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Patriot Act Up For Renewal, Nobody Notices
Ponca City, We Love You writes "When the Patriot Act was first signed in 2001, it was billed as a temporary measure required because of the extreme circumstances created by the terrorist threat. The fear from its opponents was that executive power, once given, is seldom relinquished. Now the Examiner reports that on January 5th, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) introduced a bill to add yet another year to the soon-to-be-expiring Patriot Act, extending it until February, 2012, with passage likely to happen after little debate or contention. If passed, this would be the second time the Obama administration has punted on campaign promises to roll back excessive surveillance measures allowed under the act. Last year's extension passed under the heading of the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. 'Given the very limited number of days Congress has in session before the current deadline, and the fact that the bill's Republican sponsor is only seeking another year, I think it's safe to read this as signaling an agreement across the aisle to put the issue off yet again,' writes Julian Sanchez."
Why is anyone surprised that Patriot act has bipartisan support? At the time it was passed all Democrat senators voted for it except for one (Feingold) and he is not in senate anymore. Democrats always supported the act, just like the Republicans did. Obama has renewed it regularly since so its a safe bet that he would have voted for it had he been in senate at the time.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Let's not forget his promise to shut down Guantanamo and to end the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy.
Obama would never do such a thing. If any even mild terrorist action occurred, it would be shouted from the rafters. It would sound something like this: "Hussein did not keep us safe. Or show us his birth certificate. In fact, the reason why he vetoed PATRIOT Act is because he is a secret Muslim terrorist who will bring down the United States and all Christians with his terrorist fist bump." Or something like that.
Obama clearly doesn't have the political courage to repeal PATRIOT, but neither would McCain, Palin, Biden, or really anyone aside from the Pauls. Which is unfortunate because PATRIOT is an awful piece of legislation that does nothing to keep us safe, but rather does the opposite by eroding our liberties.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Is there something that makes you think the will of the Democratic party is much different from that of the Republican party?
we talk about how unworkable, public-enemy the system in america has become. and say that wikileaks exposes stuff like these, and it is necessary. whoops -> mod down to oblivion. uncomfortable truth better not heard.
and when we call on americans, some of you come up saying that not all americans are the same, some of you actually see what's going on, and aware of how things really are. ok. well. nice.
however, you have to do that, BEFORE being called out. if, you dont speak, and instead let the most loud voice that speaks be of irrationality and make-believe, it means that you are basically leaving the arena to such minded people.
when the wise dont speak, fools have the day.
Read radical news here
Sooner to be free with a small 1 in billion odds of death-by-terrorist vs. a 1-1 certainty of being spied upon.
1 in a billion, methinks you don't understand statistics.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
How long until they set it up so it's "extended for another year" renewal bill becomes automatically passed if it isn't voted down?
They've done it on other things. It's a scam where they can refuse to vote, it automatically passes, and they can claim they didn't vote for it.
It's going to take a lot of people to metaphorically kick them in the balls repeatedly until they get the idea that maybe that nazi act needs to be retired before they'll do it.
is a mandatory sunset date on every bill that they sign into law. A year wouldn't be bad. A year would give legal scholars and the public (and maybe even congress itself ,... nah wait for it...... hahahahaha) a chance to review it to see if it actually works.
No disagreement from me. But the political reality is that Obama, Bush, Palin, McCain, and pretty much everyone else in Washington doesn't give a fig newton for your civil liberties if compromising them gets the politician elected.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Obama voted to renew the USA PATRIOT Act while he was still a Senator. It was one of the few things he even took a side on.
All this means is people who voted for Obama were ignorant rubes who couldn't do something as simple as checking a voting record — even one as short as Obama's!
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
it is very different, but just as corrupt.
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
True story, bro. President Obama will not veto the Patriot Act. One thing both parties agree on, the Patriot act is a great tool for maintaining the status quo of the current power elites.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Back when Bush enacted this monstrosity, I remember warning conservatives that it wouldn't just go away, that someday, an evil DEMONCRAT would have that power. They just scoffed. Vindication sucks sometimes.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"What no one seemed to notice... was the ever widening gap... between the government and the people. The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway... and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that... one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. But the one great shocking occasion... never comes. That's the difficulty." - Milton Mayer (1908-1986) journalist and educator, writing about the Nazi takeover of Germany from the point of view of the average citizen, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1938-45
Americans seem to fall into these categories:
The rich - they don't care about justice or injustice, just money
The poor - they may care but they have no power
The oblivious - they're busy watching American Idol and eating pizza
The middle class - they're just trying to maintain or looking for work
"What keeps most Americans from being shocked by the shredding of the Bill of Rights is that they have yet to feel the consequences, either personally or through someone close to them. It would appear, however, that they only have to wait." - William Blum
All of those things and more will be shouted from the rafters no matter what he does. He could single handedly create a lasting utopia for all on earth and there will still be some wingnut screaming that he's not really an American and it's all a trick.
Far left?
The fucker leans so far to the right he practically falls over.
He passed the health care bill the republicans proposed under gingrinch, he kept gitmo, what more do you want him to blow Rush?
Here is a hint, left would include consumer protection, public option at least if not single payer, downsizing of the military, closing gitmo, etc.
Meanwhile, true progressives have no voice in government anymore.
Yeah, that's a shame. All they have right now is they guy who controls the legislative agenda in the Senate. And they had the person who controlled the legistlative agenda in the House, as well, but her absurd antics in the name of progressivism are exactly why that's no longer true. If progressives don't have "a voice" (really? there are some very vocal, very left people in congress) because one of the most left of them just lost her speakership, it's because progressives showed their nature in ramming through the monstrosity that is that health care fiasco, and got roundly and appropriately spanked for it by voters.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I think moreso than anything else, the Patriot Act can be held up as a shining example of both parties caring about nothing more than maintaining power. The Patriot Act goes against almost everything the Democratic party supposedly stands for; quietly continuing its usage and doing nothing to try to kill it should be proof to all but the most hardcore lefties that their beloved politicos are no better than the right-wingers they despise.
"I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here: I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs. I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking. Wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!" -Bill Hicks
Living With a Nerd
No, it is time to face the fact that D and R are on the same fucking team and you are not.
While I agree that Obama has left much to be desired, comparing a common speech problem with a bumbling idiot is flamebait at best and ignorant at worst.
I mean, come on...seriously? Making fun of a guy who pseudo-stutters? What is this, fucking kindergarten?
Living With a Nerd
None of those folks are progressive ... name one person ... with at least a public option
You mean, like Nancy Pelosi, who swore she wouldn't allow such a bill without one? Like her?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
In case you haven't ever noticed, there is no left wing in the US. There are two rights.
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
No, I'd rather be a compliant little sheeple. </sarc>
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Thus proving she is not?
No, thus proving that the progressive agenda in that regard, despite her attempts to ram it through using lies and obfuscation, were too toxic for even the rest of her own caucus. That didn't prove she isn't a progressive, it proved that being one and actually saying out loud what you want gets exactly the response one would expect: most people want no part of it, and will act to rein it in.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Damn straight he is. The center in this country wants a public health care option, an end to the Bush tax cuts, the Patriot Act repealed, Gitmo closed, and their kids home from getting shot at in the desert. That's the center. The Obama administration is firmly to the right of it. It's not hard to understand.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!