Told Ya So

Nowhere in the OP did I blame only the Congressional Republicans. I stated it was the Bush/Cheney administration and the hawks in Congress that fast tracked the Patriot Act. Again, as a right-winger, you read into a post what you wanted, not what was written.

However, it was indeed the right-wingers that embraced the Patriot Act, and welcomed the warm, fuzzy, safe feeling it gave them inside. They called all who protested the Patriot Act traitors and sympathizers of the terrorists.

At the same time, people of reason in this country realized it opened the door for unlimited U.S. spying both domestically and internationally.

Like it or not, signing the Patriot Act into law was another major mistake made by the Bush/Cheney administration, and is another mistake the right-wingers want to deny Dubya made.

Without that flub by Dubya, there would have been no Patriot Act to extend. Either by the Republicans, the Democrats, or both.

 

People who don't believe in the effectiveness of the Patriot Act live in a fantasy bubble.

 

Effective or not.

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Ben Franklin
http://www.whatourforefathersthought.com/Quotes.html

 

There is more at stake here than "a little temporary safety". What makes you think that in time other countries won't adopt the same practices we are? Should we just wait until they do, suck in the meantime at surveillance, and THEN when there is a threat, get better at it? I just don't get what you guys want. It seems to be some utopian world that doesn't exist.

 

I agree that righties pushed this, and so did most lefties...

However if you are going to use this logic your lefty president is the worst in history.

 

Sorry the original bill that cam from the Bush white house was heavily modified by the Democratically controlled senate. Talk about selective memory loss eh bluboy...

 

How many Democrats voted for the Patriot Act? Now how is this an exclusively Republican creation?

 

But when referring to the like of the PA and NDAA etc, we are talking about spying on US citizens or gathering meta data. Same difference.

 

But if we throw out our political bias we can see that while the right created it and grew it into a beast and the left uses it to this day. Viola!

And further irony is that the left had the presidency, the house and the senate and did nothing to stop or change it.

And final irony is the entire congress and president act like they are in some artificial shock that we spy on other countries' leaders and people AND on our own. Not even close to a new issue but quite embarrassing to all of them when people find out it's true.

 

From broad concern felt among Americans from both the September 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks, Congress rushed to pass legislation to strengthen security controls. On October 23, 2001, Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner introduced H.R. 3162 incorporating provisions from a previously sponsored House bill and a Senate bill also introduced earlier in the month.[5] The next day on October 24, 2001, the Act passed the House 357 to 66,[6] with Democrats comprising the overwhelming portion of dissent. The following day, on October 25, 2001, the Act passed the Senate by 98 to 1.[7]

A great many of both parties voted in favor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act

 

It's only hypocrisy if it isn't true, and everything in my OP is true.

It WAS the Bush/Cheney administration and the Congressional hawks that pushed for the Patriot Act, then the Bush/Cheney administration DID sign this Constitution-wrecking nightmare into law.

It WAS the right-wingers that cheered when Dubya signed the bill, and it WAS the conservatives and neoconservatives that called anyone criticizing the new law a traitor and terrorist sympathizer.

It WAS the people of reason that predicted the government agencies would abuse the power of the Patriot Act, and this DID happen.

It IS the right-wingers that now condemn the Democrats for extending the Patriot Act, and it IS their ignorance of history that blinds them to the difficulty the average people have getting rid of an obnoxious law once it has been passed.

You righties WANTED the Patriot Act and your wish was GRANTED. Now, you MUST live with the consequences. You have no one to blame but YOURSELVES.

There is no hypocrisy written here at all, or in my OP.

 

Oh I get it. You do not like the NSA crap going on but you like Obama so you want to blame it on someone else rather than the guy who is in charge.

 

The right-wingers don't want any quotations from the Founding Fathers unless they perceive the quote as supporting their side of the argument.

More often than not the quotation disproves their opinion, but they don’t realize it.

Happens here all the time, and it is comical.

 

Where in my post does it mention Obama?

The topic of the post is how one of the principal perpetrators of the Patriot Act, a man who has spent half of his life in the House of Representatives, can claim he is “angry and appalled” by the resulting abuse of a law he strongly advocated. His faux shock and surprise is his way of transferring blame from himself, and is total BS.

Just as it is BS for the right-wingers to claim they are shocked by that law; a law which they were warned by people of reason, would lead to the invasion of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution but suspended by the Patriot Act.

It is easy to see why right-wingers are so easily fooled by the Republicans, they have such short memories, and fail to learn from history. You obviously forget calling those who opposed the Patriot Act traitors, and a few other less than complimentary names.

You want to blame Obama, but he didn’t become a member of the U.S. Senate until 2005, and that was long after the Patriot Act became law.

Had he attempted to repeal the Patriot Act after becoming President, what kind of luck would he have had?

Would the G“NO"P have cooperated and voted to eliminate a law they fought hard to pass?

Right-wingers want everyone to believe they are the only defenders of the Constitution; but history proves you people are the largest segment of the U.S. population that support more laws suspending the rights of individuals.

(Let me stop you before you start. Don’t fall back on the right wing BS that background checks for gun buyers means confiscating all firearms from the American public. People of reason know this is what you people want to believe, but it is simply idiotic.)

 

If the "lefties" were so enthusiatic for the Patriot Act, why were they condemned as traitors by the right-wingers?

It is comical how the conservatives and neoconservatives rewrite history to suit their need of the moment.

 

Interesting. You open by noting it was the right and the left that were responsible for the panic run to surrender the hard won rights in the US constitution and then close by saying that ONLY the "reactionary right" is always wrong.

I thought Obama got elected on that "hope and change" thing. Seems there hasn't been on iota of change, Gitmo is still runniong and little old ladies have to suffer indignities at airports that Russians wouldn't tolerate, but it's ALL the fault of the "reactionary right".

 

You didn't. Its a complaint about the NSA crap and you are not mentioning the President that is in charge during it. The buck stops with Obama.

 

Sort of right but drop "political a" to leave you with..

Talk about trying to save one’s own $$.All that lobby group support ($$) will melt away if he's voted out.

 

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"Whet difference does it make!"

I missed the part where the Democratically controlled Congress, Senate and the Presidency rescinded the Patriot Act. I missed the part where Obama closed Gitmo. And I miseed the part where the Republicans "initiated" illegal spying on allied leaders.

I think you have forgotten the concepts of right and wrong. As long as Obama does it it's OK.

 

The difference is the right wing whines about it like it's all Obama's creation, and that same right wing praised Bush when he jammed it down our collective throats. Hypo...something. Right wing hallmark.

 

I see...so the right did it too but, Obama is worse. That's sounds familiar.

 

I'm not blaming anyone for PA. I supported it then, and I support it now. I'm one of those who haven't flip-flopped.

 

Well good for you.

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That's very true, also.