Baby Steps to PATRIOT II
Commenters in a thread below noted that, while media lenses were trained on the search for Saddam's beard lice of mass destruction, one more element of PATRIOT II—an expansion of the definition of "financial institutions"—was passed in the form of a rider to an Intelligence Authorization Act.
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One guy is doing something about it, to encourage Republicans to get off the Patriot II train:
http://www.paydemocracy.com/campaigns/1030
...And exactly how is this restoring integrity in the White House following the Clinton Admin?
Secret congressional voting to avoid accountability and attaching it as a rider to a bill required to pass plus signing the bill during the Saddam Capture media blitz knowing full well there would be public outcry if it went public seems downright dirty and further weakens the integrity! Anybody but Bush in 2004!
oh, they're all the same. how do you think all that has passed. both reps and dems voted for it.
mojo jojo,
They're not "all the same"--both parties also include a blessed minority of libertarian cranks.
But you're right in that authoritarianism, like its opposite, crosses party lines. Just look at the role of swine like Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein in getting the jackboot agenda through Congress, under both Ashcroft and Reno.
Ah, the Chilling Effect!
You aren't chilled. I'm not chilled. Nobody we know is chilled. 60 Minutes will not be running an interview with a guy in a mask, claiming to be chilled. Guess that's why they need a Patriot II-- so somebody will feel chilled...it isn't working so far.
If Patriot II passes it will be much as with Patriot I-- one of two things will happen:
a) Nothing
b) It will be a useful piece of legislation
It is more likely to be the former, but one hopes for the latter.
Andrew,
Go to the ophthalmologist and get rid of your rose colored contacts.
Patriot I has given the government sanction to spy on what we read, and with out EVER having to tell us. Also, the expanded government power has been used in actions way outside it's intended purview.
A "a useful piece of legislation"??
Yeah, useful in punishing dissent. Remember Clinton? Nixon? Would you want the expanded powers of the Patriot acts in the likes of their hands?
Educate yourself about the threats of the Patriot acts. Perhaps you would want to start by reading some of Bob Barr's concerns and his regrets over voting for it.
http://www.reason.com/0312/cr.jw.bob.shtml
We all need to get in contact with our congress person and senators and tell them that we want no more Patriot acts and that they should not alter the sunset provisions on Patriot I. Our future liberty and that of our children may depend on our taking action now!
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home"
James Madison
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