Jeez now we're talking about the Patriot Act. Remember to keep things in perspective. Why was the Patriot Act enacted? Was was it's purpose? When was it created? And then remember that our Constitution's framers said "security of the nation is the foremost responsibility of the federal government". Was the Patriot Act perfect, of course not but it was created when the trade centers were attacked in the worst terrorist attack in history. Our gov't needed a legal means of trying to prevent subsequent and future attacks. As mentioned the Patriot Act was passed overwhelmingly on a bi-partisan vote. There was wide support for the Patriot Act when it was enacted. You have to remember the mindset of the general population during the days following 911. The nation was in complete shock and expected the gov't to do practically anything possible to try to prevent something like that from ever happening again, hence the wide public support and overwhelming bi-partisan vote. Sure, some were concerned about the surveillance aspect of it but agreed drastic actions sometimes require drastic measures. We can look back more recently and criticize it as an infringement of our rights and it was in some ways. Sometimes you take the good with the bad. Do you have access to any intelligence that was obtained by provisions of the Patriot Act that might have prevented future attacks? I doubt anyone on here does. The Patriot Act will always be controversial. Protecting a country is a hard thing to do and sometimes lines get crossed. Hindsight is always 20/20. Just remember when and why it happened and what the results of it might have been.