What's up Livewire. Thanks for the response. I agree that it is easier to erode rights gradually and that one bad piece of legislation can be a gateway to abuse. What I'm trying to determine is precisely what part of the Patriot Act people believe have eroded rights. I confess I have not read the entire thing and I suspect many of the people complaining about it probably haven't read the entire Act either. Here is a link (I think): http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html
People on both sides of the issue always take extreme positions.
Far-right republicans will say the Act is great, we should have ten more just like it, and it doesn't hurt rights one bit.
Far-left alarmists will say the Act is horrible, that it opens up every door and email in America to secret searches, and FBI can abuse it (which I think it's shown 10% of cases show abuse with FISA).
The truth is in the middle. Yeah, it gives Bush power to watch folks without them knowing. yeah, there have been abuses. Both sides are playing the best/worst case scanario to scare people into believing them. Repubs say without it, we'll be attacked. Dems was with it, we'll be Big Brother tomorrow. They're both exaggerating.
Now, if Prez Rudy declares a Patriot Act II, with much greater and far-reaching powers, well then I hope some in the middle start to get a little nervous.