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Happy Birthday, PATRIOT Act!
On this day in 2001, President Bush signed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act into law.
Celebrate the anniversary by enjoying reason's past coverage:
Read about civil liberties Chicken Littles here and here.
Read "what happens when patriots dissent" here.
Read about "rosy visions of the PATRIOT Act here.
Read about the PATRIOT Act and meth here.
Read about PATRIOT Agonistes here.
Read (tonight's speaker at Reason In DC) Judge Andrew Napolitano's thoughts on the PATRIOT Act here.
VM|10.26.07 @ 1:40PM|#
hier's for a retroactive abortion for this bill. drag it behind the barn, hit it with an ax, and give it to the prom queen to deposit it in the next-best dumpster.
|10.26.07 @ 1:47PM|#
And today is also Hillary Clinton's birthday.
What a nice present George II gave his (probable) successor.
|10.26.07 @ 1:51PM|#
Katherine, I was really enjoying H&R today. A laid back,
rainy Friday, with good jokes, good cheer, and even some good news
on the tubes. Then you bring this abomination up.
Downer Ma'am. A real downer. Thanks a lot! :-(
I'd do the links but I'm already riled up enough.
|10.26.07 @ 1:51PM|#
Wanna hear a story about the USA PATRIOT Act?
I have a bank account that allows me to pay bills online, and that
has overdraft protection into my savings account. Can anyone guess
where this is going yet?
A couple weeks ago, I got a letter from my bank - not even on their
letterhead, they were so ashamed to be sending it - informing me
that I'd had too many electronic transfers out of my savings
account in a one-month period, and if I didn't it again, they would
be required by federal law to take away my internet-banking and
overdraft protection.
I made a transfer to checking at the beginning of the month,
another at the end, and ended up using the overdraft protection 2
or 3 times when a check took longer to clear than I expected.
What am I, funding an embassy bombing with my four-digit savings
account?
I think I'll go buy some allergy medicine and try to get rid of
this headache. Or not.
Grumble grumble friggin frackin...
|10.26.07 @ 1:55PM|#
Damn, joe. That friggin' sucks. All I can say is look up who voted for it. Remember for the primaries and next November.
Episiarch|10.26.07 @ 2:02PM|#
How do they know you aren't in the IRA, joe? They have to protect us from Irish terrorists.
|10.26.07 @ 2:06PM|#
Almost everyone went completely fucking crackhead crazy after 9/11. God bless Feingold and the Nays in this link. When Wellstone voted for it I thought I was going to throw up.
|10.26.07 @ 2:13PM|#
joe, my dear. Your problem has nothing to do with the PATRIOT
act. You've run afoul of Federal Reserve Regulation D - that's been
around for a much longer time.
Of course, you should agree that the federal government knows best
how many savings account transactions are permissible in a month,
so I don't know why you're grumbling.
VM|10.26.07 @ 2:16PM|#
Regulation D: "D 12 CFR 204
Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions
Sets uniform requirements for all depository institutions to
maintain reserve balances either with their Federal Reserve Bank or
as cash"
You might mean E: "E 12 CFR 205
Electronic Fund Transfers
Establishes the rights, liabilities, and responsibilities of
parties in electronic funds transfers and protects consumers when
they use such systems"
Fed rulez.
and joe has been against PATRIOT from the get go, IIRC, so why
would you make that suggestion?
|10.26.07 @ 2:24PM|#
Of the current declared candidates the two who voted against the Patriot Act are Paul and Kucinich.
|10.26.07 @ 2:25PM|#
Now joe sees the violence inherent in the system!
Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!
|10.26.07 @ 2:28PM|#
Nope, I mean Reg D:
...
2) The term savings deposit also means: A deposit or account, such
as an account commonly known as a passbook savings account, a
statement savings account, or as a money market deposit account (
MMDA ), that otherwise meets the requirements of ยง204.2(d)(1) and
from which, under the terms of the deposit contract or by
practice of the depository institution, the depositor is permitted
or authorized to make no more than six transfers and
withdrawals, or a combination of such transfers and
withdrawals, per calendar month or statement cycle
...
Emphasis mine.
