I don't know if people have been following how the “PATRIOT” act has been applied, but this “stop terrorism” act is being used in increasingly broad cases with less and less to do with “terrorism”. For example, the act defines chemical weapons as any substance that has the capability to cause serious injury. As such, they're doing things like charging people making meth labs (about a six month sentence usually) with terrorism and the manufacture of chemical weapons (which gets twelve months, plus they can bypass traditional checks-and-balances in the investigation and prosecution — and if Bush's new legislation goes through, the death penalty).
In another case, a guy who's homemade pipe-bomb blew up in his lap was charged with terrorism using a “weapon of mass destruction”. Anyone here that's ever built pipebombs knows that if it blows up in your lap and doesn't kill you, it's not much of a WMD. It's also been used to go after telemarketers, and even to start files on anyone who's protested the war in Iraq, since anyone who objects to war is of course a potential terrorist (didn't you know, most terrorists are also pacifists?)… (more, more)
That said, Bush and the Cabal have been very clear; this isn't enough. They don't just want to be able to give drug dealers and potential financiers of terrorism like telemarketing con-artists prison time after show trials — they want the death penalty, as well as the elimination of bail. In addition, they want to make it so federal agents can issue their own subpoenas without a judge's approval — because they say that the judges are slowing down the legal system and need to be phased out (more).
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