As a veteran...I want my country to be safe. I want America's people to be healthy, educated, and prosperous. I believe in a good and just government of the people, by the people and for the people... NOT corporations. While run by people, corporations are not lifeforms, they are not human, and therefore they are not people. I also believe in the Constitution, so I don't want my gov snooping on it's citizens without just and/or probable cause. The patriot act, warrant-less wire taps, etc, that were first put into place during the Bush administration, then expanded upon by the Obama administration, are in my opinion, violations of our rights provided for by the Constitution. I understand the need for expediency and I understand that we live in a different world where terrorism has become ubiquitous, but expediency doesn't mean its OK to circumvent the Constitution on merely the "notion" of national security.
I believe the patriot act should either be repealed in it's entirety, or amended to remove those provisions which were put into place in the name of national security but which violate our rights as provided for by the constitution.
The very fabric of America is being torn apart by senseless gun violence and yet there are those railing against what they perceive to be violations of the second amendment. I would however caution you to worry MORE about the rights that have already been abridged by this so called patriot act than the rights secured by the second amendment.
Our elected officials have been made moot and are now no more than a laughing stock because of partisan ideology, ineptness, and the subversive practice of accepting millions of dollars from outside special interest groups seeking favor of elected officials and attempting to subvert our political system from within. In other words...buying elections.
Our supreme court, the supposed keeper of justice, has become the poster child for political activism. Our once great economy and the economy of the entire world was brought to its knees by corruption, greed, deregulation, ineptness, and blatant misrepresentation on the part of wall street, banking, AND those government agencies charged with their oversight.
Americans are suffering because we have unsustainable debt, mounting poverty, mounting unemployment, and an ever widening gap between the haves and the have nots. Our health care system is the joke of the world. We spend the most for health care and receive the least. This is the legacy of for profit health insurance. The REAL death panels we were warned about.
Corporate greed has destroyed America's ability to manufacture by off shoring those jobs in the name of profit. One of the biggest shames of America is that we have plenty money for war yet none for Americans who are in need and dare I say the direst of straights. Many presidents before have warned us about the military industrial complex becoming too powerful but their warnings went unheeded and yes muted because of powerful MIC lobbying of elected officials.
