As the Republicans secretly push for a permanent extension to the Patriot Act in Congress this month, it's important to remind Americans what that means. After 9/11, it was easy for the federal government to define black and white--us vs. them. They did this using the rhetoric the terrorists win if we change our way of life.
What happened afterwards tells me the terrorists won. Americans began losing their Constitutional rights as both Republicans and Democrats began growing the Department of Homeland Security, which began killing more of your Constitutional rights. These are the same nice people taking naked scans of you at the airports and then groping your private parts if you don't comply.
After 9/11, numerous reports came out from both states and the federal government to define who the terrorist are. I think Cato's David Rittgers does a good job of reminding Americans who the terrorists are as Republicans push to extend the Patriot Act which led to these violation of rights and the verbiage in many of these reports like Missouri's MIAC report.
This follows a long line of fusion center and DHS reports labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security. The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists, Tea Party groups, and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat; and the Department of Homeland Security described half of the American political spectrum as “right wing extremists.”
In other words, all Americans are terrorists. Of course, they are coming after your rights.
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