John Ashcroft sucks.
With that out of the way, I want to note what Dean Esmay at Dean's World got from a Gallup survey on American's attitudes about the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act:
Even a majority of self-described "liberals"--a majority of them--think the act is just about right or doesn't go far enough.
Which is as it should be, so far as I'm concerned, because as a former card-carrying member of the ACLU, I have long found them a shrill, irresponsible outfit that cannot be trusted with many important civil rights. At all. In fact, they are an avowed enemy of many important civil rights.
And the headline of the article supports such a take.
Unfortunately with all the BS headlines that have little to do with the content of an article that I've seen, I feel the need read ALL of an article before posting about it (yes, I'm a speed reader).
And to me, the quote of note is:
The survey finds that the more familiar one is with the Patriot Act, the more likely one is to believe it trespasses on civil liberties.
Fuzzy on the Details
A key aspect of public response to the Patriot Act is that Americans are largely unfamiliar with it. Only 13% say they are "very" familiar with it. Another 46% say they are "somewhat" familiar, but 41% admit they are "not too" or "not at all" familiar.
This lack of knowledge is reflected in Americans' inaccurate understanding of whether certain governmental investigatory powers were established by the act.
- Six in 10 believe that the Patriot Act gives investigators the ability to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without charging them and without allowing them access to a lawyer. In fact, the Bush administration bases this policy (in use with Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba) on the president's constitutional war powers.
- A majority of Americans (51%) mistakenly believe that the use of military tribunals for non-U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism stems from the Patriot Act. In fact, this is simply a Bush administration policy that has yet to be exercised.
- However, when asked about investigators' ability to enter houses of worship or attend political rallies within a terrorism investigation, a majority (54%) correctly answers that this power is not associated with the Patriot Act.
Americans' low familiarity with the Patriot Act may also explain why respondents disapprove of some government powers provided by the act when Gallup describes them, at the same time that they generally believe the act does not go too far in restricting civil liberties. Specifically:
- Seventy-one percent of Americans disapprove of the act's provision that federal agents can secretly search a U.S. citizen's home and, for an unspecified period of time, not inform the person of that search.
- A slim majority (51%) opposes requiring businesses, including hospitals, bookstores, and libraries, to turn over records in terrorism investigations without informing their patients or clients.
- Close to half of Americans (45%) disapprove of giving federal agents broad latitude in obtaining information on private citizens from financial institutions in the course of terrorism or money-laundering investigations. Only 51% approve.
Posted by P6 at March 2, 2004 07:41 AM
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