I was not aware of anybody talking about Congress taking away your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Or were you under the impression that the Goverment's job was to guarantee that nobody else infringed on your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
And I haven't had any of my civil liberties impinged since we went to war with Iraq and neither has anybody else I know. I'd wager that goes for you too, and everybody else posting on this thread.
And you know this, how?
Wishing won't make it so.
Are you being obtuse? The issue that's been raised on thise thread (yet again) is that the wiretapping is posing an unacceptable violation of privacy.
My point is, if we don't do what's necessary to protect the nation our basic liberties are threatened. The government's job is to protect the nation's interests, it's borders (not a stellar track record, I'll grant you on this one) and the citizenry from attack. Civil liberties come second to basic liberties in my book. This really isn't hard to grasp...
To answer your last question, I just returned from Mexico where our bus was searched by federales. My civil liberties, although non-existenent there, were by definition, violated. In fact, we were racially and nationally profiled. Nothing even remotely like that happens here. Since I don't fund or speak with terrorists, I have little concern I'm being scrutinized. Why? Because there's no reason to. The govt. will put it's time, money and energies in the direction that it's most needed. And that isn't me.
I find recent the indignant "concern" about practices that go back to the days of Hoover and probably beyond most amusing.
If you aren't talking to AQ, I doubt you have much to worry about. But if you need something to keep you up at night, be my guest.
Me, I'll worry about a suitcase nuke in Boston or Omaha, not about the methods that were used to try to prevent it from going off.
I find there is a lot of apathy about the concept of the government databasing potentially every communication you make, with that data to be saved forever. Maybe some people haven't imagined how a future government could make surreptitious use of such data without every bringing a legal complaint against you, if they are so motivated.