Patriot Act (It Just Won't Go Away)
The Patriot Act may soon (hopefully not) be coming up for a vote. Certain provisions of the Patriot Act will automatically expire if there isn’t a vote.
At the end of Congress’ 2005 session, the Patriot Act was given a one-month extension. The Bush Administration is determined to make this Orwellian nightmare permanent. Is this what we want?
The September 11th attacks didn’t happen because the American people have too much freedom. They happened because the dots weren’t connected — dots that a 5-year-old would’ve been able to connect.
Bush received several intelligence briefings in August 2001 about pending al Qaeda attacks; and several more intelligence reports about hijacked airliners being the likely weapon of choice. The FBI and CIA each had information which, if shared, could have been much more useful to both agencies. This information was not shared.
Obviously our government agencies need to make better use of the intelligence information they receive; and these agencies need to communicate with each other. Right hand, meet the left hand.
But it looks more impressive to just create a big swaggering government agency that can peek at our library records and perform warrantless searches on our homes and businesses. As long as it looks like we’re protecting American citizens, what else matters?
If you don’t think having a permanent KGB-type agency watching over us is the right answer, please click here. This will send a message to your two senators.
Ask them to oppose a vote on the Patriot Act, and allow certain portions of it to sunset automatically. If a vote does come up, ask them to vote No on any renewal or expansion of the Patriot Act.
Even if you’ve already sent this same message before, please send it again. We won’t protect ourselves from terrorists by turning the clock back fifty years to the McCarthy era. Please send this message.
posted by Tom Harper @ 8:03 PM
6 Comments:
Ah, yes and maybe one day our country will get a collective backbone! Of course with our wonderful "intel agencies" who knows? It is scary to think what these guys are doing. I sometimes think they couldnt find there collective faces in a mirror. Ever wonder why when Bush gets bashed for pontificating about our "national security" up comes something from UBL or some other maniac? Almost as if a cue to Bush to say "I told you so"
Jill: Yeah, that's a scary combination: ineptitude and being everywhere, watching everyone. I wouldn't doubt that there's some kind of collaboration going on. It sure seems like every time Bush gets backed into a corner, there's suddenly another terror alert or another tape from bin Laden.
I don't usually give much credence to so-called conspiracy theories, BUT, in this case, I think it's a misnomer to say the Bush Administration and our spy agencies goofed up re 9/11. Like with Pearl Harbor and the Roosevelt Administration, this evil administration allowed 9/11 to happen to further their sick political agenda.
Consequently, the so-called Patriot Act has nothing directly to do with 9/11. It's an assualt, plain and simple, on the concepts of freedom and democracy.
Trey: Yeah, it's hard to tell. I'm not quite ready to come out and say it's a conspiracy, but the only other alternative is ineptitude -- mind-numbing stupidity on the part of the government. Their "response" to 9/11, their "planning" of the Iraqi war -- a bunch of 4-year-olds would have responded faster and had more foresight.
We'll probably never know (officially anyway) which it is: a conspiracy or just too many dunces who were appointed to high positions through cronyism.
Tom,
For me, the telling information re 9/11 is that NOT one air force jet was sent up to check or shadow ANY of the hijacked planes -- even the ones they KNEW had been hijacked.
This is standard operating procedure, something carried out routinely every week across the country. A year before 9/11, a small plane that had drifted far off-course carrying golfer Payne Stewart and others was intercepted and followed for hundreds of miles across several states. It later crashed, killing the 7 people on board.
Yet, when people are using planes to crash into buildings and killing hundreds, the air force stayed on the ground.
That singular fact doesn't point toward ineptitude; it points to something far more sinister.
Trey: Oh yeah, there are lots of sinister coincidences like that. There was speculation that the WTC buildings collapsed because of pre-set explosions inside the buildings. Bin Laden's relatives were all hustled out of the country immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Etc.
There was a rumor that Hunter Thompson didn't actually commit suicide last year. He was working on a story about 9/11 being an inside job, and he got "suicided."
As the saying goes, things are getting "curiouser and curiouser."
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