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Anti-Patriot Act Movement Expands
MFS! writes "Mount Shasta, California has become the latest city where the USA PATRIOT act is creating a controversy. This story at the Record-Searchlight describes petitioning by a local citizens' rights committee to order police to defy the PATRIOT act. To date, 3 states and 130 cities have passed legislation forbidding local authorities from cooperating with federal PATRIOT requests, not to mention the numerous businesses who are taking pains to hamper the Act's coverage."
I hope this rebellion that these states and cities shake up the US administration. From an outsiders point of view (I'm from the Netherlands) I find the actions taking by the US Administration very shocking. These movements taken by internal states and cities hopefully do them some good.
-- Cliff Albert
Americans have constantly disobeyed laws they viewed as unjust. Starting in revolutionary times with the Boston Tea Party, then moving forward to Henry David Thoreau, prohibition, Eugene Debs running for president from jail in defiance of the Espionage Act, and more recently the civil rights movement (M. L. King,). In this view, disobedience of the Patriot Act is not unique but continuation of this theme in American history
Oregon has an assisted suicide law that was approved by voters twice. Ashcroft decided it should be illegal, and declared that the lethal drugs Oregon doctors can prescribe (under very limited circumstances, of course) serve no legitimate medical purpose and therefore were controlled substances, and instructed the DEA to arrest doctors who prescribed the drugs. It went to the Supreme Court and Ashcroft lost.
One of Oregon's senators - Gordon Smith I think - said he opposes this state law, but he fought for Oregon's right to have it.
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No what is really, truly needed is a second American revolution. We need to kick the federal government out of our affairs permanently.
...by the same people that were responsible for the PATRIOT act. Or is it? It's certainly possible that, by posting sentiments of dissent here, one could attract an extra bit of attention from the people that monitor internet communications. Hope you aren't in the habit of downloading "questionable content"...
Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
No? What if one day you decide to check out a copy of the Al-Quran, and then a month later you have a school assignment on Saddam Hussain? Do you think you'd be a little pissed if you were arrested without a warrant and held without trial or access to a lawyer because of it?
Now say it'll never happen.
The State then borrows the money the Federal Reserve prints.
What I'd like to see is people demand gold or silver as payment from states, since that is specifically required of them in the Constitution...
I don't care if they know that I like to read WWII history books and old computer magazines.The only people that would be upset over this are people checking out bomb making books and I don't think libraries stock those anyhow. So how's about everyone just calm down?
While it is nice to assume that the government will do no damage with this information, history has shown otherwise. The patriot act allows them to find out anything about you and me. Tommorrow, the feds may decide that ppl who have ever read byte magazine may be terrorists so they will investigate all who fit that criteria. Or perhaps they will check who has read the quran and start investigations. Look at how hatfill's life is destroyed by being Ashcroft's "person of interest". No proof of any kind, yet destroyed. Look at the musleums still being held in prison for being "ppl of interest". No proof of any type (according to a recently released study) yet still being held.
Now, go back to the time of Reagan, Nixon, or J.E. Hoover. All have used information (or made up stuff) to destroy ppl the same way that Ashcroft now does. the more info that they have, the worse things will get.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Even if the local laws are easily overruled by federal mandates, a city-wide and state-wide act of civil disobedience sends a powerful message to the elected federal officials.
Keep in mind, most national senate/house members are profoundly out of touch with the communities they are supposed to represent. If, all of a sudden, the majority of your constituents demonstrate that they do not want the oppressive law you enacted to remain on the books, you might consider proposing a revocation, if you wish to be re-elected.
This is important. Even though the ill-concieved act was passed by a fear/power mad congress, it's critical to continue to publicly voice opposition to it, for as long as it takes to return the American fed to a sane level of checks and balance of power. If you are a freedom-loving American, it is your patriotic duty to publicly protest this foolish act before it does significant harm to our country and our culture.
Kremvax - Citizen, Patriot.
