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Exactly what additional power has he seized and what civil liberties have US citizens lost. No abstract bullshit, real cases please
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Easy - The Patriot Act allows Federal Agents to institue a conspiracy charge to a case, meaning they bypass any need to show evidence or legal cause to lock somebody up and keep them from speaking to an attorney. Ashcroft put over 1000 people in jail, many of them US citizens, and was not able to get even 1 conviction. Some of those people sat behind bars, not even allowed to see family, for over a year. Bush has siezed power and money from the state and local governments and rolled it up to the Federal level (Constitutional ammendmants to overide State Laws??) to the point that he has become the most flagrant Democrat of the modern era. But this again is off topic...
The US has actually had a pretty bad track record of encouraging democracy to other countries. I would argue it is much easier for us to deal with a dictator who we can keep on our payroll, than trying to win over the hungry masses of said country. For example, we installed the Shah in Iran, we gave Saddam the money and weapons to destroy his political opponents and take rule of Iraq, we funded the Taliban and gave them the weapons to organize an army to fight Russia, and Saudi Arabia uses our guns to silence any democratic revolutionaries that pop up in that US supported kingdom.
Putin was a KGB leader who saw his country fall to pieces under Yeltsin. When Putin was elected into power, people were hungry and homeless in what had been only 10 years earlier a proud, powerful country. Putin is scary because he is effective, determined, and grew up thinking of us as the enemy. We are preaching "democracy" because we need other leaders in Russia to step up and take some of his power away. He has too much influence in the Middle East and is gaining more credibility in world politics every day.
Lastly, for all of the "capitalists" out there arguing against the evils of socialism - obviously the US has never subscribed to a capitalist ideal or free market goals. We institute trade embargos and tariffs around the world, we bail out airlines and subsidize farmers, and we give NO BID contracts to companies our buddies run while refusing to do any business with a company headquartered in France and think it's clever. You are a socialist - live with it, comrade.