Free Republic

According to CNSNews, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Congress has the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance and that there is no constitutional limit on Congress’ power to enact such mandates, adding that this unlimited authority stemmed from the Commerce clause of the Constitution. If this were true, then the congress has no constitutional limits whatsoever. On anything. If they can regulate private citizens as interstate commerce, then they can "regulate" anything and anyone. This makes the entire idea of constitutional limits null and void. The federal government can require and mandate that all citizens purchase: Health...

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

AMBOY, Calif. — Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region. But before the bill to create two new Mojave national monuments has even had its first hearing, the California Democrat has largely achieved her aim. Regardless of the legislation’s fate, her opposition means that few if any power plants are likely to be built in the monument area, a complication in California’s effort to achieve its aggressive goals for renewable energy. Developers of...

She states that it is the government that dictates to the populace what is moral and what is immoral. Therefore, grassroots must bow down to the governmental altar, giving honor to politicians who scribe the holy writ of society.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) strongly criticized Barack Obama for dithering over accepting the recommendation for troops increases in Afghanistan by his handpicked Aghan commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and blamed the delay for contributing to the deaths of eight U.S. soldiers at a small base in Nuristan that was nearly overrun by the Taliban last week.Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, made her remarks on a panel discussion on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning:I don't know how you put somebody in who was as crackerjack as General McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and...

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told the San Francisco Chronicle: “I just find that if you’re going to remake a sixth of the American economy, it’s very difficult at this time of great economic angst.” She is actually with Republicans in wanting to open up insurance. Currently, states control health insurance. Under the Interstate Commerce Clause, congress could indeed open insurance competition across state lines. Now just think about that a moment. Universal health care has been the liberal wet dream of the past 97 years. They finally have the president, they have the Congress and they have the Great Depression...

A few weeks ago, Senator Dianne Feinstein announced that she and other Senate Democrats harbored reservations about President Obama's plans to overhaul the health care system. This came atop previous comments to the effect that she didn't believe in sweeping reform ("I am a bit of an incrementalist"), that the cost of reform might be prohibitive (a concern she failed to raise when voting for the Bush tax cuts in 2001). The reaction from the left was swift and, by the standards of such things, furious. Which is to say, not very furious. Union president Gerald McEntee complained in a...

US Senator Dianne Feinstein hopes to update President Barack Obama's $838bn economic stimulus package so that American ISPs can deter child pornography, copyright infringement, and other unlawful activity by way of "reasonable network management." Clearly, a lobbyist whispering in Feinstein's ear has taken Comcast's now famous euphemism even further into the realm of nonsense. According to Public Knowledge, Feinstein's network management amendment did not find a home in the stimulus bill that landed on the Senate floor. But lobbyists speaking with the Washington DC-based internet watchdog said that California's senior Senator is now hoping to insert this language via conference...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama apologized to her for not notifying her ahead of time that Leon Panetta was his pick for CIA director. His name leaked to the press before Obama informed Feinstein, a California Democrat and incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, who will oversee Panetta's nomination hearing. "I have been contacted by both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, and they have explained to me the reasons why they believe Leon Panetta is the best candidate for CIA Director," she said. Feinstein complained Monday she had not been told about Panetta and expressed doubts...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A bill honoring a gay political icon in California has been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The legislation proclaims a "day of significance" each May 22, the birthday of former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. It would not be a state holiday. Milk became the nation's first openly gay man to hold a prominent political office...

For the Brady Campaign, Violence Policy Center, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, U.N. gun-ban extremist Rebecca Peters and her globalist billionaire sugar-daddy George Soros, for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his horde of big-city politicians—in fact, for all those individuals and organizations who would harm or destroy our Second Amendment rights—Barack Obama’s mantra of “change” means their agenda will be harnessed to the total power of an aggressive, activist and radical federal government. “Change” means gun owners will be under siege like never before. Especially for NRA members who fought through the never-ending threats of the Clinton-Gore administration, the...

