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EFF's Cindy Cohn Talks About Patriot Act II
digidave writes "Techfocus.org has an interview with EFF's Legal Director Cindy Cohn, where she talks about the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, or 'Patriot Act II'. She talks about what the act is, how it might infringe on your freedoms, where it does right and how ordinary people can make a difference."
"How can everyday citizens make a difference on this issue? Who can they contact, and what are their best options for protecting their privacy?"
Of course they can. In fact, they are the only ones who can. It's through pressure from constituents that folks like Sen. Wyden and Sen. Grassley get the message that they need to stand up to the Administration's excessive proposals and that they will have public support if they do. Put the pressure on and keep it on. And while using our activism engine is useful, don't stop there. Go visit your representatives, talk to them about it. And do the same for members of the Administration when you can.
I posted a few days ago about Getting Involved in the Political Process. This is yet another reason to get involved!
Man Gets 70mpg in Homemade Car-Made from a Mainframe Computer
In the Declaration of Independence, it says that the only purpose of a legitimate government is to protect the rights of its people. Therefore, the U.S. government is not being "legitimate" right now. Serioulsly though, the biggest terrorists are the ones trying to take are personal liberties away because of some vague threat, some idea of dissent. "To criticize your country is to give a hearty handshake and pat on the back" said one guy whose name I can't remember, but it sure is true.
Not only that, see:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
amendment 14, section i. It's fairly exact if you ask me. IANAL.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Sadly as much as a despise our "elected" president the economy isn't truly his fault, it was sliding before he took office and is now simply taking the blame for that.
HOWEVER, he is to blame for getting us involved in a war for oil (which his family's fortune is based on) to ATTEMPT to help the economy and raise his popularity. I think it's sad that he would do something like this to take the attention off the economy but it's been done throughout the history of our country, and for those who actually think that this war is to "help" the people of Iraq. I'd like to point out a little incident in Cambodia where a little known dictator killed nearly 7 million of his own people and was hardly noticed until it was far too late. Why was there no major intrusion to stop these atrocities? Cambodia isn't bordering any allies of ours who would benefit from kicking him out, and there was no MONEY to be gained. This war is about saving face and making gas cheaper.
I don't want to sound antipatriotic, I love my country and on occasion I think we even do a few right things in the global society. But it's getting downright scary to think that we can exert this much force anywhere on the globe and have little worry of political retribution from a foreign power, and that this power is threatening our own freedoms. Every year countless laws are added to the books across the country and yet almost none are repealed. We're slowly putting ourselves into a police state. Much of what the government is now trying to regulate and patrol (information/communication) in the interests of "SECURITY" is only going to put the public in a position of fear of even discussing disentous remarks. It scares me that I see these things happening and yet there's little to be done about it because voters are entirely too apathetic to actually look at the issues and get out and fix these problems.
In short GO AMERICA, get rid of the government
support the free state project http://freestatproject.org
*RANT*
It's pretty simple, actually. All this talk of writting your congressmen, protests -- it's all worthless folks.
What WILL make a diffrence is this:
1) Next chance you get, vote all of these clowns out of office. And for those you can't vote out of office since they are appointed (Ashcroft), vote against those that appointed them.
2) Stop spending money! Since politicions that make and pass laws like these are bought and paid for by corporations for the corporations interests, the best way to nip it in the bud is to stop feeding the machine. Since this war has started, I haven't driven my car. Why? Because I haven't bought any GODAMN GAS.
Flame on.
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
Hatch officially retracted his move to enshrine the Pat-riot act. But you can bet that fucker is scheming for another chance at it.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Apparently Pim Fortuyn's politics were widely mischaracterized in most media after his asassination. You may find there was a lot more to like about the guy than most people outside of the Netherlends was led to believe.
Meanwhile, this whole WMD was so clearly a pretense to start with that I can't help but laugh as the administration squirms. But as a friend of mine said recently, we will find WMD in Iraq - even if we have to fly them in ourselves. Makes you wonder why they even bother to let it drag out for so long. Maybe there is still a modicum of honor in the current administration (still haven't finished reprogramming Powell, perhaps) that they can't quite get the gumption up to start planting the evidence. Either that or things are still too disorganized over there to pull it off without getting caught in the act.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Personally, I like this one:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -Theodore Roosevelt
To the knee-jerk dumbasses: He's a Republican, not a 'crat.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
It's hard to know where to begin with this one. I think about it in reverse -- what would happen if we didn't have access to what the government is doing?
Right on sir. All too often we look at government in the wrong direction. The constitution does not "grant us" anything, it is used to restrict the governments domain. Similarly, the FOIA does grant the citizen anything, rather, it stifles the governments ability to engage in clandestine affairs.
