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Bill Could Restrict Freedom of the Press
WerewolfOfVulcan writes "The Washington Post is carrying an article about a disturbing Senate bill that could make it illegal to publicly disclose even the existence of US domestic spying programs (i.e. NSA wiretaps)." An aide to the bill's author assures us it's not aimed at reporters, but the language is ambiguous at best. From the article: "Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified. 'The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact,' said Martin, a civil liberties advocate."
More like "Land OFF the free" ?
US is now divided as the "Red" and "blue" states. Red States = communist countries. Coincidence? I think not
Citizen: You may execise your Constitional freedoms at (almost) any time. First, file an application, allow a three day wainting period, and if you haven't abused your freedom, you will have the our permission to execise it.
One more thing, Citizen...If you truly wish to speak freely, do *not* forget to bring your National ID. Applications to get government permission to execise Constitutional freedoms will not be processed without valid ID.
First off, Speech is not Free.
McCain-Feingold (with the Supremes upholding it) puts lots of restrictions on political speech. Among them the NRA, NOW, ACLU and Sierra Club plus other advocacy groups unable to run ads endorsing or attacking candidates in Primaries and General Elections. With the result that various vague entities constructed under McCain-Feingold run thinly disguised attack ads.
Liberals and Progressives got the speech restrictions they want (along the lines of Speech Codes in the Universities) so have to live with the inevitable extension into areas that don't adhere to PC religion.
Second, the Parent article sites an authority with an axe to grind. Disclosures by people in the intelligence areas (likely Senators and Congressmen with access and axes to grind, looking at you Senator Rockefeller) have damaged National Security and brought Al Qaeda one step closer to nuking NYC or DC or both.
You all live in this dream world fantasy where the biggest enemy is GWB. I'll agree that Bush is an idiot, and mostly wrong, but on Al Qaeda he's right. GWB is a lame duck President with miserable polls who'll be gone in two years. Al Qaeda is still trying to kill us, and that means anyone in a big city particularly. Given their ties to Iran (bin Laden's son is living their with senior Al Qaeda leaders) and Iran's nukes, plus nukes from Pakistan which is one bullet away from Al Qaeda control this is no idle threat.
Disclosures of our secret prisons in Europe holding dangerous terrorists, satellite programs, intercepts of what Al Qaeda thought were purely foreign calls (US companies route foreign to foreign calls through their US switches) etc. have seriously impacted our ability to recognize a nuclear attack on us and save (millions) of lives. This is serious stuff not your paranoid grandiose fantasies of GWB being the bad guy and bin Laden the good guy or useless joke. We are at war. They really want to nuke us. I say use everything we got before we go to trading nukes and killing on an industrial scale after NYC vanishes. I'm perfectly fine with secret prisons to avoid killing 300 million people in retaliation for losing several million of ours (believe me, after Dubai Port World and Cartoon Jihad most of America is a "nuke em all" mood already).
Muslims around the world told you in Cartoon Jihad what they want: signs saying "Freedom Go To Hell," "Behead those who Insult Islam," and "God Bless Hitler." Iran's President says he will make a "World Without America" happen through nukes. Bin Laden has a fatwa allowing nuking of America.
We need this bill.
Let me point out to you where the real danger was: America's First Blackmailer J Edgar Hoover who had secret blackmail files on everyone. The Senate and House already agreed to formalized oversight of non-FISA surveillance, allowing Bush and Co. to do the job but requiring accountability. I'm more worried about a guy like Hoover who outlasted Hoover, FDR, Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, and into Nixon's term.
It's never the system. It's always the men. Anyone thinking GWB could do more than the bare minimum of finding his ass in the dark without a map and flashlight is delusional. He's barely able to decide what's for breakfast let alone spy on your porn visiting.
Pass the bill.
You're still stuck on that myth, eh? I'm afraid there's no hope for you.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Sshhhhh. You are not supposed to notice things like the building collapsing all alike. You are also not supposed to notice the complete lack of airplane parts in and around the pentagon.
evil is as evil does
I don't want him to have a car. He's far more likely to do harm with that. How many people are needlessly killed by the reckless use of automobiles? Where are all the anti-car lobbies?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.