--- Little Atomo - The Amazing Thinking Robot from Atomocom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP9KisHi4k
An invigorating article on the same topic from Jim Lobe at Oneworld.net United States:
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 4 (OneWorld) - More than 130 communities with a combined population of more than 16 million people in 26 states have passed resolutions directing local police to refrain from using racial profiling, enforcing immigration laws, or participating in federal investigations that violate civil liberties, according to a new report released on the eve of this year's Fourth of July celebrations by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The 23-page report credits Ann Arbor, Michigan, with adopting the first resolution opposing key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, thus setting off a trend that shows no sign of abating.
"In my conversations with people from across the political spectrum, I hear one refrain over and over," says Laura Murphy, who heads the ACLU's Washington, D.C. legislative office. "If we give up our freedoms in the name of national security, we will have lost the war on terrorism."
"As this year's Fourth of July rolls around, we hope that this report will demonstrate to the White House, the Justice Department and Congress that we must be both safe and free."
The ACLU, whose local offices played a major role in support of dozens of resolutions around the country, stressed that among the jurisdications that have taken action are a number of traditionally conservative areas of the country, such as Oklahoma City, Missoula, Montana; and Falgstaff, Arizona.
Some of the larger cities include Denver, Colorado; Oakland and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Baltimore, Maryland. Three states have also adopted measures that call for strict respect for constitutional rights: Hawaii, Alaska, and Vermont.
The report, 'Independence Day 2003: Main Street Fights the Federal Government's Insatiable Appetite for New Powers in the Post 9/11 Era,' says the burgeoning grassroots movement was launched after demands by Attorney General John Aschroft were agreed to by Congress, which, it charges, "encouraged an atmosphere of hysteria," by approving the USA PATRIOT Act in late October 2001 with little debate and few dissenting votes.
The Act included a number of controversial provisions that, in the ACLU's view, upset the balance between the citizen's privacy and political rights and the state's responsibility to ensure the security of the country.
Some of those provisions included expanding the power of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; approval of "sneak and peek" warrants which allow federal agents to enter private homes without notifying the owner until much later; weakening the standards for intelligence wiretaps by permitting them to be used for criminal invstigations under some circumstances; and making it easier for federal agents to obtain highly personal "business records," such as library loan records, of possible terrorist suspects.
The Act itself was followed up with a flurry of executive orders, regulations, policies and practices, such as denying the right to a fair trial for citizens and non-citizens labeled "enemy combatants" and establishing military commissions that fall short of minimum due process standards, which further eroded civil liberties protection, according to the ACLU.
On January 7, 2002, Ann Arbor became the first city in the country to pass a resolution in direct response to the PATRIOT Act and new federal policies. "We're very concerned about civil rights and the about the potential discrimination," City Councilwoman Heidi Herrell told ABC News at the time. "We spent a lot of time since September 11 making sure that the Muslim members of our community felt safe."
Denver became the second city to approve a resolution after the ACLU there discovered the existence of 3,400 secret files on social activists that had been collected by the Denver Police over severa
I used [Megabank]'s services to pay my tuition bills at [esteemed UK university]. Today, I was called by [megabank] and was told that if I didn't tell them where the funds were coming from that I used to pay my tuition came from, that my accounts would be closed and my case referred to the federal government. While "my personal savings" was a good enough answer for them, good god, what shite.
In defense of [Megabank], they didn't seem to happy to have to make these phone calls, but told me that they were required to by the patriot act. in fact, the woman even spoke frankly that the company saw this as a waste of time and money too.
Ashcroft is such a huge hypocrite (does that make him a hippocrit?) - "States Rights" is his catch-all excuse for supporting states that do what he wants (biggest example is his pro-gun agenda, which I happen to agree with) - but when it comes to laws he doesn't like such as sex, drugs and death (aka gay rights, medical marijuana and assisted suicide), "States Rights" are quickly ushered out of the room.
