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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.
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.
...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.