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Congress to Revisit the Patriot Act
BlakeCaldwell writes "CNet is reporting that both the House and Senate are planning to review the 16 portions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, several dealing with computer and Internet surveillance. They're trying to avoid the criticism they received after rushing this bill through in 2001 by holding hearings to review the bill's worth. FTA: 'One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period when surreptitiously entering and searching a home or office without notifying the owner.'"
The following provisions of the USA Patriot Act will expire on Jan. 1, 2006 if not renewed by Congress:
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
None of us can deny the fact they put an expiration date on this law. This feature was great forsight and will allow us to (more easily) modify or delete the Patriot Act.
So if the people really do hate the Patriot Act it will be known when it gets modified/deleted.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I guess Republicans must be looking beyond Bush now, and thinking about how they're going to justify the post-911 decisions they made.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's rather hard to believe that we have Senator Fiengold (of all people) to thank for this review. It's always good when cooler heads prevail, but only one cooler head from way out in left field? Amazing. Kudos to Mr. Fiengold.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"CNet is reporting that both the House and Senate are planning to review the 16 portions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year"
How can they review something they didn't even read in the first place!?
In a disused lavatory, in the basement, with the sign "Beware the leopard" on the door.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
~Z
If any of these provisions do actually expire, I'm sure they will turn up again attached to some military spending bill that MUST pass without discussion.
"I don't need drugs to enjoy this, just to enhance it" - Otto
Therefore, this act gives all the flex power to law enforcement they could ever want. Wouldn't surprise me if 10 yr. old kids downloading CDs could be lumped in as "hackers"...
I view this as mere huff & puff. Any items that are not renewed, or are softened, will reappear in the coming months or years as riders on "necessary" bills that will be approved unanimously. These "new" provisions will not have expiration dates, and will not be so widely discussed & lambasted in the public/mainstream media.
The USA PATRIOT Act is merely the USA Act and a money-capturing act. The USA Act is a slight upgrade to the FISA. It does not eliminate the FISA. The USA PATRIOT Act does not eliminate the USA Act. So, when parts of the USA PATRIOT Act expire, do they retroactively expire in the USA Act and then on the FISA? The article doesn't mention any of this at all. It just reinforces the common myth that the USA PATRIOT Act is an original set of provisions instead of the easy to discover fact (visit the Congress' website) that it is a conglomeration of provisions that have been around since 1978.
The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
They have to update those provisions to get ready for RealID implementation within three years! Now they can invoke PATRIOT when they start scanning your ID's RFID tag without your consent.
Or maybe I'm just paranoid...
"But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" - Dennis Miller
.. this is all due to be replace with the more concise:
Section 1.0 -- Government good, citizen bad.
Starsucks
Section 226 -- Makes it unlawful to speak of the PATRIOT Act
vodka, straight up, thank you!
I'd just like to relate what my best friend, who is a sergeant on the ground in Iraq, said to me in a recent email. (I posted it in an earlier subject, but I think it's even more relevant here.)
"I'm not sure people understand that we are a much greater threat to ourselves and our way of life than any terrorist could represent, even with the most heinous plans and horrific weapons. The freedoms we curtail, and the unchecked empowerment we grant our government, has the potential to do real harm to the foundation of our nation, whereas terrorists can only damage buildings and kill people. This may sound callous, but at some point you have to decide that there are ideals that are bigger than any personal loss."
This comes from someone who is shot at daily, and who came within inches of death when his humvee was decimated by a VIED. (And to respond to someone's complaint before - I didn't include my buddies name because I haven't been able to ask him if he'd be alright with it. He only gets access to email every couple of weeks.)
Ed Wilson. This guy was a genuine American member of the CIA. As planned, he was negotiating with foreign terrorists "undercover" by providing them with a fake supply of U.S provided firearms.
Then the CIA turned the program around, claiming he was NOT undercover. Framed him, and send him to jail for 20 years.
A dozen government agents got their promotion of a life time for screwing this guy over. Many are still serving in the U.S judicial system today.
Any acts or laws that yield to benefiting any intelligence program is danger. The U.S has a disgusting history of it. Who knows how many innocent people are being contained by the Patriot Act.
Why, does the Patriot Act mention God or something?
What they ought to do is get rid of the Patriot Act completely, but hide the exact same language in a bill on, say, the sale of lettuce. Then, they can keep doing all this invasive stuff without people talking about it nonstop.
Who are they trying to kid here? They pushed that Reael ID thing though last night and it was headlines on CNN and Fox News this morning. I'm not sure who said this, but I saw a saying that I think fits right in here:
"Only a Government afraid of its citizens tries to control them."
