The USAPATRIOT Act reduces the role of the judiciary in approving or denying telephone and internet surveillance, and makes private citizens subject to the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court (FISA court) which has a lower burden of probable cause for issuance of warrants. It's in sections 206, 208 and 215 - read it and weep. And there's virtually no right of privacy anymore with the Carnivore key word search system in place under the federal Total Information Awareness program (renamed the less-threatening Terrorism Information Awareness program), which also conducts data mining and snooping into every manner of private transaction in America. Hate-crime legislation punishes thought and speech. Judicial decisions create new victim classes of Americans, based upon the imagined offense of politically incorrect speech. If you desire to freely convey your thoughts to another person in 21st century America, you risk legal consequences. RISK THEM ANYWAY! We have no rights which we will not defend.

The USAPATRIOT Act provides that the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the unilateral power to designate domestic groups, including political and religious organizations, as "terrorist organizations." (Section 411- look it up). . Remember that this legislation was first drafted in 1998 before crying "BUSH" and you'll realize that the seeds of federal totalitarianism are rooted firmly in the nourishing power of the Washington D.C. bureaucracy. There is no difference between the results of Democrat policy and Republican policy; both result in more federal power and less individual freedom.

Contrast this with the Bi-partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act authored by John McCain (R) and Russ Feingold (D), passed by Congress and signed into law in 2004 by President G.W. Bush, which prevents "special interest groups" - meaning everyone but the media - from running political advertising for the last 60 days of a campaign. How's THAT for "inviolable" ?

As the lyric goes: "Those who know what's best for us must come and save us from ourselves..." - RUSH from the song 'Witch Hunt' Scary, but no doubt true. And politicians really believe it, too. Remarking upon the court's striking down as unconstitutional the City of Sarasota (FL) anti-camping ordinance designed to drive the homeless out of the city, Mayor MaryAnne Servian (a registered Democrat) said: "We're just trying to protect people from themselves." The road to serfdom is paved with good intentions ... (with apologies to Friedrich August von Hayek).

This is a great quote because of the candid admission it contains. Media elitists think that they know what's best for us to KNOW, much as statist politicians in Washington D.C. and elsewhere think that they know what's best for us to DO. The campaign finance "reform" Act(McCain/Feingold) passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. G.W. Bush in 2004 is a blatant example of how government and media conspire to keep the populace in the dark and under control, by its prohibition of advertising by issue advocates (you and me and our friends) for the last 60 days before an election. This guarantees that the government/media complex will have the last word on shaping voter positions on issues.

The power to self-govern includes the power to secede from associations and relationships. Lincoln and the statists in the Washington bureaucracy denied this power to the southern states, and in so doing, reduced the constitutional disagreement to force of arms. Could Abraham Lincoln have been the first purveyor of political double-speak, way before Bill Clinton's perjury (it depends on what the meaning if "is" is), George W. Bush's USAPATRIOT Act (suspending civil liberties to preserve the country) or even George Orwell himself? Bet you didn't learn this pont of view in the government-run school system ...

"I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the Liberty for which it stands, One Nation, subdivided, with Equal Rights and Justice for All."

The success of individual liberty, which our Constitution created the Republic to preserve, depends upon individuals making intelligent choices. People make bad personal choices for themselves and they each bear the consequences, and learn to do better the next time. But if enough people make bad candidate choices, we all suffer, and very few of us will admit our mistake in order to learn from it.

It cannot be said that government does not have any responsibility to the people. It has the responsibility to protect their individual rights. However, because of the tremendous growth of the welfare state, and the concurrent insidious infusion of socialism into our society - not the least example of which is the government's acceptance of the responsibility for educating the populace - brilliant quotes like this are completely beyond the understanding of many people who see such sentiments only as a threat to their particular handout, meal ticket or government subsidy, and cannot therefore judge a concept on its own merits but only as it may influence their situation. Daigu and his cheerleaders are shining examples. It is a sad commentary on the state of our Republic that comments on the relationship between an individual and government are reacted to emotionally before they are understood. Good catch, whomever noticed that Pataki was governor of NY...

It becomes even more accurate if you read it without the word "private" ...

Brilliant counter (along with the quote about constitutional usurpations by Act of Congress by Justice Stephen Field) to the government's claim that it needs sweeping new domestic powers to fight the War on Terrorism. More government power equals less freedom. It's an equation that oppressed peoples from the old Soviet Union to the old East Germany to the old China to the old Iraq have had burned into their consciousnesses. Why do we refuse to understand it here in America? At risk is the very Constitutional foundation that affirms our right to be free from an overpowering federal government.