But I sure do worry about President Kerry and AG Schumer turning the act against Americans.
Posted on 5/23/2004, 4:49:18 PM by quidnunc
The denunciations of the USA Patriot Act proceed apace. The American Civil Liberties Union reports that 313 cities and four states have passed resolutions opposing the law. In many quarters it is taken for granted that the Patriot Act is an abomination that shreds civil liberties and throttles due process. The law's sternest critics warn that America is only steps away from the gulag. "We are closer to a totalitarian state than ever before," warns Joe Williams, a Californian running for Congress on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket, in a recent debate on the popular Front Page Magazine website.
Strangely omitted from much of the anti-Patriot Act vehemence is any mention of 9/11. That is understandable: Ignore the context in which the law was enacted, and it becomes easier to demonize it. But the Patriot Act wasn't passed in a vacuum. It came in the wake of a horrendous attack by foreign enemies who had been hiding within our borders. 9/11 awakened many Americans to the fact that we are at war with a fanatical enemy — an enemy that will go on slaughtering civilians unless it is rooted out and destroyed.
But terrorists can't be rooted out unless investigators have the means to find them. And for years, federal agents were barred from using tools in counterterrorism work that were readily available to agents pursuing gangsters or drug dealers. Nor could investigators hunting terrorists swap potentially useful information with criminal investigators — an intelligence "wall" that helps explain the government's failure to expose the 9/11 plot before it was carried out.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Anything that the ACLU is against must be good for us.
The Left is not against the PATRIOT Act *despite* the fact that it has prevented terrorist attacks---they are against it *because* it has prevented such attacks.
But I sure do worry about President Kerry and AG Schumer turning the act against Americans.
911 and the ineptitude of the FBI, INS and others, as well as our weak border and lack of enforcement of immigration law, are issues that need to be addressed. Potential spying and snooping on every American by federal spooks and 'giving up our liberties for temorary security' (ring a bell at all?) is not the way to prevent attacks on America.
If you believe it is, do some studying on smaller Constitutional govt. Also, these pundits keep crying that we're in so much danger because theres a supposed "terrorist behind every tree!" but YET, the damned border is wide open, with a thousand a day (from who knows where) seeping through every day. Do you not see the absurdity of this?
If you doubt this, or have 'never heard of it before', visit www.AmericanPatrol.com for an introductory lesson on what is really happending to our country. (Wake up, America.)
If we're really in "so much danger" it is precisely because they govt has purposely FAILED to do their job as required by the Constitution and protect our nation from foreign invaders.
There has already been one islamic terrorist arrested in Michigan who entered the US through the Mexico border (reported by FOX news).
Do you think that was the only one?
Congressman Ron Paul reported that Congress was not even allowed to read this peice of trash before it was voted on. That in itself is reason not to renew it.
Sorry I am not a mesmerized party loyalist. I know, tisk tisk. Maybe I should drink some of the neo-con kool-aide. :-D
The only problem with the Patriot Act as I see it, will be the administrations of people like Bill Clinton, who phoney up pretenses to abuse it's tenets, while a lap dog press talks about global worming and other issues absent gavitas.
The Patriot act is too often judged by problems that created it on the front end, without assessment of problems that will result on the back end.
But make no mistake; the 'left' is not the only opposition to the patriot act. Read William Saffire's column from 2001 "you are a suspect". Read Congressman Ron Pauls' analysis of it. Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes, and many conservative Constitutionalists can see past the hysteria and realize that the tools of a police state (unlimited govt) is never necessary to protect American safety and liberties.
Here is a recent succinct column on this, from a conservative perpective. Let the Patriot Act Die
-Tom Deweese
http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom8.htm
I'd like to see the source of that comment...coming from somewhere other than the lips of Ron Paul.
"We have been WATCHING you for some time,...
We know where you work,..
we know where you shop,...
You have made SEVERAL phone calls critizing the FEDERAL government,....
WE have monitored your internet browsing. You have visited SEVERAL sites that the STATE does NOT approve of,...
SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS,....."
Congressman Paul is a strict Constitutionalist and a man of integrity; I can find his column on this with his comments, from 2001 if you like. Or, are you suggesting that Congress was allowed to read it and Paul is "making this up"? I have never seen anyone dispute what he said.
