It has come to my attention that, for those of you reading my post, it may be easier to understand the pro-con arguments with a basic, non-biased description of the major aspects of the Patriot Act itself. As I am neither a lawyer, nor have I had the time or training to read through the over three hundred pages of the Patriot Act, I am taking most of this research from various Congressional Summaries, which were used by politicians when voting for the act.
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The major aspects of the Patriot Act, and the ones that invoked the most controversy (therefore the ones I will be focusing on) are:
~a three tiered system to allow federal officials to gather intelligence (much of this portion is based off former laws which allowed the gathering of intelligence in the 'War on Drugs')
~an easing on some of the restrictions on gathering intelligence in the United States
~harsher penalties for money laundering and supporting terrorist organizations
~provisions designed to prevent alien terrorists from entering the United States
~the creation of new crimes and more clearly defined punishments for terrorist activity
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If you are feeling either particularly motivated or particularly bored, I will attach at the bottom of this post a link to a short congressional summary of the Patriot Act.
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21203.pdf
~~
The major aspects of the Patriot Act, and the ones that invoked the most controversy (therefore the ones I will be focusing on) are:
~a three tiered system to allow federal officials to gather intelligence (much of this portion is based off former laws which allowed the gathering of intelligence in the 'War on Drugs')
~an easing on some of the restrictions on gathering intelligence in the United States
~harsher penalties for money laundering and supporting terrorist organizations
~provisions designed to prevent alien terrorists from entering the United States
~the creation of new crimes and more clearly defined punishments for terrorist activity
~~
If you are feeling either particularly motivated or particularly bored, I will attach at the bottom of this post a link to a short congressional summary of the Patriot Act.
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21203.pdf
2 comments:
hey jen, after reading the link you provided me with and the extra post you included on your blog. ithink i finally understand the basic argument presented. i understand why ms callaghan made us blog buddies; we have the same basic underlying question - how much power should the government really have?
as far as your topic goes, it's hard for me to support a side. after september 11, however, i think i would, like you, lean more towards the pro argument. i'm very interested to see what your subtopics will be. alyssa
yes that is my first subtopic in a nutshell. i also believe there's also other reasons it would be ineffective though, such as how far they can actually limit. for example, you can't eat sweets in school but when you go home you can eat as many as you want, and as you pointed out to me, you would binge after being prohibited.
btw im very glad to hear you can relate and agree with me C: -alyssa
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