And while joe has indeed consistently been opposed to the PATRIOT
act, he has also consistently supported many other government
regulations and interferences. I'm highly amused to see one of the
more petty ones come back to bite him in the ass.
|10.26.07 @ 2:31PM|#
de stijl , thanks for the link. My rep didn't bother to vote on it. She'll get re-elected anyway.
|10.26.07 @ 2:35PM|#
Just in case it's not clear:
I'm mocking joe's (real) statist streak, not his (nonexistent)
support of the PATRIOT act.
|10.26.07 @ 2:52PM|#
under the terms of the deposit contract or by practice of
the depository institution, the depositor is permitted or
authorized to make no more than six transfers and withdrawals, or a
combination of such transfers and withdrawals, per calendar month
or statement cycle ...
Yup. I've been screwed by this regulation, too. Checked my balance
from work, noticed the funds were short in the checking account and
tried to transfer from savings but had already used my allotted 6
EFTs for the month. Bounced the check and they banged me for $30
for Insufficient Funds. I'll be damned if I can think of a
rationale that makes 6 transactions a month permissable and the 7th
excessive.
squarooticus|10.26.07 @ 3:01PM|#
sixstring, joe: the issue is the already-toppling house of cards
that is the world monetary system. Checking accounts have greater
(that is to say, some) reserve requirement. Savings accounts do
not.
So if everyone only keeps as much money in his or her checking
account as is needed for exactly as much value in outstanding
checks as they have, a cascading default would be almost
inevitable.
The Fed encourages you not to contribute to this problem by
limiting the number of EFT's you can make in one month.
Welcome to the world of play money, where counterfeiting is
possible but allowed for only a privileged few, and where active
coercion is needed to keep the system from falling apart.
Kyle
|10.26.07 @ 3:06PM|#
3 out of 211 for the GOP...Not that the Dems come out much better here, but 3 out of 211, I wonder how SIV rationalizes that one?
|10.26.07 @ 3:08PM|#
joe and VM,
Dr. K not only has a great fast ball, he's also dead on about
Regulation D. I should know as a recovering ex-bank lawyer.
joe, you can get around that by making some of your transfers in
person--at the bank or by ATM. Legally speaking, that is. Your bank
may impose its own caps. Also, the restriction only applies to
things like savings and money market accounts.
Reg. D has nothing to do with USA Patriot, and there are plenty of
people who'd like to get rid of the rule. My expertise is fading
into nothingness in this area of the law, but, as I recall, the
rationale for this is for safety and soundness reasons and to
minimize the volatility of the money supply and has nothing to do
with the depositor himself.
|10.26.07 @ 4:38PM|#
pro libertate,
just curious, what kind of law do you do now? or did you give that
whole game up?
Asharak|10.26.07 @ 7:16PM|#
Of the current declared candidates the two who voted against
the Patriot Act are Paul and Kucinich.
Didn't Mike Gravel vote against it, too?
Mike Laursen|10.26.07 @ 11:41PM|#
Does anybody know who came up with the name, USA PATRIOT Act? I remember the first time I heard that name, I felt like we had all been given the finger.
Mike Laursen|10.27.07 @ 1:00AM|#
Trying to answer my own question, the closest I could get is
that the earliest use of "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was in H.R. 2975 introduced by
perennial fuckhead, James Sensenbrenner. But it may have been
primary author, Viet Dinh, who came up with the name.
Sensenbrenner is also the guy we can thank for REAL ID. I'll bet it
was him. Notice the propensity for clever names.
It's just very bizarre that apparently no reporter has ever asked
who came up with one of the most infamous names ever given to a
law.
|10.27.07 @ 1:47AM|#
"That vindicated my concerns over that provision of the PATRIOT Act," says Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican who had joined Sununu and most Democrats in the 2005 filibuster. "Not because I have reason to believe that FBI agents were acting with ill intent, but it does show that we shouldn't create shortcuts when it comes to civil rights. Mistakes will, and did, happen."
Maybe, just maybe, Senator Craig doesn't deserve to be the laughingstock he has become in these corners.
|10.27.07 @ 12:56PM|#
J sub D,
Have they cloned Russ Feingold yet?
ed,
joe, maybe they read some of your H&R posts... You
know, I have been known to be in communication with extremists,
some of them armed...
Dr. K,
Your use of the the term "statist streak" doesn't actually make me
support policies I oppose. I hear you support the use of police to
enforce laws - shall I start assigning you the position of
supporting the drug war?
All, thanks for clearing up the source of this particular
headache.
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