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House Limits Patriot Act Rules on Library Records
xerid writes "From CNN.COM: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the Patriot Act to search library and book store records. Despite a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers voted 238-187 to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.""
Besides the blue states are the ones that support the red states - we can't damage the cash cows.
That's a good point. I always thought that there would just be another "terrorist" incident just before the 2008 enections, and martial law would be declared, thus keeping Bush in office indefinitely.
Yeah, because the thought that Bush is just another guy who 51%+ of voters liked enough to vote in _again_ is too horrible for you to contemplate. I guess all those juvenile Palpatine-wannabe fantasies must really work at keeping you sane.
The problem which all you armchair libertarians don't seem to comprehend is that terrorists don't play by the rules. We aren't fighting Basque separatists or IRA who in their better days would actually call up and warn about a bomb going off in a theater so that innocents would have a fighting chance to escape. These are _thugs_ who like sawing off heads on live TV.
Civil liberties imply a certain degree of civility: when you have lunatics ready to blow themselves and hundreds of others up, like it or not the level of civility in society has dropped significantly. Which unfortunately means the guardians of society -- law-enforcement -- can't be hemmed in by too many rules -- it'd be like playing tennis with one arm tied up. Walls like warrants and divisions of power were set up to protect civil liberties and the citizen from the government: terrorists know how to use the these walls to their advantage.
At heart, PATRIOT is about removing these walls and allowing law-enforcement greater access to information. This, according to most of the American public, is a Good Thing. What would be even better is if PATRIOT's opponents actually offered some constructive opposition-- such as writing new law that mandates oversight of any PATRIOT-enabled infringement of rights. Reflexively parroting conspiracy theories only makes the parroter -- and the cause -- look stupid.
Go somewhere random
Oh, is that all? I thought you were going to ask for something difficult.
I hate to burst your bubble, but this will never (and can't) happen. Money is basically a proxy for power. Rephrased, then, you're suggest that "we take all power out of politics". You might as well take all the vacuum out of space, since that's pretty much how both are defined.
Your ideas about eliminating campaign abuse are sweetly naive, but you're a minnow playing among sharks. Know what happens if you make it illegal for anyone to buy advertising but mandate that candidates get it for free? You'll have 50 members of each party running for office: 1 to win, and 49 on the "other party's candidate eats babies" platform.
Don't ever assume that you can put a simple limit on the actions of a politician. These guys are way better at the game than you and I could ever hope to be.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I've never thought that judges would protect me from anything. However, I'd much rather have said judge - presumably a neutral third party - review the request for a warrant than simply have Homeland Security decide they need it, without having to consult that judge.
And for the previous poster which said that warrants are required, perhaps you should read the act. It's people like you who allowed it to go into effect in the first place.
If you're not living on the edge, you're just taking up space!
"In addition to still having to prove that they would of been able to get a warrent at that time, they would also have to prove that going in with the warrent was required to preserve the records."
Who cares what they have to prove when you never get a court date anyway? You just sit in gitmo or the next "detainment facility" in perpituity because you are a "terrorist threat"....