I heard Dianne Feinstein, Democrat Senator from California, on the radio this week touting the fact that increasing the US supply of oil was not the answer. The answer to high gas prices is to explore alternative energy sources. I thought about that comment then put it together with one of the Democrat’s favorite excuses given for not expanding oil drilling in America: “It would take 10 years to see any of that oil and wouldn’t affect the price of gas in the near future.” That argument has a bucket-full of holes in it, which have already been addressed by...

WASHINGTON – Fearing environmental damage to the state's coastline, California's top leaders made it clear Monday that they want nothing to do with President Bush's plan to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. Bush said his approach would reduce pressure on record gasoline prices, and he urged Congress to follow his lead. "Failure to act is unacceptable," Bush said. But as soon as the president made the announcement in a Rose Garden ceremony, California's Democratic leaders accused Bush of cozying up to oil interests. They said his plan would do nothing to lower gasoline prices. "Once again, the oilman in...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Renewed Attack on Privacy of Gun Buyers   Friday, May 02, 2008   This week, anti-gun U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) registration legislation that would invade the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.Cosponsored by like-minded Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Charles Schumer (D-NY), S. 2935 would, among other things, require the FBI to retain records of cleared firearm transactions for at least 180 days.  Current law requires...

Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein on Interior Secretary’s Proposed Rule Change Allowing Loaded Firearms in America’s National Parks and Wildlife Refuges -Radical change to Reagan-era gun restrictions would put public at grave risk- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today strongly criticized a proposed rule change, announced by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, that would ease Reagan-era restrictions on carrying loaded firearms in America’s national parks and wildlife refuges. The following is Senator Feinstein’s statement: “I never thought I’d see the day when the Interior Department of the United States would allow weapons – including concealed weapons – to...

A look at the Sunday morning chat circuit ... Former Sen. Fred Thompson visits NBC's "Meet the Press." Of special note, the program is reaching its 60th anniversary. It debuted on Nov. 20, 1947, and is the world's longest-running TV program. It airs at 9 a.m. on WESH-Channel 2. Former President George H.W. Bush will talk to "Fox News Sunday." It airs at 9 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. Sen Joseph Biden will take questions on CBS' "Face the Nation." It airs at 10:30 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. Another guest will be Mark Penn, who is a strategist for Sen. Hillary...

Move over Bridge to Nowhere. Congress is back in town, and clearly back to business even uglier than usual. It takes hard work to come up with an earmark more egregious than that infamous Alaskan bridge, but California's Dianne Feinstein is an industrious gal. Her latest pork--let's call it Rambo's View--deserves to be the poster child for everything wrong with today's greedy earmark process. The senator's $4 billion handout (yes, you read that right) to wealthy West L.A. (yes, you read that right, too) is the ultimate example of how powerful members use earmarks to put their own parochial interests...

A proposed ballot initiative being circulated to change how California awards its presidential electoral votes is so irksome to Sen. Dianne Feinstein that she is vowing to change the U.S. Constitution. Democrats say the so-called Presidential Electoral Reform Act -- which would throw out the Golden State's winner-take-all system -- is nothing but a ruse to win the Republicans the White House by assuring them at least 20 of California's 55 electoral votes. "I think this effort to essentially skew the presidential system ... would directly change the election," Feinstein said in an interview. So California's senior senator said she...

A veteran California senator recently forced to resign as chair of a powerful military committee for abusing the position to enrich herself has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. At a pep rally in Washington this week, longtime Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein enthusiastically announced that her good friend Hillary would shatter a great barrier to become the nation's first female president. A former San Francisco mayor, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and she is one of California's most powerful and popular politicians as well as one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth of...

Men were convicted for shooting suspected drug dealer Click-2-Listen By Eunice Moscoso, Ken Herman WASHINGTON BUREAU Thursday, July 19, 2007 WASHINGTON — Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged President Bush on Wednesday to commute the prison sentences of a pair of former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed man and trying to cover it up. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a letter to the White House that the case involved "prosecutorial overreaching." "We urge you to commute their prison sentences immediately," they wrote. The agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos,...

