I guess we don't disagree after all, Lep. We both want the restrictions in place. Thank you for taking the time to do the paper side of your job and for doing it right.

(Actually we do not take the time to thank our cops often enough. It would have been nice to say thanks to the cops and firefighters who died on 9/11 while they could still hear us. Give me roses while I yet live...)

Larry, please don't let your anger cloud your posts. We are trying to have a civilized discussion here and I would hate to see it dissolve into name calling and finger pointing. I agree completely with your concerns and fears. I don't believe I have ever been the target of the FBI so I can't quite feel your emotion but I can understand it, I think.

Doug, your post indicates that you aren't listening and hearing what we (the liberals) are saying. We are worried and concerned. Some of what has been said by the conservative viewpoint (in this thread and in 3d land) has only served to exacerbate those worries. We are looking at history and asking someone to reassure us that it won't be repeated. So far nobody has been able to give us that assurance. The best anyone can do is tell us to trust our elected officials.

The problem with that is our elected officials have let us down too often in the past. Those of us who remember the Viet Nam era, Watergate, Joe MacCarthy, etc., know that those people in charge will do whatever they can to shape the world to their own personal vision.

Our President is one of those people (aren't they all?). He thinks the American public wants what he does. He forgets that he lost the popular election. He has no mandate from the people to put his vision in place. Fewer than half the voters supported him before 9/11.

My concern is that with the war on terrorism his popularity has increased. And, with every new terrorist threat he announces more and more people see him as standing between the terrorists and the falling towers.

But how many of those threats are real? It is suspicious to me that the timing seems to coincide with every fresh criticism of the administration. Without being able to see evidence of the threats he could be manipulating the people and keeping them on edge to ensure he gets re-elected and gets the mandate he couldn't get honestly.

That scares the hell out of me because his vision does not include people who dare to question him. And he will use the FBI and whatever other agency he has or can create to get rid of those subversives.

Can you see now the source of our worries?