0500, Dave Farber wrote:
> Much of what I see about the Patriot Act is what I claim is opinion,
> or at most unproven allegations.

There may be people out there doing that but we try to be very
dilligent.  I'm not sure why that earlier observation that much of
the Patriot act is not so harmful caused much debate.  The act was
a huge document, if everything were wrong about a law that large
it would be a failure of epic proportions.   The statistic about
what percentage of this law or any law is bad or good is not
relevant.

As for facts, we have had them up on our web site after our lawyers
examined the act in detail.

Go to:

    http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism/PATRIOT/

For our analysis of the sections that relate to cyberspace in particular,
with links to highly detailed studies, as well as other studies on the
act, including the ACLU which deals with non-cyberspace issues in
a way we don't.

Love or hate the Patriot Act, however, there is one thing about it
everybody should hate.  It was passed in anger.  You should never
make life-changing decisions when you are wracked with anger and
grief, and that applies to individuals and to governments as well.

If we need changes in our justice system which alter the balance of
rights and freedoms in order to make it easier to apprehend criminals,
then this should be a matter of serious, and unemotional debate, with
no participate afraid they will be considered disloyal, unpatriotic
or unmutual because they are on one side or another of that question. 

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/