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Posted on 4/5/2002, 4:03:24 PM by antidemocommie
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Panel faults restrictions imposed since Sept. 11 Joe Geshwiler - Staff Thursday, April 4, 2002
A panel that spanned a range of opinions from U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) to ACLU President Nadine Strossen --- with authorities on law enforcement and the media in between --- Wednesday condemned legal restrictions adopted by the Bush administration and Congress after Sept. 11. In a forum at the Richard B. Russell Building sponsored by the Atlanta chapter of the Federal Bar Association, panelists were unanimous in saying steps taken in the name of protecting Americans from terrorists were in fact treading on cherished liberties. Panelists directed the brunt of their criticism at the USA Patriot Act enthusiastically endorsed by President Bush and passed overwhelmingly by Congress last October. The measure greatly expands the federal law-enforcement powers, including the authority to conduct secret searches, make secret arrests and secretly scan electronic communications without a court order. Barr said Congress acted in haste without thinking through the consequences of the measure. Many of the act's provisions are overbroad, he said, including giving quasi-federal personnel --- referring to airport security officers --- the authority to deny a person the right to interstate travel simply because "they don't like the color of his eyes." Barr took no comfort in the fact the measure expires in four years and must be reauthorized by Congress. "Power taken by the government is rarely returned," he warned. He urged a continuing congressional review of the effects of the act to minimize the long-range impact on civil liberties. Strossen of the American Civil Liberties Union said a broad coalition across the political spectrum is raising a crescendo of criticism against the act, and experts on law enforcement and national security --- like former FBI and CIA head William Webster --- are chiming in. She said the Bush Justice Department's mass interrogation tactics are bound to fail as long as suspects are targeted on the basis of ethnicity. Al-Qaida, she said, is bound to respond to a miguided U.S. emphasis on screening new arrivals from the Mideast by dispatching its agents of Asian and African origin. She complimented U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Mallon Faircloth of the Middle Georgia District for disallowing a ban "due to the national emergency" against a peaceful demonstration by protesters at what was known as the School of the Americas at Fort Benning. Faircloth's ruling was eloquent, she said, in pointing out that war neither automatically adds to the government's powers nor subtracts from the people's rights. Another speaker, Robert Friedman, head of Georgia State University's Department of Criminal Justice, said it is just as important for the U.S. to police its freedoms as police terrorism. As an adviser to Israeli police authorities, he said that besieged country provides a good example for America, especially the recent ruling by its Supreme Court prohibiting the use of "moderate physcial pressure" against terror suspects even in emergency situations., Conrad Fink, journalism professor at the University of Georgia, lamented not only that the U.S. government is operating without the slightest regard for the public's right to know the way it is fighting the war on terror, here or abroad, but additionally that the public is all too complacent about being in the dark. "The watchdogs of the press lack the muscle to lift the curtain of secrecy dropped by the Bush administration," he said. "Journalists can't say in good faith they're reporting accurately or fairly" because they've been kept at bay due to new and restrictive military regulations. |
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NWO, right on schedule, one step at a time.
I hear you bud. Still the drones march on oblivious to reality...
In a letter to his colleagues dated Oct. 5, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) urged his colleagues to adopt the House Judiciary bill, dubbed the Patriot Act.
WASHINGTON, October 3, 2001 - After several days of lengthy negotiations with Justice Department officials, colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee, and civil liberties organizations, U.S. Representative Bob Barr (GA-7) today offered his support for the Administration’s anti-terrorism legislation. The bill will be marked-up today by the House Judiciary Committee, and will be voted on by the full House in the next several days.
If it had been Shakes Reno, instead of Drapery Boy pushing these Anti Constitutional ideals, would people around FR been twisting themselves into human pretzels trying to explain away?
Would folks around FR have been calling Clinton a "Great American" and a "Masterful Leader" for his efforts on such an act against us? Would they have given him a silent pass on comments like "This sure would be easier if this was a Dictatorship, of course with me as Dictator"????
Would Folks around FR be spinning like a lathe defending something like this?
