When we get control of the courts, we'll have control of the ACLUnatics, but not until!

I agree. Control of the courts is essential. We also have to find a way to defund the ACLU. They are clearly the enemy of law abiding Americans.

Maybe we can use RICO statutes to get these criminal loving traitors. Prove a conspiracy and send some of these lawyers to jail.

I was worried about the government using this kind of info to go after political opponents even BEFORE I read your post and the comments!

Doesn't it make you feel much happier and "free-er" to know that the wonderful folks at the ACLU are making sure that crazed terrorists with murder in their hearts can't be effectively tracked and stopped before they act and kill innocent people?

It's just like the old song by Ray Stevens, "Everything Is Beautiful"

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Everything is beautiful in its own way
Like a starry summer night
Or a snow-covered winter's day
And everybody's beautiful, in their own way
Under God's Heaven
The world's gonna find a way

There is none so blind
As he who will not see
We must not close our minds
We must let our thoughts be free

For every hour that passes by
You know the world gets a little bit older
It's time to realize that beauty lies
In the eyes of the beholder

We shouldn't care 'bout the length of his hair
Or the color of his skin
Don't worry about what shows from without
But the love that lives within

We're gonna get it all together, now
Everything gonna work out fine
Just take a little time to look on the good side, my friend

Yea, just the love that lives within...I feel safer already.

TIA? CAPPSII? PATRIOT? You think these are good things? What kind of American are you? To so quickly and glibly give up your privacy and rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure in return for the possible .0001% chance an individual might commit an act of violence in your proximity. You're in far more danger just driving to work.

Giving the authorities unlimited power to examine every facet of your life isn't my idea of a wonderful life and I have to wonder why you'd so willingly rush toward that eventuality. Why sell your liberty so cheaply? Whatever we ask our troops to face, we should be similiarly as brave and defend our freedoms as long as it is viable to do so.

TIA? CAPPSII? PATRIOT? You think these are good things?

Yea, we do.

What kind of American are you?

The kind that doesn't want PC idiots like you and the ACLU making it even easier than it already is for splodeydopes from the Middle East to kill us in large numbers.

To so quickly and glibly give up your privacy and rights to freedom from unreasonable search

What kind of freedom are you going to have if a terrorist blows himself up in your neighborhood? What kind of privacy are you going to have when the EMT's have to pick you up with tweezers and a hand full of baggies? What kind of search is unreasonable when these terrorists hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings like the WTC? And what kind of freedoms do you think you'll have if they get their way and impose their Wahabism on you? Freedom of speech - not very good when they've cut out your tongue.

and seizure

The only thing they've seized that I know of are knives, guns, explosives and other dangerous or prohibited things. Doesn't sound to unreasonable to me. If you don't like it, try not going thru a checkpoint with your dope in your pocket.

in return for the possible .0001% chance an individual might commit an act of violence in your proximity. You're in far more danger just driving to work.

You get 95 percent off on credibility because you didn't show your work. And do you think your small fraction was a comfort to those in the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11? I may be in more danger driving to work, but it is my choice. See how that freedom thingy works?

Giving the authorities unlimited power

Which we have not and will not do, except in your paranoid world.

to examine every facet of your life isn't my idea of a wonderful life

I'll bet. Don't want them to know about your Marxist reading habits? Your drug use? Your illicit sexual behavior? Come on, what are you so afraid of?

and I have to wonder why you'd so willingly rush toward that eventuality.

Oh, I get it. Maybe we should just toss out all laws that protect the public safety. Then we'd really be free.

Why sell your liberty so cheaply?

Will you give me more for it than my life?

Whatever we ask our troops to face, we should be similarly as brave and defend our freedoms as long as it is viable to do so.

Now I see your problem, you are confused about who the enemy is. Suggest a remedial class in terrorism and radical Islamic jihadis. Those are the enemies we should fight - and the ones our brave troops ARE fighting while you do everything in your power to make it easier on the terrorists. Thanks for nothing.

"I was worried about the government using this kind of info to go after political opponents"

Hmmmmmm.. We call them "terrorists" because they blow the sh*t out of innocent men women and children in order to strike terror into the hearts of a civilization and enforce their way of life on the entire population of the earth in accordance with their holy writ. You call them "political opponents". Oh! Wait! You are worried that W is going to search YOUR phone records. Cinch down that tinfoil helmet, your sense of self-importance knows no bounds!

"even BEFORE I read your post and the comments!"

After you read it did you sh*t your pants, hide under your bed and suckle your thumb while crying out for your mommy? Dumbass.

"What kind of freedom are you going to have if a terrorist blows himself up in your neighborhood?"

what kind of freedom do you have now if irrational fear drives your very existence?

i truly feel sorry for you, it must be very difficult sleeping at night with all the evil islamic demons at your doorstep.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

what kind of freedom do you have now if irrational fear drives your very existence?

I have plenty of freedom. I can go where I please, say what I want, read anything I want. I can speak out against things I think are wrong. I can't think of any way my freedom's been infringed upon. Unless you count the fact I probably can't sneak a bomb onto an airplane. I'm not driven by fear. I want to go on the hunt. I want to round up these evil people and either deport them, lock them up for many years, or shoot it out with them. I just don't want to let them have a free hand to perpetrate their vicious crimes.

i truly feel sorry for you,

Who cares what you feel?

it must be very difficult sleeping at night with all the evil islamic demons at your doorstep.

I sleep just fine. Since you're so fond of quotes, here's one for you:

It is hard to think of a group of presidents more passionate in their staunch support of democracy than Adams, Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt. Yet they--Federalists, Republicans and Democrats alike--did not hesitate to enact harsh, even ruthless measures in times of national crisis. And however shocking, flawed or atrocious their actions may appear in hindsight, it is crucial to note that each president (save perhaps Lincoln) did so when there was, ultimately, no overwhelming "fire in the rear," no credible widespread, subversive threat within our own borders. Today, however, we may be facing just such a threat, and one that is largely without historical parallel.

To respond, we as a nation will have to confront some hard choices. The enormity of the risk to civilian lives on American soil is unprecedented, yet despite this the Bush administration has thus far shown remarkable restraint. But as the president weighs what additional measures will be needed, both the administration and civil libertarians would do well to recall that our history demonstrates that war-time restrictions on civil liberties have neither been irrevocable nor have they curtailed our fundamental freedoms in times of peace. Indeed, our democracy can, and has, outlived temporary restrictions and continued to thrive.

And if, as we get thicker into this grim conflict, the administration deems it necessary to enact more restrictive steps, we need not fear. When our nation is again secure, so too will be our principles.

-- Jay Winik

Mr. Winik is the author of "April 1865: The Month That Saved America" (HarperCollins, 2001).

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