Today I would like to discuss the proposed reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine in a way no one else has. First let me say there is another name for government regulating political speech to determine what is fit and proper and ensuring all sides of an issue are heard. It's called censorship. And it is not only anathema to all we hold dear in America, it is unconstitutional, totally at odds with the First Amendment and the founders' idea that there should be no bounds on political speech. Yet, there is a more practical objection to re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her mega-millionaire husband, Richard Blum, are pulling up stakes on their quiet Presidio Terrace home and moving uptown to a Pacific Heights mansion -- with views to die for. The $16.5 million mansion -- which sits at the foot of Vallejo Street, between the Presidio and some of the city's most hoity-toity addresses -- offers a sweeping view of the bay. It's right off what Herb Caen christened the "Gold Rush" -- the final two blocks of upper, upper Broadway, where the residents include Ann and Gordon Getty, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Mimi Haas --...

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is involved in a scandal that so far the media has completely ignored. David Keene Reports The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.

Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top...

Hmmmm. What was that about the “culture of corruption?� SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum’s ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.—Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot...

5 out of the top ten US House Recipients of contributions (1989- 2001) from Arthur Andersen are democRats. Their names and the amounts are listed below. And, according to dim logic, they are guilty by association and should have their names shining in the bright lights of Reuters, AP, Drudge, The Washington ComPost, and more. After all, this is a hit piece. Here you go, Klayman, chase this ambulance too! Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) $34,687 Martin Frost (D-Texas) $32,000 Peter Deutsch (D-Fla) $24,200 James P. Moran (D-Va) $21,250 Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) $19,225 Other Rats also receiving Andersen dirty money include: Rick...

Many will recall that on 1947 July 8, witnesses claim an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed on a sheep & cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. Many contend this well published incident has long been covered up by the United States Air Force & the United States Federal Government. However, you may not know that exactly nine months after that historic event, the following were born: Albert A. Gore, Jr. Hillary R. Clinton John F. Kerry Wm. J. Clinton Howard Dean Nancy Pelosi Dianne Feinstein Barbara Boxer Didn't check on the specifics - but it would explain...

Senator leads GOP challenger Richard Mountjoy 56% to 34% in her re-election bid. A new poll shows Dianne Feinstein enjoying a comfortable lead over her Republican challenger in her Nov. 7 re-election bid for U.S. Senate. Feinstein leads 56 percent to 34 percent over former state Sen. Richard Mountjoy, according to Tuesday's Field Poll."Whenever an incumbent is above 50 percent in a re-election poll, the general consensus is that the seat is fairly safe," said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. "It's more a yes-no vote on the incumbent than anything else." The incumbent holds a positive rating heading into her...

I'm trying yet another format change this week.  I have left the background links on the entry for each guest for each show, like last week, but I've broken the Sunday shows out into separate posts to try to make each one more easy to read and discuss.  The Saturday shows will still be posted as one message, then I'll do the ping.  Please me know if this works.And I've put my (expanded) witty commentary here instead of in the ping...The most interesting guest this week should be Secretary Rice, who is on Fox, CBS and ABC, but she probably...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for Saturday June 17th and Sunday June 18th, 2006 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) 'This Week' will NOT air on Sunday, June 18, due to ABC's coverage of World Cup soccer. 'This Week' returns on Sunday, June 25ABC This Week comment web page CBS Face The Nation (Bob Schieffer) Meme: Big couple of weeks for Bush in Iraq, so what's wrong with this picture?Tony...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 4/15-4/16/06 (not the live thread) I'm going to try a little different formatting this week.  The listings were growing too long to let us look at and organize the show contents after I started adding the Saturday shows.  So what I'm going to do is add 3 message posts on this thread, in this order the Sunday show contents in message 1 the Saturday show contents in message 2 the guests for all shows in message 3 Then I'll send out the ping to everyone.  I hope this will help make the thread easier to...

June 15 1994 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Warning of a backlash against legal immigrants, several senators are pushing legislation designed to stop the flow of undocumented aliens and speed up deportation of those convicted of crimes. At a hearing Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the lawmakers cited figures that one-quarter of the federal prison population is made up of aliens, and that 11,000 convicted felons in 1992 failed to show up for deportation hearings. If the illegal immigration problem is ignored, said Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., ``it could lead to true anti-immigrant sentiments.'' ``If we fail to act, it's only...

