[FIRSTnut_000]

“In the trauma following the 9/11 attacks, an anxious public was clamoring for politicians to ‘do something,’ ” said Dasbach. “Unfortunately, they did the wrong thing, by passing laws restricting the freedom of innocent people.”

Agreed.

Tell me, do you feel more secure now that airports conduct random searches and prevent you from taking anything sharp onboard a plane? Sorry, I don't. Random searches are nothing but a PR stunt. On most of the flights I've taken, the people pulled aside have been white-haired old men and ladies.

Actually, I do feel safer on a plane now.

Just six weeks after the event, Congress passed the Patriot Act, which expands the government’s power to tap phones, monitor the Internet, conduct ‘sneak-and-peak’ searches and even gives the FBI power to force librarians and bookstores to reveal the names of customers.

Depending on your viewpoint, this could be a violation of your first through tenth ammendment rights. I'll let you guys decide on that one.

“President Bush now asserts that he has the power to proclaim – without showing evidence – that American citizens are ‘enemy combatants,’ and then to order them jailed indefinitely without charges, without access to a lawyer and without the right to appeal.

Actually, he can do that. Taken from The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2: "The privilage of the writ of habeus corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebelion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Now, for those of you who don't know, the writ of habeus corpus dates back to the Magna Carta, and prevents police, sherrifs, etc, from holding you without being charged for a crime. It can only be suspended as mention above. I would consider what happened a year ago to be an invasion, so Bush certainly can jail people without charges. Doesn't mean it's right though.

Now Congress and the president should admit that mistakes were made in the post-9/11 rush to legislate, Libertarians say.

This coincides with the first statement, and I agree with it too.

"Now the president is poised to invade Iraq – a nation that poses no imminent threat to the United States – in a move that could prompt terrorists to execute more barbarous attacks on our shores.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Bush poised to invade Iraq before this all happened? Either way though, it will still cause more tension.

“The only thing that could be worse than the tragedy of September 11 would be to have another such massacre, and another one after that.

“The best way to honor those who perished on September 11 is by ensuring that more Americans – and more American freedoms – don’t perish as well.”

I do give credit to the government for trying, but a wise man (okay, puppet) once said: "Don't try. Do, or do not. There is no try." It's simple: the government is not doing. The terrorists are still trying, and almost got through on a few occasions since then. Sadly, i don't think much is going to change.