The ACLU reports:
As the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have documented (see this, this and this), the Patriot Act would not have prevented 9/11, and has led to numerous crimes by the FBI and other agencies.Three sections of the Patriot Act — the so-called 'library provision' that allows a secret court to issue orders for anything deemed relevant to an investigation; the roving wiretap provision that allows the government to get a wiretap order that doesn't specify the person or place to be tapped; and the 'lone wolf' provision, which permits intelligence wiretapping of people not connected to a terrorist group — are scheduled to expire on February 28. It's February 7.
***Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) recently suggested that Congress doesn't have enough time to consider reforms this year. That was the excuse for last year's Patriot Act reauthorization. Members of Congress had suggested that they would use 2010 to really examine the effects of the USA Patriot Act and return to it in early 2011 ready to make much-needed changes.
And where are we now? Well, Congress is betting that while they weren't thinking about the Patriot Act in the past year, you weren't either. Late in the day on Friday, we learned that the House will vote tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 8, on a bill to extend the expiring Patriot Act provisions until December 8, 2011. They want to sneak this reauthorization through, and they're hoping that you don't notice.
Well, once again, we're asking you to tell Congress that you are watching, that you don't buy their fear-mongering or their scare tactics, and that you want real Patriot Act reform. We've put a new action alert up urging Congress not to rubber stamp the Patriot Act once again, and we urge you to take action. For almost 10 years, the Patriot Act has given the government too much leeway to pry into our private lives.
Call Congress NOW and tell them to vote down renewing the Patriot Act. Word from D.C. is that the Patriot Act will be renewed unless there is strong public outcry today.
Remember, the Patriot Act was apparently written before 9/11, and the government's spying on Americans began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here. And see this) . These assault on the Constitution did not keep us safe.
Indeed - as I've previously noted - the "national security" apparatus has been hijacked to serve the needs of big business, and is not really protecting us.
Before we start tinkering with any specific law, rule, regulation, or order to see what part of it we don't like, we need to incorporate the idea that nothing passed by the Congress is valid unless it strictly meets the test of constitutionality.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy, and it starts with the fact that the Government has limited powers which are strictly set forth in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Congress and the Executive Branch routinely ignore these limitations, and so far very little has been done about it. This is why the U. S. is currently close to financial destruction.
The 10th Amendment not only gives the States the Right to nullify unconstitutional "laws", but the same right is given directly to the People! Why don't the People use this Power? Either because they don't know about it, or they are afraid to confront the government.
However, unless we do assert our Rights, we might as well not have them. They are doing us precious little good being written on pieces of paper that most of the People don't read, or understand. Whose fault is that? Answer, it isn't just the fault of the government, it is also our own fault.
Jesse M Townsley Jr.
If the Patriot Act really does get re-instated it'll surely be a sad day for the nited States and a severe blow to one of the finest documents of human freedom and liberty - The US Constitution.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting.
http://www.andyettheydeny.blogspot.com/