This weekend I've added the Saturday night/Sunday morning Fox/WSJ "Journal Editorial Report" to the mix.  It looks to be a very interesting addition (on "our side," maybe?).Last weekend I clearly missed the MSM spin on the "White House is being too secretive" meme (though I was on  the right track with the "they're being mean" idea).  When I post a meme it is simply my best guess and I'm desperately reaching out for others to correct or augment anything I post.  That's the purpose of my thread.  Not to declare "this is what is" but to ask "is this close"...

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to end a filibuster and moved closer to renewal of the USA Patriot Act. Senators voted 96-3 Thursday to stop debate regarding a compromise on the Patriot Act. All three of the senators who voted to keep debate going were Democrats ... Some aspects of the act were to expire at the end of 2005 but the White House sought to make the bill permanent. Congress gave the act short extensions, the most recent of which will end March 10.

Add California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to the list of politicians whose staffers have admitted involvement in Wikipedia shenanigans. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting confirmation that a former staffer amended his boss's biography at the encyclopedic site. Among the handful of changes was beefing up her list of awards. The staffer also erased passages from the biography of Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, the report said. The sentences in question focused on a 1997 conflict-of-interest controversy in which Blum, an investment banker, "had invested millions of dollars in Chinese businesses when Ms. Feinstein was campaigning in the Senate to lift trade...

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer today urged anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan not to challenge the state's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, in the June Democratic primary. Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, has been actively considering a campaign after criticizing Feinstein for refusing to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But Boxer, a liberal former Marin County supervisor who strongly opposed the war in Iraq, said Sheehan might actually hurt her anti-war cause by jumping into the race against her fellow Democrat who is entering her 14th year in the Senate. "I don't think having her...

Clinton linked to 'international trafficking in women' Documents show presidential mission invited organized crime members Posted: October 26, 19991:00 a.m. Eastern By Charles Smith © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com Despite White House denials, the Clinton administration has had major contacts with Asian organized crime syndicates such as the Triads, and has befriended kingpins of international prostitution operations. Unraveling the tangled web involving Bill Clinton, Beijing and Asian organized crime starts with the president's close, and self-described "old," friendship with Arkansas restaurant owner Charlie Yah Lin Trie. Trie, who managed to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill Clinton and the Democratic party, is...

Cindy Sheehan said she will be part of the live audience during the president's State of the Union speech to congress Tuesday. Bay Area Congresswoman Lynn Woosley gave anti-war activist a gallery pass late Tuesday, just hours before the planned State of the Union speech. Sheehan was in Washington to protest the president during his national address, but then came word she was invited to see the speech live. A spokesman for Sheehan says she decided to accept the invitation two hours prior to the speech. The spokesman also said that Sheehan will be respectful and listen to the address...

Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela — Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said today with Sheehan by his side. Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch." "She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from activists invited to...

Anti-American "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan may run against California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sheehan's spokeswoman said Friday - even though Feinstein has met Sheehan's demand to back a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito. "There are still a lot of other issues" where Sheehan and Feinstein disagree, her assistant Dede Miller told the Associated Press, citing Feinstein's support for the Iraq war. In a statement released Friday from Caracas, Venezuela, where she's attending an anti-American conference host by President Hugo Chavez, Ms. Sheehan warned that if the California Democrat didn't back an Alito filibuster, she had "decided to run" for...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A retired GOP state legislator said Tuesday he'll run against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., when she seeks a third full term next year. Richard Mountjoy of Monrovia, Calif., who served in the state Assembly and Senate for more than two decades before term limits forced him out in 2000, is the only Republican who has announced plans to challenge Feinstein. Software executive Bill Mundell explored the idea before taking his name out of contention in November. Feinstein, 72, who has emerged in some polls as California's most popular politician, is heavily favored for re-election in the Democratic-leaning...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Sunday that she will support a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito if it becomes clear he'll vote to overturn Roe vs Wade. Asked if she would consider it "filibuster material" if she finds out that Alito intends to vote against Roe, Feinstein told "Fox News Sunday": "If I believe that he was going to go in there and overthrow Roe, the question is, most likely, yes." The California Democrat, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that any High Court nominee who thought Roe had been "improperly decided" was outside the...

