The patriot act is the government's way of enforcing a form of dictatorship. They say this act is only being used for terrorists to prevent attacks similar to 9/11. The government is using this act for other purposes such as spying on innocent Americans. What happen to our civil liberties? Why are they being taking away because of this mediocre act? 

Yes, I believe we need to keep our country safe but do not I think this is the right answer. Our rights to privacy should not be taking away because the government feels threatened by the advanced ways of terrorists.  For the government to be able to check up on you because they feel as though you "could" be a potential threat is absolutely insane. I will not stand for this. Many of my ancestors came to America for freedom. Now years later America is becoming the bad place they had to get out of. The government is becoming an absolute power right under our nose and we're just watching it unfold in front of us. 

Before you know it the government will call all its citizens "prospective terrorists" to gain access to their privacy. Then a simple two way intimate call with your husband will than be a three way with a government official who gets lonely at night. Technology will truly be the death of us Americans. We let advanced scientific findings destroy our lives. We will soon turn into savages because of the government's paranoid ways. Before America turns from the land of free to land of dictatorship we need to get rid of the patriotic act. 

In the first article "theres still a need, Mr Posner writes that certain aspects of the patriot act are long over due however,  I felt as though his paper wasn't that opinionated because although he talked about how the act was making up for lost time and certain aspects of it were needed to increase national security and how the decisions made about the act were justified, he barely goes into detail about the act. To a reader who didn't know what the act was, his article would be a dull, under opinionated read. In my opinion he should've went into more detail about the new measures of security that the act entailed and about the difference between the government seeping too far into peoples personal rights and being justified enough by the strengthening need for more intense national security. In my opinion, i think that we do need the patriot act but not to the extent that they show in the movie enemy of state. I think that if people are under suspicion and the government has reasonable belief to think they are  a threat to national security, they should be put under some surveillance but at the same time, i wouldn't want the government taping into my phone conversations if they misinterpreted something that i said or did. 

      One reason we need the Patriot act is for the fact that since it was enforced there have been no major terrorism attacks such as 9/11. This is a great thing because I do not believe that this country can handle another attack like that. Now while I do believe that we still do need the patriot act I do feel that in the Past the government has been abusing the law.

      Between the years 2003 and 2006 the FBI issued 192,499 NSL's (allows them to access personal records) that led to only one terrorist attack. This is just showing how the government can abuse power. So for this act to be continued their needs to be restrictions on when the government does this.

      Another example on why the government needs restrictions is because in the year 2010 there were 3,970 sneak and peaks 76% of which were drug related 24% other and less than 1% were terrorist related. This shows that the government can bend the act to satisfy what they need to arrest other criminals. So in order for the act to continue there also needs to be a way for other parts of the government to monitor why exactly the FBI or CSI are performing a Sneak and Peak.

      In the end I feel that we do need this act but there needs to be restrictions. Without the restrictions it is invasion of privacy for all the wrong reasons. Which is why people complain about the Patriot Act.

There has been a number of terrorists plots stopped thanks to the Patriot Act that most people don’t here about since if you look at the charts for violence in America compared to the other countries, America tops most charts for having the most violence.  There are many other examples since it helps the government keeps tabs on potential terrorists and even if its not many people that protects from being hurt, its still protecting people. If “lone wolves” are out there, America needs some way to make sure that they aren’t still working with the terrorist organizations outside the country to attack America and this is the most effective way since it allows the FBI to tap their phones so that they are in the loop. 

Although it is a breach of privacy, the need for tightened security after how a security breach on 9/11 turned into the most horrendous experience for Americans in its recent history shows how much we took our freedom and lifestyle for granted if it can be attacked that easily. In other words, you can say that giving up a some of your privacy should be okay if it can stop someone from turning in a terrorist and blowing up something, killing lots of people. 

After eleven years of having the Patriot Act the question raise is it still needed. People have come to say that the Patriot Act is not needed anymore with the fact that nothing else as big has happened since 9/11. But then again without the Patriot Act can anything like 9/11 happen again. In one of the articles it states that the world is worse then what it used to be, because of the way that technoklogy has advanced and much much more. And with this said the article, There's Still a Need for the Patriot Act, says that defense technology has not yet been able to keep up. One more point that is brought up that is well thought out is the fact that even if the Patriot Act wasn't needed we still need at least part of it or some aspects of it. 

With even the thought that something like this may be able to happen again the Patriot Act will be an important aspect to keep in our lives. As previously stated before jut because nothing has happened since 9/11 doesn't mean nothing can't happen. For example if suddenly the Patriot Act was no longer needed and then there was another attack what will be needed to do? Also what if survellience wasn't as strict and then something a little less server happened? Will the Patriot Act be put back in place or will there have to be another act that was made. 

Another thing that came to mind was something after reading the article on the 9/11 commission report. After reading it and discovering that all these men that hijacked the plane were able to get ont he plan so easily it was just amazing. They had no problem going through security or needing their baggage checked. Now that we have th Patriot Act and if it was taken away it would feel as though we are loosing some of our security. Now a days people would least expect this to happen again because of how well our security is. So by taking away this act its also taing away our sense of security. 

If there is one misunderstood concept present in our society, it’s definitely the Patriot Act. Even taking it a bit further, by saying surveillance. If we look at authoritative monitoring less negative way, maybe we’d trust the government more. So, in the following, you’ll see how having so eyes in the sky is far more beneficial that deprecating, because honestly, it’s always nice to have a “Big Brother.”

By embracing, and accepting, the Patriot Act we open up the door for national protection. We’re giving the government, or whatever entity has our interest at heart, the ability to ensure secretive threats never see the light of day; we just need to let them help. Some people might ask what gives them the right to poke their noses in anything they want, and the answer is the same thing that gives us the privilege to communicate privately and without surveillance- and that “thing” is called trust. We’ve gone this long trusting that the government won’t monitor us 24/7 and allow us the privacy that could both benefit and hinder us, it’s high time we trust them a little.

If it helps any, let’s think of those with the ability to actually utilize the Patriot Act as an actually big brother in the following situation: Kid (citizens of America) finally comes of an age where Mom (Government and Law) gives them enough permission and freedom to start making some of their own more important decisions and being a little more independent. Then, Mom starts seeing that Kid starts staying out later, starts shirking some of their responsibilities and even begin to disrespect Mom. So, Mom asks Brother (Patriot Act) to go see what’s influencing Kid to act so unusually irresponsibility. At this point, it really isn’t up to Kid to decide whether there should be an intervention of a sort; it’s actually in the Kid’s best interest to have someone looking out for them. So, Brother does a little investigating, and finds out that Kid has actually been hanging out with some new friends that appear to be ok, but Brother realizes that they don’t have Kid’s best interest at heart, and can actually be a danger to Kid. So, Brother has a chat with Kid and enlightens him, per say, and teaches him that had Brother not done a little lurking, Kid could be in some big trouble. If there was any bit of haziness in the story, the moral is that sometimes people can use someone looking over their shoulder even if they don’t see it at the time.

The Patriot Act isn’t supposed to be this thing we’re afraid of. It’s supposed to give us a peace of mind that we have someone looking out for us, we just have to trust that they will follow through, but that’s honestly all we can do is trust them, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to trust your Big Brother.