The best we can do is what we should have been doing all along. Keeping track of foreign nationals in our country. We had the tools to do that prior to 9/11.

How is it that we survived 50 years of Cold War, thousands of nukes pointed at our homeland, countless foreign and domestic spies; How did we survive that without a network of overseas gulags, without the Patriot Act, without surveillance of my library card, without Total Information Awareness?

How is it that we as a country sacrificed thousands of good men on the beaches of France to protect something that we are allowing 19 evil men to take away with box cutters?

There is no fail-safe plan against terrorism that would not create the kind of police state that our founding fathers would have abhorred. There is no liberal nor conservative who can guarantee with certainty our safety.


I prefer not to give up my privacy, nor my liberties so easily. How much would you allow to be given up in the name of safety?

I hold the Bill of Rights as important in its entirety as the NRA holds the 2nd Amendment. I don't see the nescessity of constraining those liberties for the sake of convenience.

If it is the preservation of life that concerns the right wing reactionaries, then I have a list of a dozen more deadly things that they have neglected then terrorists.

What the hell do you think terrorists want? They want to be the boogeyman, they want someone to jump when they say "Boo". No, I have better things to fear. That is far different then sitting on my hands. It has to do with living in the real world, and knowing what dangers are real and which are hype.

About 4,000 Americans were murdered on 9/11. But since that time how many Americans have died from preventable disease, from poverty, from domestic violence, from inadequate healthcare, from drunk drivers, and from serving in a war zone that should never have existed? Considering that just short of 10,000,000 Americans have died of all causes of death since 9/11, the chances of dying in a terrorist attact are about one person in 250,000.

CAUSES OF DEATH, USA, 2002
(1) heart attack (mainly) 28.5%
(2) cancer 22.8%
(3) Cerebrovascular disease stroke 6.7%
(4) Chronic mphysema, bronchitis 5.1%
(5) Unintentional injuries accidents 4.4%
(6) Diabetes mellitus diabetes 3.0%
(7) Influenza and pneumonia flu & pneumonia 2.7%
(8) Alzheimer's Disease 2.4%
(9) kidney disease 1.7%
(10) Septicemia systemic infection 1.4%
(11) Intentional self-harm suicide 1.3%
(12) liver disease 1.1%
(13) high blood pressure 0.8%
(14) Assault homicide 0.7%
(15) All other causes other 17%

Source: National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 53, Number 5 (October 2004)

Its fear, ignorance, and paranoria that are driving our governments spending, not facts.

And finally, yes I would give US citizens suspected of terrorism their due rights under the US Constitution. Due rights mean nothing if they are reserved only for those who are unaccused, and can be taken away the moment you are declared a suspect. Statements like that show a profound lack of respect for Thomas Jeffersons intent as a founding father.