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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."
Wont.
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?
I love the way US laws are given these cheesy, sometimes forced, acronyms.
I think you guys are doing yourself a disservice as they seem to dumb down the often complex debates and arguments covered by these acts, and force folk into simplistic positions based on the naming of the acts. It must be hard to argue against a PATRIOT act: most people don't want to appear 'unpatriotic'.
I am guessing there are civil servants paid to make up some of these acronyms, some of them must have taken some thinking! ("Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" - impressive!).
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.
Interesting theory... except for the fact that Obama's birth certificat has been produced, a copy is available on-line, and its validity has been repeatedly verified by the state of Hawaii.
It's more accurate to say that those right-wing nutters (and racists) will not be persuaded from their tin-hat conspiracy theories by anything as pesky as facts. They cling to it tenatiously, regardless.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
The PATRIOT Act is here to stay. There is NO WAY the Federal Government is going to willingly give up all the powers it granted them.
Of all the stupid things that happened during the Bush years, that is by far the most damaging. And it's going to take a Congress and a President with a hell of a lot more spine to repeal it. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
"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.
You know, for most of the last two years I thought the Democrats kept bowing to Republican pressure because they were spineless, but now I'm not so sure. I think now the entire Democratic Party is shifting further to the right and filling the vacuum left by the Republicans, who have been shifting even further to the right. A 1970s (or even 1980s) Republican would be almost indistinguishable from a modern Democrat. The so-called Blue Dog Democrats have taken over the party. Meanwhile, true progressives have no voice in government anymore.
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.
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.
Well, no. Even on MSNBC they criticize Democrats heavily.
And CNN has more conservatives on air than liberals, significantly.
Republican talking points get a lot more unquestioning play than any liberal or Democratic ones... even on Networks.
And DON'T think that Republican/Conservatives/FOX News are anti-big government... they're NOT. Republicans and FOX News are very, very pro-big-government. They just believe in big government for the wealthy, the corporations, and the militarty industrial complex. In fact, 80% of the national debt was run up under Republican Presidents. The biggest increases in government spending happened under Bush, when he had all three branches of government in Republican control. The notion that Republicans (and by extension, FOX News) is in any way "small-government" or "fiscally responsible" is just a big, blatent lie.
BOTH parties are "big-government". The only difference is who benefits the most.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
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.
The guy holding the puppets is special interests. Get money out of American politics and the puppet loses his strings.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/11/lind_five_worldviews
The Democrats and the Republicans, when they govern, all generally govern as neoliberal globalists. Some Democrats campaign as social democratic liberals; somewhat more Republicans, lately, campaign as nationalist populists. Nonetheless, the consensus of power itself is pretty stable, and has been since the mid-90s.
Neoliberal globalism is essentially "center-right" ideology. It's very close to core neoconservatism, with the difference being that neo-conservatives give a bit more authority to the idea of the nation-state in carrying out its policing function.
When Obama was elected, he had a website, basically "hey citizens, tell us what you want!" The most popular thing on that site, bar none, by huge margins, was the legalization of marijuana. You know what Obama did? He laughed it off. He mentioned it, but specifically said the only reason he was mentioning it was because he wanted us to know it wasn't going to happen.
That's what happens when the public makes its will clearly known.
This is not a democracy. This is a corporatist republic. Once you fully understand that, you'll stop wasting your time writing letters.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.