What would prevent the current administration from using the "Patriot Act" to secretly arrest people they didn't like, hold them incommunicado, and torture them?

Decency? Well, they've formally avoided the Geneva Convention, and tried to coverup the problems in Iraq. They claim to need the provisions of the "Patriot Act" for a reason, presumably to use them.

Because it's America? I suspect an "enemy" is an "enemy" to them, and I also suspect they don't draw a distinction between the current Administration and America. An "enemy" of the Administration is an "enemy" of the US to them, I'm sure.

And how do we know they aren't doing just that now?

How is all this different in QUALITY from the despots we in the us have always derided?

Arf