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Congress Expands FBI Powers
Dave writes "Well, since the Patriot Act II never got off the ground, looks like Congress has done the Justice Department a favor, according to Wired News, and added in some of the most controversial provisions into a non-descript intelligence spending bill. Now the FBI can subpoena information about you from practically any business or organization - without approval or permission from a judge, and with a gag order on the targeted organization. These spending bills are generally considered confidential and usually are not subject to public debate, so despite the far-reaching implications of these new powers, it's not being publicized like the Patriot Act was. Time to get out my patriotic hat and pin before it's too late."
As long as Americans have it in their heads that their constitutional rights are still protected, they'll go on their lives peacefully until something like, oh I don't know, the ozone is gone or winter no longer happens anymore. As scary as it is to start saying shit like this, Mark My Words, we're in for a civil war within the next 30 or 40 years at this rate. They're fooled around with and screwed up every constitutional right and amendment we have. Pretty soon they'll be exercising the lack of our rights, and if they get that far, they'll start doing stuff like chipping people and screwing them over if they don't like them. Tommarrow people will be trying to make a living and they can't, and unlike in max headroom, those people in the fringes won't go about their daily lives happily. All it takes at that point is a few more people to say fsck it, I hate this and to pick up a gun or knife, and you've got civil war.
The number of protesters will continue to grow year after year after year, until what happened in the soviet union in georga happens here. People will get tired of the bullshit and getting no straight answer and with the goverment giving itself ample time to play with the system.
Seriously, think california's ballot system will be fixed by 2k5? I sure don't. How long can a geek keep a stupid person fixated?
"We want electronic voting."
Nerd: Sure, I'll make it.
1 year passes
"Um...you didn't do it right. We want it to check for security and work properly when tallying."
Nerd: The tech is still developing. Give it another year.
1 year passes
"Still isn't working properly."
Nerd: I'll get on it right away
Yet another year later
"We want you to print out the ballot to proove it tallies correctly, some landslide elections look suspicious"
Nerd: Ok, but it'll take awhile for everyone to change their systems, give it 2 years.
2 years pass for the implementation of printers.
"but now the ballot is printing out with the correct vote but it isn't being tallied, I want it to be tallied too."
Nerd: I didn't know you wanted it to be tallied, ok.
"Um..now it's stored on an insecure medium and broadcasted on an insecure medium, and the votes are still coming in wrong. Fix it."
Nerd: Ok, but I'll need another few years to fix it as well.
2 more years pass.
"Um, now the master server isn't working right, can you fix that?"
Nerd: Sure. Gimme a few months...
And by this time, everyone loves a certain party and the other party is somehow out of power. But nobody cares, all the elections are fixed and nobody said "that's enough, fix it and fix it now or we're going back to regular ballot until something that works comes along".
Candy-Coated Knowledge
Ever since the Patriot Act was passed this administration has been getting scrutinized from every single direction imaginable. From privacy advocates, human rights watchers, mass media and left wing conspiracists right on down to right wing conspiracists, NAMBLA and the Council on America-Islamic Relations. Name your group, they've all been watching.
Does anyone care to guess how many violations or abuses that have been uncovered where a private citizens rights have been violated?
Did anyone guess Zero? Because thats exactly how many violations there have been. Zero. Period.
The powers granted by the Patriot Act have helped to uncover and break up Al Queda cells and even prevent the detonation of a dirty bomb in New York by Jose Padilla.
All this hype about Joe Q. Citizen being harassed is nothing but scaremongering.
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
I seem to recall Pastor Niemoeller was a Lutheran minister... and that Martin Luther was a noted anti-semite? Didn't many Lutheran clergymen applaud Kristallnacht?
Or did somebody slip me some of the same crack George the Second's obviously been smoking too much of? Let's google and see:
"In 1935, the Nazis published a popular edition of [Luther's] pamphlet The Jews and Their Lies, in which he wrote: 'So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of Our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for 300 years after the destruction of Jerusalem.... We are at fault in not slaying them.'"
Ah, yes, I thought so. Much, much more easily accessible with a little googling.
Without Nader to draw votes away from him, Gore would have had enough votes in Florida that all the recount business would have been avoided. He could also have taken New Hampshire, and the past 3 years would have been very different indeed. Thank you, Nader supporters for helping GWB into office. He couldn't have done it without you.
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