Americans, do you realize your constitutional freedoms are in serious jeopardy right now?

yes the puritans in both parties, but mostly republican have done a great job shredding all our freedoms and protections. we lost 40 % of them with the war on drugs. 30% lost to the war on terror and patriot act. How sad that we the people would let the people we elected not only screw out of our rights, freedoms and money. We re-elect them and let them walk around laughing at us and calling things be such silly, ironic names like the Patriot act.

Well, this has been building for a while, and truth be told, we cannot know the implications of some of these acts. We can extrapolate, we can make some assumptions, but we know scant little about what the government is actually attempting to do by passing either of these. I'm not happy with the implications myself, and it's part of the reasons I find myself taking part in the debate community as a whole. However, if the government tries to pursue some of these avenues to the extent you're talking about, they risk bringing this into federal courts for freedom of speech issues, especially with things like YouTube. You're talking about censoring a form of media that has, literally, remained almost completely unregulated in this country since its inception. We can regulate some aspects of it, but they tend to have to do with other laws that simply coincide with it. In this case, there's uncertainty as to the legality of many of these acts.

I'm not saying this isn't possible - what you're saying could happen, the language is there. What I'm most worried about is how future presidents decide to use these same laws, which is completely uncertain. Still, it's not cut and dry how this is going to play out. There are some issues that are directly dealt with in the legislation, roadblocks that will make it much more difficult to pursue the kinds of actions you're talking about, and though future presidents may try to take them out, we can be at least somewhat secure in the fact that pursuing this kind of action would cost the federal government too much to take to the full extent.

I'll repeat the same thing as I said two days ago:

If there's no option of judicial review, then weep. If there is that option, stop talking like Chicken Little. It may be possible that a lot of the members of Congress are counting on the fact that the courts will strike it down. I've seen it before: an assertion that some Senators voted for the Line Item Veto even though they sincerely believed it was unconstitutional, and the Senators were hoping that the courts would "save us from ourselves."

I'm not too worried. I've been ready to lock-and-load for a couple decades. I'm an engineer with concepts for a cheap, short-range, self-guided antitank/antiaircraft weapon and a horribly nasty infantry main weapon that can certainly shred low aircraft and might also chew through tanks.

How many weapons and soldiers can Canada contribute to the effort keeping you free? After we clean out abusive government here -- if it gets bad enough -- some might help you.

I'm not sure about that though. A lot of socialists up there have been ragging on us for a long time. You might need to move down here after it's cleaned out and let your country sink itself.

Privately owned firearms in the U.S.: Approaching 300 million, including nearly 100 million handguns. The number of firearms rises over 4 million annually.

Gun owners in the U.S.: 70-80 million; 40-45 million own handguns

American households that have firearms: 40-45%

Hunting licenses sold annually: 14.5 million

NRA State Associations and Local Clubs: 12,000

NRA Target Shooting Tournaments annually: 11,000

NRA Certified Instructors: 73,000

Number of Individuals Attending an NRA Firearm Course Annually: Over 800,000

NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructors: 12,000

Posted: 1/20/2011 12:00:00 AM

Source(s):

NRA http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/%E2%80%A6

see section 1031 and 1032 of the act:

"(d) Construction- Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(e) Authorities- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.

(f) Requirement for Briefings of Congress- The Secretary of Defense shall regularly brief Congress regarding the application of the authority described in this section, including the organizations, entities, and individuals considered to be `covered persons' for purposes of subsection (b)(2)."

Americans retain all Constitutional rights, under this law.

The USA was in trouble the day the Roberts Court ruled Corporations had the same rights as people.

how big is iraq? Afghanistan? Did the military easily control those countries? we know what washington wants to do. But brass tacks here: they dont have the manpower to enforce it. Even if they combined and redeployed ALL the military here, combined with all law enforcement, they cant enforce it. And they know it.

Crackbarry: It's easy to enforce something in a country full of apathetic idiots

That is why I am voting for Ron Paul

like the right that put a gun into the hands of just about every criminals. way to go.