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
How will the people's hatred of the Act be known, when Congress will do whatever it wants? How will the people even know they hate "the Act", when the news media don't report its hateful provisions, its abuses, its failures? With a few more Republicans in Congress since the one that created and passed the Act, who owe their offices to the Republican machine that funded and organized their campaigns, why should they change any of the Act that they all like so much?
As Bush said, Republicans see the 2004 election as an "accountability moment", which has now passed. There's 3/4 of an election cycle to come before the next one, in 11/2006 - plenty of time to spin up some positive accountability, like sending another $300 "tax cut" check to people, while increasing their share of the Federal debt by many times that amount.
People do hate the kind of unaccountable, unfettered government intrusion that the Patriot Act authorizes. That's why Republicans constantly invoke fear of that kind of "big government" intrusion when running for office, which people then vote for. But the electoral system, including the parties and the media, is badly broken. When the Patriot Act survives this nominal "extension" review, all we'll really know is that the people's hatred of it doesn't matter. Those of us paying attention will know, anyway - me, and the politicians making their living off the broken machine.
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make install -not war
Check the voting record, the democrats supported it by an overwhelming majority as well. This will not be a campaign issue for Republicans.
Max Cleland.
The Republicans destroyed that dude because he only went so far as to delay the passage of the Patriot Act originally. Cleland, due to losing 3 limbs in Vietnam(not due to heroics, but from dropping a grenade and trying to pick it up instead of kick it away, like you are trained to do) was considered untouchable and a lock for re-election to the Senate.
No one in Congress is going to become the next Max Cleland, just for your precious Civil Rights, so get used to it. Congress is made up of people who do nothing but protect themselves for their next election, and nothing, I repeat, NOTHING for you.
Most modern westerner politicians are so childish and have such stupid ways of setting their opinions it's quite scary they're the ones with the power...
And there are so damn few alternatives...
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Interesting...full story can be found here.
Odd how just when the Patriot Act comes up for review, a small plane flying off course happens by to remind us all that we must FEAR and OBEY...
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
"Most people don't get past a knee jerk reaction and bother to look at what is really in Patriot beyond the FUD."
And this is just the summary of items scheduled to be repealed automatically. Some of the items that are NOT in the "sunset" clause are equally onerous.
Like the combination of Sections 201 and 805 which creates a net so ridiculously broad that every self-claimed conservative American should be jumping all over it as the gateway to a potential police state.
But no, instead many of these "conservatives" bend over like sheep under the false shiny label of "patriotism".
To which I would remind them all of the following:
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison
The ACLU is on record AGAINST an individual's right to bear arms. They claim to support a "collective right" which means we can arm the national guard.
What? Me? Sig?
(who ran as a Rep) And very good guy, one of the few politicians that stands up for his principles and individual freedoms. That's why there will never be a unanimous passage of bills like this in the House -- just the Senate. Unfortunately, Rep. Ron Paul is only one man. My Democrat friends think it's incredibly sad that only a Libertarian these days will stand up against Republicans. If you do a thomas.loc.gov search, you'll see Ron Paul has authored a number of bills to rescind laws and restore rights to Americans. Unfortunately, most of these never get anywhere. Because neither Democrat nor Republican will stand with the lone Libertarian in restoring freedoms to Americans. Flamebait? Look at the voting record and the bill history before you're so quick to judge. It's all there and well documented.
I mean COME ON!!!! Why are you so pro-terrorist?!!!
If you mod me down, I shall become less powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Back when the patriot act was first passed, I went out of my way to give money to the ACLU under the belief that they would be the one organization with the balls and legal firepower needed to fight this.
Imagine my surprise when the ACLU decided instead to involve itself in California's recall election. Imagine my shock and disappointment when I discovered that they were over there filing frivilous motions with little or no legal merit in order to disrupt the recall process. All because those who now run the once great organization are so politically polarized and zealous that they're willing to sell out the organization in order to prevent a popular candidate from being elected when that candidate is a Republican.
Once upon a time the ACLU was known for fighting the good fight, for taking up unpopular causes because it was the right thing to do and because doing so helped to strengthen and protect the values of personal individual freedom that make America the greatest country on earth.
It would seem that those days are now long past. It is truly tragic to see an organization that was once one of our most staunch defenders of liberty become little more than a subversive tool of the far left.
