In the battle to regain many of the rights craftily seized by Congress (at the behest of the White House) while we as American's were still in shock post 9/11, a bipartisan group of Senators have come together to force a continued debate on many of the provisions which are set to expire.
When the Patriot Act was initially voted on shortly after 9/11/01, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the only Senator to oppose the bill (here are his reasons). Today, with the help of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and a bipartisan group of Senators (which included one of my boys, Ken Salazar of Colorado), the Patriot Act was successfully filibustered. This comes just days after NBC's Lisa Myers broke the story that Rummy's DoD has put together a list of organizations which have been determined by the Pentagon to qualify as a potential threat to the US (this list includes a peace organization which met at a Quaker meeting house in FL) and on the day following a New York Times report that Bush secretly authorized the relaxing of restrictions on the intelligence community when spying on US citizens.
(don't blink. don't you fuckin' blink)
[UPDATE: From Arianna's Huffington Post, more links to articles relating to Bush's shameful assault on American Civil Liberty and his continuing war on the very foundations of American (Jeffersonian) Democracy: Rice Denies US Broke Law, & Specter to Probe if Laws Broken. This is absolutely an assault on all of us and part and parcel of this administration's "seize all power regardless of law" policy. And if you're unsure why this is so important, then it's time for a review of the signifignce of the Fourth Ammendment and how we as Americans apply it to our little Republic. Also, if your argument is Terrorism (a tactic mind you, not an enemy), it's time for your ignant ass to move on, because this doesn't appear to be the country for you. I hear Iran is nice, if you like theocracies. Or hell, which is pretty warm this time of year, if you lack the mental capacity to understand why our political leaders are not to be blindly followed, but rather constantly checked.]
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
-- Benjamin Franklin
[UPDATE 2: Kossack georgia10 has some pretty decent analysis on the NY Times decision to sit on this story about Bush's authorization of secret/warrant-free wire taps for more then a year (conveniently post presidential election). Liberal pricks!...wait a second, that don't make no sense.]
[JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR: I have absolutely no objection to getting wire taps on suspected criminals, terrorists, etc..., the objection I have is the how and for how long. Circumventing one of the most fundamental of our laws, as well as for how long it was done!?! Immanent threat is the only exception. Immanent threat!] |
