2005.07.23
Welcome Back Patriot Act
Please read that title with a distinct note of sarcasm.
Lawmakers voted 257-171 Thursday to make permanent 14 of the Patriot Act’s 16 sections that are scheduled to expire in December, rejecting the civil liberties concerns of Democrats and some Republicans who wanted to limit several provisions of the anti-terrorism law.
That’s just lovely. First they passed a bill a month after the September 11th attacks. This bill, called the USA PATRIOT Act, was so voluminous that it couldn’t have been drawn up after 911; it was prepared well in advance. Congress passes this law without having time to debate it, let alone read it.
Later it is discovered to have a few rather unsavory parts and many more besides what I have quoted; here is more. Finally a few lawmakers got their heads out of their asses and started paying attention. I was relieved to hear even some Republicans beginning to wonder about the trampling of their freedom this bill allowed (though only 14 had the balls to vote against it).
One of the few reliefs in the Act was that some of the portions would expire over time. We would regain the freedoms the Act took away. Whoops! A few bombs went off in London (and we have great sympathy for London despite our commentary) and Legislators, who are not know for their courage under fire, have voted to make permanent. As I’ve said many times before, we need to get more people in Congress who A) are not lawyers, B) are not rich or who aren’t interested primarily in being rich or maintaining wealth, and C) have an ounce of backbone/spine/guts/courage/whatever you want to call it.
Here is a lot of background on the USA PATRIOT Act, and here was the vote breakdown on the Act that is killing the freedom Bush loves to propagandize (hopefully the link holds).
Categorized: grrr political rights
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