If you want to fight the patriot act, give money to the EFF, but don't waste it on the ACLU because they're just going to waste the money trying to shove far left nonsense down the throat of a nation that finds it increasingly unpalatable.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Abstract:
This article was the last straw for me. I've just been seeing more and more infuriating political articles that I wish I could take action against. So my idea is that for every article on a subject worth protesting, a reader makes a post with a special designated subject line such as "WAYS YOU CAN HELP". Then he/she lists the various ways you can take action to actually protest the thing. I propose we order the ways of taking action by how much you have to care about the issue to take the action. I have an example for this article at the end of this post.
Proposed Solution:
The basics are presented in the abstract, but some more details are that people comment on this post and reccomend additions, and corrections. Finally when everyone has had their say, someone compiles the official "take action" document and posts it on a permanment webpage as the start of a wiki for the issue.
Example for this article:
Subject line: "WAYS YOU CAN HELP"
Comment:
How you can help based on how much you care:
1. The fate of the world depends on fixing this:
Start a website and non-profit devoted to fixing this issue. Collect donations and hire lobbyists to buy a fix.
2. I worry about this issue all day!
Option A. Pay a visit to the relevant lawmaker.
Option B. Plan a protest.
Option C. Start a petition (but make sure it's the kind that matters)
3. This is a big problem:
Call the relevant lawmaker, explain your concerns.
4. This is a medium problem:
Write a handwritten letter to your lawmaker (email s and faxes don't work!)
5. This is a minor problem:
Donate money
6. I think I care but I don't really:
Complain about it on Slashdot and don't do anything.
...is a happy citizen.
Congratulations on letting the B's of today turn your country into Oceania.
When you consider that western countries enjoy a very high quality of life compared to other countries, its easy to make the argument that people live 'well enough' to not have to care about whether Foo or Bar is running the country.
From other vantage points, Kerry and Bush would basically do the same things, only with different ways of justifying it to their voter base. (Same here in Canada, etc.)
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that the system isn't currently broken; rather simply that not enough shit has hit the fan yet for people to be forced into caring.
Its the old adage where you don't really care why your neighbours are being arrested until they come for you. Same principle. Enough people are enjoying worry free lives (save for the material worry we create to substitute for real worries such as where is my next meal coming from) such that we just havn't hit a critical mass of folks who think we need a substantial change.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I recommend reading the actual sections since most of the "summaries" of the sections that I have seen are translations, usually leaning to one way or another.
Not pointing any fingers here, just recommending you read the actual text yourself. A lot of folks went ballistic over the massive new erosion of our rights when those rights were aleady in jeopardy if you were a drug dealer or traficker. They've simply extended the power they already to terrorism suspects.
Karma means nothing to me, so suck it...
For instance, "terrorism" was recently extended to include a meth lab in Virginia. Bad? sure. Terrorism? not hardly. Prosecutors will use anything available - they're forced to do so.
I forget what 8 was for.
The "Patriot" Act has more to do with Despotism than Patriotism. Powers that the Act give are more in line what dictators would want than what a so called "free and democratic" society would strive for.
A good example is the article here. "One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period" would be a much more useful piece of information if we got a chance to see whether the cases in question did, in fact, involve terrorism.
Actually, the quote is misleading and irrelevant. Sec. 213 "Authority for delaying notice of the execution of a warrant" does not expire. Ever. I've posted this before, but I think it bears repeating...
The US government has been trying to slip this one by us since well before 9/11. It was shot down at least three times in recent history. First it was the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act (CESA). Then the Clinton administration tried to push it through with a meth bill. When that failed, they tried to sneak in through as an amendment to a bankruptcy bill. All the while, the DOJ, led by Reno, was claiming to already have this power without any need for additional legislation in the Nicodemo Scarfo case.
Well, with the PATRIOT ACT, they finally got it. Your only hope now is to have it shot down in the Supreme Court. Both parties have been pushing for this for some time. The People had already spoken. We consistently and emphatically told them 'hell no'. It's clear that Congress has stopped representing the people.
it should be obvious that we'll have to give up a few civil liberties in the interest of safety. When the threat of terrorism is gone, and we're back at 'green', then sure, we can get our freedoms back.
Until then, well, this is a different world, after all.
I'm sure the Departement of Homeland Security wil let us know when it's safe to be free again.
Until then, we should all keep our mouths shut and thank our DHS overlords for doing so much to keep our beloved Democracy Free! Er, um, Free once the Evildoers are caught and brough to Justice! Well, not exactly Justice, but a secret military tribunal.
THEN we'll have Freedom!!!
Yeah, I'm really panicking at the thought of great squadrons of Piper Cubs obliterating American cities. This incident has scared me straight.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.