I can answer that simply. No, they'd be screaming holy bloody murder. Mia T would be busy writing a Screed that rivals War and Peace in pages and content. Doug from Upland would be writing full blow Operas against it. Mudboy would be, well, Mudboy.
But suddenly from FR there is nothing but silence. No Doug from Upland songs against this stuff. Mia T is simply re-releaseing Mia T's Greatest Hitpieces, and Where the Hell is Mudboy? Silence, except the pitter patter of Bush Bot foot steps, and the incoherent whirring sound of Bush Spinners twirling up a blur trying to make things like the unPatriot Act, CFR, Amnesty for ILLEGALS, and other Bush F-Ups seem like brilliant plans on the part of their Hero.
Geez, the Clintonistas may have needed kneepads, but the Bush Bots appear to need Goggles as well, so they can see even further inside their Hero.
Imagine what a liberal could do with the patriot act.
Not to put my tin-hat on, but the evidence is mounting.
We just came off 8 years of the most horrible government you can imagine in america. Heinous, beyond traitorus. We have this two political party system that most folks identify with-just because, it's the way it is. I'm not either one but I certainly recognize that most folks are, and that's the way elections go.
Grassroots supporters and activists are that- supporters and activists. You really want your guy to win because you believe in your party and guy, again, that's the way it is.
Now suppose after 8 years of $^*((), your guy and your party finally get in. Hooray! This is great news, and etc. Then later on, it starts to hit ya, there's some strange stuff going on. Stuff that just don't compute. Stuff that don't add up. What can you do? Really, once it's starts to sink in, what's left? Support the other side? Nope, obviously that ain't happening. Go nuts and start tearing down your own party? Nope, that ain't happening. It won't and can't because then if you do, you are left with no practical hope. There's zero way out of your dilemma that's practical. None. You are en-screwed.
Millions of folks are looking at that now. There's varying degrees of it, I've seen it morphing on this very board. It's sobering.
Dear Lord, don't even mention the name "Janet Reno" and the patriot act in the same sentence...being wand-raped at the airport would be the least of our worries.
Shockingly True Admission of the Day.
Millions of folks are looking at that now. There's varying degrees of it, I've seen it morphing on this very board. It's sobering.
I've noticed quite a few that are seriously questioning Bush. Not too long ago, if you said something negative about him, you'd get flamed severly. Now some here are calling him the Anti-Christ.
I have a feeling there are a lot of people that are going to be looking elsewhere when the next elections are held.
I don't like the idea of playing spoiler and voting Conservative, but not Republican, in the next election, because Nader managed to get just enough votes to lose Gore the entire national election, and I don't want a liberal in the office.
But if it takes a liberal in the office to put the Republicans on notice that we aren't going to take this left-leaning direction they are going, then so be it, I'll vote for Harry or whoever.
We have to do something. I left the Republican party because I just could not believe how far left they are going. Now they are going even further. It's not even individual Republicans, like those on FR, but the leadership that is doing this. The lower ranks have got to be going nuts.
It's the only way we can wake up the party leadership realize we are serious.
That should take, what, a couple more months? I'm sure our military can root out every terrorist on the planet in a few months... and once that's done, Dubya will repeal all the Patriot Act / Amerikorps / Democrat-agenda stuff he's been doing, we'll have smooth-running airport security, and none of your rights will be violated. Then he'll actually run the Presidency like a conservative, and all you Bush-Bashers will have to accept that Dubya brought us back from the edge of defeat, reinvigorated our economy through tariffs, hoodwinked the world on CFR, blah blah blah blah.
Get used to losing your liberties -- Dubya has EXPRESSLY said to expect years of the Patriot Act mindset. What bothers me most is this idea that 'once terrorists are gone, we'll give you back your liberties.' Well, terrorists will NEVER be gone. If that's our yardstick, just get ready for fewer liberties in the future than we've got now, never to be returned. Because terrorism will never be eradicated.
Some freeper here-sorry to whomever, I have forgottem, but kudos for this--
"if you're happy and ya know it clank yer chains"
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