Another example of his hypocrisy is his former strong opposition to the Clipper chip and statements made supporting the individual's right to privacy. But as soon as he was appointed to office as attorney general all that rhetoric went out the window and he quickly set to dismantling as many privacy rights as he could, and 9/11 only made that crusade easier when he was able to personally draft the USA-PATRIOT act.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
A great man once said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels". To put it mildly.
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
States rights isn't that bad of an idea. It's more in line with the ideas of the founding fathers. Especially the good ones like Jefferson. States rights got a real bad name from the racist policies attached to it. The south was probably justified in seceding, especially if you believe that the constitution is an agreement between the states and not between the people of all the states. The only thing that put the North in the right was the slavery issue.
No joke. Check this out Fraser Institute.
"The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 12.4 weeks. Patients in New Brunswick experienced the shortest wait for an MRI (5.0 weeks), while Newfoundland residents waited longest (20.0 weeks)."
Down here in good old redneck Alabama, when my doctor decided I needed an MRI on my hip, I got it the very next day. If I were Canadian, I'd still be waiting (read: suffering). If you love your healthcare system, by all means stay there with it.
"buy the government"
How Freudian.
This is something the people in Dixie have known since the mid-1800s when Washinton D.C. decided to preserve their power by burning the South to the ground. Everytime we've mentioned it though we've been derided as a bunch of racist nuts. The fact of the matter is that Washington D.C. has far too much power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Also, the power to tax is the power to oppress.
While slavery was an issue it was never the core issue - states' rights were the issue. Slavery was doomed already as clearly documented in books written at the time like "A Diary from Dixie" by Mary Boykin Chestnut. By only the fifth chapter it is clear that very few people owned slaves and 90% of them wished there was some way of getting out of relying on slaves without destroying the economy.
To use a crude analogy: today we all know that burning fossil fuels is a bad thing and potentially suicidal for humanity yet we continue to do it because we see no alternative. Dixie saw no alternative to slavery at the time but most people wished there was one.
3.14159
That's it I'm going out and making myself some laws
You were modded funny, but there's actually a truth in there that defines the American character, and explains why a dictatorship here is pretty unlikely.
For example, where I live it's illegal to have any fireworks that explode. Last night, it sounded like Beirut.
Most people get that stuff from NC, where they are legal. It occured to me that there's nothing more American than driving up I-95 15 miles an hour over the speed limit with a trunkload of illegal firecrackers, MP3s blasting through the stereo.
Americans have a low tolerance for stupid laws, in large part because the country was founded by people who violated such laws.
Picture the fathers of our country dressed up like Indians, trespassing on somebody's boat, and dumping all the cargo just because they didn't wanna pay taxes.
Now, it's hard to say how well this attitude will work to defeat the more stupid provisions of the Patriot Act, which is an interesting name if you think about it; after all, those people weren't patriots, they were just acting, which is a lot like pretending as in "pretenders to the throne". The real kings are the people--the people who break stupid laws.
Now, if the state is really, really determined, they can enforce stupid laws. The war on drugs is a prime example; but they can't do it forever. There has been a huge impact on the incarceration rate, all due to the American tendancy to break laws they don't agree with.
I keep wondering if we're going to have some kind of Bastille Day type episode over that.
At any rate, I think this ingrained attitude in the US, perhaps more than anything, will prevent us from falling into dictatorship. Call me an cockeyed optimist if you must.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Read this article by Robert Bork. Summary: you have probably been seriously mislead about the PATRIOT Act.
I watch Brit Hume on Fox News
Living in Denver, Colorado, I find myself constantly surrounded by right-wing bandwagon-hopping jingoist Bush supporters that all but carry the fasces around on their tomahawks. It makes one liberal minded independent feel like a bit of an island, and it sure is good to see all of the overwhelming logic and liberal (if not necessarily independent or individual) thought going on here.
I know I've come to expect the anti-anti-Privacy stuff from the \. crowd, but it's still nice to see that I'm not the only person in town who sends off a couple letters a week to my state legislators etc. letting them know what pissants I think they are.
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"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" --George W. Bush, in Jan. 2000