Government using anti-terror powers against common criminals is not acceptable. This law was passed with the understanding that it would help fight terrorists, not two-bit hoods.

A pipe bomb is not a weapon of mass destruction.

A couple months ago, the Dept. of Homeland Security announced they were going after kiddie porn distributors. Excuse me? Don't we already have an FBI? Isn't DHS supposed to focus on terrorism? This sort of "mission creep" shows why we can't trust the government with new powers.

For example: Total Information Awareness. The news leaked out about this, and alot of people got the willies because DARPA is currently run by Poindexter. But that's not why I oppose the program. I don't oppose the program for what it is, either.

In the '70s the West German government set up a very similar data-mining program. The program looked for particular patterns in order to identify those with the "profile" of a typical Baader-Meinhof member. The program worked. After the Baader-Meinhof gang was taken out, the Germans ended the program.

When I stuff like Jason posted, I start to wonder whether my government would actually end the program when the mission is over. I wonder whether expanded anti-terror powers will end the presumption of innocence.

Our system of justice is based, partly, on the premise that it is better to let ten guilty men go free than to imprison one innocent man. No, I don't believe scamming old people or building pipe bombs is really acceptable behavior. But let them be prosecuted under existing statues.