This is what makes the patriot act V1.0 so insidious, is that it allows the government to move in a clandestine fashion, and in fact violates the Fourth ammendment. The FOIA is beautiful in it's keeping with the ideals of the founding fathers. It limits the governments ability to act without pretense, clandestinely.
It would only make sense that Patriot Act V2.0 would get rid of such a hindrance to the government.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
...the government needs to know what I buy, what medicine I'm on, who I talk to, who I'm fucking... but not whether or not I own weapons in my home? How does that work, exactly?
My good looks paid for that pool, and my talent filled it with water.
"Government isn't the solution to our problems, government IS the problem"
:)
- Reagan.
Now I know he didn't exactly live up to that promise, but you've got to admit, it sounds good
At first Fox news was labeling democrats with the "hates america". Everytime you turned on Fox there was somebody saying that democrats hate america. Now they have escaltated their fatwah. They are now saying that democrats are traitors. The real problem of course is tha hating america is not a crime but treason is. They are literally advocating that democrats be given the death penalty for treason. The next logical step up is to call democrats terrorist. That way the democrats can be rounded up without even a trial.
War is necrophilia.
Whoever came up with "America, land of the Free" probably didn't think it was sarcastic. It's pretty sad when you have to look to Russia and China as beacons of liberty. Oh, they've got their own problems, but if you graph trends in freedom in the US, Russia, and China, it's not a pretty picture. The so-called evil communists are more free now than the've been in 200 years, while we losers in the US are far *less* free than we've been in... well, ever.
Cheers
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
True. I think it is important to distinguish between 'Patriot' and 'Nationalist', In my opinion, these are the basic differences:
A nationalist person expects patriotic citizens to
always agree with their nation's government. A free
democratic nation not only allows differing views, but
takes honor in this freedom as a strength.
For a patriot, love of his/her country is like the love of a family member.
A nationalist might claim to love his/her country
primarily because it is 'the best country in the
world'.
A patriot has more of an unconditional love for his
country, even though it is not perfect of the most
powerful or the best. Just as members of a family feel
obligated to help each other, a patriot feels a sense
of responsibility to assist his/her country.
A patriot is proud of his/her country in the sense
that he respects it.
A patriot is devoted to causes greater than
him/herself.
A nationalist identifies with causes as extensions of
him/her self.
A nationalist can be fanatical.
A nationalist views contrary opinions and other
cultures as threats.
There's a lot of b.s. flying around. Things like 'freedom fries' are straight-up 100% nationalist behavior. Bill O'Reilly's boycott of french goods is nationalist. The ebay guy who didn't want to ship to canadians is a nationalist. There were also the Republicans attacking some people for disagreeing with the President. That makes me think of this quote:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt
So... while it's their right to have their own opinion, I question the way in which those opinions are being pushed on others, and how people who are clearly nationalists are trying to hide under this red white and blue shield and pose as truely Patriotic citizens.
In contrast to the weeks after 9/11, it makes me sick to see people driving around with little American flags in their windows. (waits for flames)
Apparently Pim Fortuyn's politics were widely mischaracterized [curry.com] in most media after his asassination. You may find there was a lot more to like about the guy than most people outside of the Netherlends was led to believe.
My view of Fortuyn.
Fortuyn was absolutely not a racist or a fascist. Comparing him to Le Pen or so (extreme right wing in France) is stupid. He pointed out there were problems with integration of foreigners in the Netherlands. Well, duh.
But he was a populist. He had great charisma, was a great public speaker, and continuously made the current politicians look ridiculous. He also had a great talent for pointing out problems. The problem was that his "solutions" were extremely vague, naive, brutal and unlikely to work. But what does that matter, the man looked good on tv!... He went from nowhere to a quarter of the poll votes in no time.
Some left wing nut panicked and shot him. This was easy, bodyguards were unknown in Dutch politics, we had a PM that came to work on his bicycle. It's very sad. Love him or hate him, the Fortuyn show was cool to watch.
And there's no way he could have made it as a US politician, btw. He was so blatantly homosexual... there was a tv interview in which he intimated that his boyfriend's sperm tasted differently depending on what he ate the evening before. The fact that everybody considered this obviously irrelevant to politics, and no politician tried to attack his personal life is an important reason why I still love this country.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
Gene Sharp has written a well researched study of the issue. His conclusions about the effectiveness of armed rebellion?
The ability to skillfully organize on a mass scale allowed the democratic opposition in all these countries to overthrow dictatorships - not the marksmanship skills of firearms afficionados."dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope"