www.salon.com/news/wire/2...4/patriot/ (http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/09/14/patriot/)

Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither.

A North Carolina county prosecutor charged a man accused of running a methamphetamine lab with breaking a new state law barring the manufacture of chemical weapons. If convicted, Martin Dwayne Miller could get 12 years to life in prison for a crime that usually brings about six months.

Prosecutor Jerry Wilson says he isn't abusing the law, which defines chemical weapons of mass destruction as "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury" and contains toxic chemicals.

Federal prosecutors used the act in June to file a charge of "terrorism using a weapon of mass destruction" against a California man after a pipe bomb exploded in his lap, wounding him as he sat in his car.

I know, they aren't using it on you yet. They are using their powers only on bad people.

Well, I don't run a meth lab, nor to I build pipe bombs...

Heh, by those standards, a can of beans is potentially a weapon of mass destruction :\

any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury

Damn...no more home brewing :'/

I know, they aren't using it on you yet. They are using their powers only on bad people.

So what's your point?

Personally I think it's quite a stretch to put a Meth Lab under the Patriot Act...it will most likely be kicked out of court. But if it will get dumb ass drug dealer's off the streets...go DA go!!

So the Patriot Act is the new hot topic. If the Patriot Act didn't exist, and trumped up charges were created using some other law, you'd never hear about it and you wouldn't care.

So the Patriot Act is the new hot topic. If the Patriot Act didn't exist, and trumped up charges were created using some other law, you'd never hear about it and you wouldn't care.

I'd call it a slippery slope, but it is more of a KY'd water slide.

What was the purpose of the Patriot Act? To catch terrorists.

When it came out, unAmericans pointed out the law was an omnibus of highly abusable laws that stripped civil liberties away from whomever the government felt like stripping civil liberties from.

And look, it is starting. To "bad people" -- drug users and manufacturers, idiots who make pipe bombs -- more "bad people", people of middle eastern dissent (http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030316special0316ap3.asp) -- more "bad people", political anti-globalization activists (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/03/1442239) -- more "bad people".

Not you.

You are a "good person". You obey the law, you toe the line, you respect authority.

First they came for the . . .

It doesn't happen overnight.

As an ardent supporter of my country as I am, even the Patriot Scares me.

I wouldn't mind if this one got shot down, soon.

people of middle eastern dissent -- more "bad people",

Who are not US citizens...do we not have a right to know what foriegn nationals are our country?

political anti-globalization activists -- more "bad people".

Come on...one guy who was posting information about making bombs...convicted on a law that was more than 4 years before ther Patriot Act in a completely different administration.
Besides he didn't even fight it because he was afraid the Patriot Act might be used, "Earlier this year Austin pleaded guilty". Sounds like he sould have fought it if he didn't do anything wrong.

This slippery slope looks more like a plateau to me.

You are a "good person". You obey the law, you toe the line, you respect authority.

I am a good person. I don't make or sell drugs, am a citizen of the US, and do not post links to bomb making instructions for idiots to use to kill people.

It doesn't happen overnight.

Is not happening at all for the non-paranoid :')

Haha I love leftist news sites:


The law, passed two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, erased many restrictions that had barred the government from spying on its citizens, granting agents new powers to use wiretaps, conduct electronic and computer eavesdropping and access private financial data.


The only new wiretap/warrant data was that prosecutors could, if they had one warrant for a wiretap on someone's phones for example, go back to a judge and get a warrant to cover their phones, email, etc..instead of needing seperate warrants for each. Wowzers, that's new powers..not.

No need to panic..
This is the system working..

Laws are meant to be tested.. to pushed to the limits, and its up for higher courts to make decisions on such litmus tests of new laws..

Eventually.... a court will overturn the conviction and using the act in this way will be explicitly banned.
This is how our legal system works..

The Prosecutor must be as dumb as a bag of hammers....He forgot the RICO act...

any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury" and contains toxic chemicals.

No more gardening then.

One thing i dont get is why use this specific law?
I think there are plenty laws that can be used to prosecute this guy.
How was this guy dealt with before this act came into place?
I'm not against anti terrorist laws, but arn't they supposed to be used against terrorists instead of normal criminals (well not so normal in the case of the pipe bomb)?

But it's good to know this, I myself will not sell anymore potted tulips to Americans, before you know it you're prosecuted.

If that is the only charge filed against the man in regards to the meth lab, then he is very lucky. There are much more severe charges associated with producing and distributing methamphetamine. Life sentences aren't uncommon.

Fuck this guy.

OHHH NOHZ I WAZ JST MAKIN DRUGZ!

god forbid you're a reloader/handloader and have a 3lb container of gunpowder and your Rocky Mtn Gun Owners membership card and your plumber left a few pipe end caps in your basement. we leave the intrepretations and applications of the laws to least deserving people in our society and then wonder why it gets abused.

the patriot act is a steaming pile of dog shit.

Heh, by those standards, a can of beans is potentially a weapon of mass destruction

:rollin :rollin :rollin

Quote:
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A North Carolina county prosecutor charged a man accused of running a methamphetamine lab with breaking a new state law barring the manufacture of chemical weapons. If convicted, Martin Dwayne Miller could get 12 years to life in prison for a crime that usually brings about six months.

Prosecutor Jerry Wilson says he isn't abusing the law, which defines chemical weapons of mass destruction as "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury" and contains toxic chemicals.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By this definition,tobacco manufacturers are guilty of the biggest acts of mass genocide in history.

globalization =/= americanisation
Please make a difference. Being for the globalisaiton of the planet does not mean that everyone has to be like you, act like you, think like you and agree with you in everything. Its a give and take.

By this definition,tobacco manufacturers are guilty of the biggest acts of mass genocide in history.

That's a good one, the best thing about it is that it is o so true.
I wonder which one will be the first to get prosecuted under this new law?

globalization =/= americanisation

Sorry Taino, I am failing to see what this has to do with this topic. But I do agree.

Being for the globalisaiton of the planet does not mean that everyone has to be like you, act like you, think like you and agree with you in everything

Darn there goes my plan for making billions of me clones....Pinky our plans to take over the world have been thwarted again!! :')

So is the guy running the Meth lab being charged under a state law or a federal one? If it is a state law, it's not the patriot act per se we are talking about in that case. It's just a case of a local DA abusing the state law.

In any case, the governmental entities trying to expand on the application of these laws need to be smacked down a little. Courts, do your job!

For the record, I support some provisions of the Patriot Act, but many are just begging for abuse and I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg here.

Where did "globalization = Americanization" come up?

from the same deep dark cave all of taino's ideas come from. his ass.

Actually, Taino said that globalization did not equal Americanization, I believe...

--Cen

Um, yes. I didn't put what I posted in quotes. I'm assuming he said they're not equal because someone somewhere in this item said they are equal.