well duh
so it's been uncovered recently that law enforcement in pennsylvania have been using the patriot act to spy on groups engaged in lawful political activities. and yeah, they're not mainstream political activities. but lawful none the less. all i have to say is, well duh. some of us were pretty sure this was going to happen as soon as the dumb thing was passed. okay here's the thing. we americans believe in our rights so strongly we're willing to die for them. so here we're in a situation where we have to choose between losing those precious liberties (speech, peaceably assemble, petition the government) or let them evil terrorist kill us. to paraphrase a famous american patriot. i know not what course others may take but give me liberty *and* give me an extremely remote chance of death.