I can find the article if you like.
They introduced it a mere few hours before they voted on it; hundreds of pages of complex statutes. Do you think everyone read it, or did they just 'have faith' in 'whoever' it was that wrote it up? the truth is they had tried to pass similar legislation prior to 911, but didnt have the political will/momentum to pass it.
Granted, several years have passed now, so the fact they didn't read it at the time, may be a moot point. Most lawmakers still approve of it anyway and have had plenty of time to read it and do analysis of it.
Opposition to extending this act or making it permanent, is not only among 'liberal democrats'. Not by a long shot. Do you want democrats, if they are in power, to have these unlimited powers; do you trust them not to abuse them? this is not a partisan issue. it is a freedom issue. We have an inherent right to our privacy in our papers, in our conversations,
in our financial dealings.
Just the very fact that 'dissenters' to any administration can be snooped on, recorded, electronically surveiled, based on nothing more than suspicion, is in itself a great loss of liberties.
I have examples of this, if youre interested.
That's because it has no bearing on the dangers posed by the act. The Patriot Act, unless Jacoby's seriously trying to argue otherwise, would be just as dangerous whether the 9/11 attacks happened or not. But speaking of "strange omissions", we have this little gem from the column:
To begin with, the FBI cannot request any documents or records without first getting judicial permission. That permission must come in the form of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court - a federal court specializing in counterterrorism and international intelligence that was created by Congress during the Carter administration.
"Strangely omitted" from the above is that there is no oversight - judicial or otherwise - on how this court operates. Every challenge to it that's been made has been rejected on the ground of lack of standing to bring a challenge. In order to have standing, you need to show that you or the party you represent has been adversely affected by it. But there's no way to know whether one has been "adversely affected" by it, because it operates in complete secrecy.
It has? You have proof of this?
By the way.. let's say you wanted to be a wise guy and put the name Fred Flintstone on your 'club card'. You usually pay with cash. so you're anon, right?
if you have ever used a debit or credit card for any purchase, all of Freds purchases are then tied back to the 'real' you. Not that it matters whether they know what you eat, etc. Again, it's a matter of inherent privacy.
Now, in reply, you might hear this common point of view:
"Golly gee, I never did anythng wrong. who cares if they have the ability to snoop/spy on my every move, my every phone call, my every purchase, my every e-mail? My Govt is protecting me! they're my Papa!
socialist dumbed-down brainwashing at its best. the public school system has been a great success. All hail big brother, they keep us safe and free. :-D what would we ever do without them? scary to imagine. let's just lick their boots instead! ;-}
The left needs the Patriot Act to be tossed in the ash can because then they can claim that "the President didn't do anything to stop" the next terrorist attack.
They want a next terrorist attack. And they want it to be "all Bush's fault".
As well as the fact that Jorge Bush still leaves our border wide open; Not only does he leave it wide ipen, but he encourages yet even more illegal immigration with his amnesty garbage. wake up and smell the coffee. In Arizona alone, Bruce Barton wrote that the border patrol aprehended 80 arabic men who snuck across in April 2004. Keep in mind that the ratio of those who get away vs. those who get caught is approx. 5 to 1. So that means approximately 400 islamists snuck across the mexico border into our country unfettered, in April alone.
Yet we need $100 billion more to patrol Iraqs border, right? Give me a freakin beak! Bush panders to Presidente Fox and pushes FTAA while millions more third world invaders swarm in. You like this, you see no problem with this, and yet claim to be a conservative? That's the funniest thing i've read all day.
As the father of a 911 victim recently declared to THE NEW AMERICAN magazine, if there is another terrorist attack, the incompetents in govt WILL INDEED have blood on its hands. You pretend your hero Bush is protecting us., in reality he is doing just the opposite. Wake up and learn about our border issues.
You can listen online at http://www.theterryandersonshow.com
Feel free to call in and defend Bushs' non-stance on immigration, if you can LOL. Maybe you can defend abortionist Specter, or homo Kolbe, or RINO Cannon while you're at it.
What a crowd. repubs can really feel pride, i bet.
Don't ever drink the Kool-Aid!
This came from the Boston Globe? Will wonders never cease?
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