CS Song - Come, give us Your Guns, Sung to "The old Villiage Doctor or Come, Take Your Medicine!" (For the 170,000,000 people who have been killed by their OWN GOVERNMENTS enabled by "reasonable" gun control laws) Original song by Henry Clay Work (1879) Update Parody by Coral Snake (2005) Midi - The Old Villiage Doctor or Come Take Your Medicine: at: www.pdmusic.org/work Look under 1879 (Musical Introduction) (1.) In a Turkish villiage warry, Some Armenians did terry; When new gun control laws on their nation fell. How they propaganda fed them, And then killed, tortured and bled them, There...

For those of you who are wondering why a former "Clown" with a bad reputation for bashing FReepers would want to come back here with his original screen name, I largely came back to FreeRepublic because of exposure to three websites together with the passage of the recent San Francisco handgun ban. These websites are: www.jpfo.orgwww.jpfo.netinnocentsbetrayed.com/index2.htm If any FReeper has any friends who are even remotely on the "gun grabber" side of the Gun Rights issue he or she should be exposed to these websites. They are a goldmine of information about the DEADLY side of "Gun Control". One hundred...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose vote on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts could guide other Democrats, said Monday she will scrutinize his views on abortion and congressional authority to set social policy. She called the impending debate over Roberts' nomination a "big, big deal." "I don't think in the last couple of decades there has been a Supreme Court appointment that could more tip the balance of the court," Feinstein said in a speech to several hundred Silicon Valley business executives. "That's how mega this vote is." In July, President Bush nominated Roberts, a federal appeals court judge, to replace...

June 3, 2005 is the sixteenth anniversary of the brutal 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre of peaceful pro-democracy protestors by the communist Chinese Government. Many Americans remember the infamous photo of the unarmed Chinese student standing in front of a column of armored tanks, blocking their path. What most Americans did not see were the color photos of smashed and bloody bodies of protestors all over the ground, making the ground look somewhat like the top of a giant pizza. The following are links to the encyclopedia entry for "Tiananmen Square", which is also provided below: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/t/tiananme.asp http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.asp?url=/ssi/t/tiananme.html The following...

They keep at it, don't they? Did you see how they dredged up a fluff piece about Hillary taken from Clinton's run 12 years ago? Dianne Feinstein says that one votes for the individual not the spouse for President. Why then Does CBS not remember Hillary's famous quote " We are the President"? Is that because people would then infer that Theresa could team with her gigalo to become the President? She has the power in the relationship after all, doesn't she? They are trying to propagandize that this loopy individual couldn't become our next president. Methinks the CBS writers...

Just under four months from today, Americans will be able to walk out of a gun store with an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi or other weapon of mass murder under their arm. Unless Congress acts — and Republican leaders show no inclination to do so — the 10-year-old federal assault gun ban will expire Sept. 13. A word from President Bush would get a renewal before lawmakers, a majority of whom would probably approve it. But the president is silent. Most people, including most gun owners, are properly alarmed. A survey released last month by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg...

<p>May 13, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Shocking shots of sexcapades involving Pfc. Lynndie England were among the hundreds of X-rated photos and videos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shown to lawmakers in a top-secret Capitol conference room yesterday.</p> <p>"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be consensual," said a lawmaker who saw the photos.</p>

<p>The worst thing about it is its name.</p> <p>Tuesday, December 9, 2003 12:01 a.m.</p> <p>The Patriot Act has become a magnet for claims that the government is violating our individual rights. Yesterday, the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks heard testimony from several prominent law professors on the dangers of the act. Last month, Al Gore called for the act's repeal, accused the Bush administration of suspending civil liberties, and claimed that the government was using "fear as a political tool to consolidate its power and to escape any accountability for its use." Democratic front-runner Howard Dean has called the act "morally wrong," "shameful," and "unconstitutional." Many cities have refused to assist the federal government in its implementation.</p>