Had the Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act been passed, it would have repealed the following portions of the USA PATRIOT Act:
- Section 213 – Authorizes property to be searched and seized in secret by government law enforcement officials, without notifying the subject of a warrant.
- Sections 214 and 216 – Allows pen registers for foreign intelligence purposes and criminal cases. (Pen registers record all phone numbers dialed from a person’s telephone.)
- Section 215 – Authorizes searches of library, bookstore, medical, financial, religious and travel records without a judicial warrant.
- Section 218 – Created an exception to the Fourth Amendment‘s requirement for “probable cause” when obtaining particular search warrants.
- Sections 411 and 412 – Grants new grounds for the deportation and/or the mandatory detention of aliens.
- Section 505 – Authorizes FBI field agents to issue national security letters to obtain financial, bank and credit records of individuals without court order or judicial oversight.
- Sections 507 and 508 – Allows seizure of educational records and disclosure of individually identifiable information under the National Education Statistics Act of 1994.
- Section 802 – Defines “Domestic Terrorism“. The definition is so broad that political protests that unaccountably become violent could be classified as domestic terrorism.
The Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act would also repeal sections of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, so that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security no longer would be exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The federal government no longer would be able to monitor conversations between attorneys and their clients, violating attorney-client privilege.
The proposed act would reinstate tough guidelines instituted in 1989 by former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to rein in a runaway FBI, which had been conducting unlawful surveillance of protesters, peace demonstrators and religious groups. Spying on religious institutions, allowed by John Ashcroft‘s rules, would be put under strict limits.
Go look this up on wikipedia. The Patriot Act undoes all that this country stands for.
Filed under: Ramblings | Leave a Comment
antagonism by proxy
So I recently had a conversation with a friend about 9/11 and conspiracy theories in general. Personally, I tend not to believe in conspiracy theories. Like I told him; if you have more than two people involved in a conspiracy, it will not hold. Two people can keep a secret, three cannot. Conspiracies are about secretly achieving a goal. Two people can do it, add a third, and there is always jealousy or greed. There is always an odd person out.
So, that being said, a conspiracy the size of 9/11 would involve more than three. If the US government staged the whole event, there would be at the very least 20 people involved. If what the theorists say is true, that there were bombs planted in the infrastructure of those buildings, then that plan involves lots of expertise, and more people.
On the other hand, if you have 12 guys hopping on airplanes, that is a lot easier to keep secret. If you have 12 guys in groups of three or 4, who do not know anything but that they have to board this plane, and try to take it over, then hit a target, it gets easier.
The inherent strength of terrorist cells is that they follow an extremely strict code of “need to know” information dissemination. Cells consist of small numbers of people who do not have knowledge of anyone else. A cell may consist of two people. One guy gets his orders from his one contact. He is told to deliver a package to an apartment, don’t open, just deliver. The package contains coded instructions for a man to put on his special vest and go for a bus ride. If he gets caught, he has no names to give. The only information he can give up is that he had a coded envelope that told him what to do. That is why terrorists are so hard to get rid of, and why fighting them with armies will never work.
So, I am here to tell you that 9/11, the huge tragedy that it was, truly happened as it appeared, and that there was no “government plot” to harm Americans. This administration cannot even keep it’s surveillance of it’s own citizens a secret, nor can it carry out political firings without getting caught. They are inept. Inept people cannot carry out plans of the magnitude required to cover something like 9/11 up.
However, they are sly. They are sly enough to use that ineptitude to their advantage. I do not put it past the government to let something like that happen. Inaction in the face of threat. I find it hard to believe that someone somewhere did not put it together before it happened. The whole thing was just too damn convenient.
The United States government has been poking the hornets nest with a stick for a long time. Do not mistake what I say; the government of the United States is an entirely separate entity from the people of the United States. The people just want to live and be happy. They want to watch TV or go play with their kids, or have barbeques. They really and truly do not want to start wars for no reason. Our government however finds it necessary to pick fights.
Why would the government need to bomb it’s own buildings when it can just Abu Graib a few people, or sanction, or beat up/rape a few poor people so they will do the dirty work. Torture and oppress enough and you invent your own enemies.
Immediately after 9/11 there was a huge surge of patriotism. Everyone had their flags waving. What was the nation like before that? Try to push past the sports statistics and movie quotes you’ve stored in that brain of yours and remember the state of the nation on 8/11/01.
Next post will probably be about why we need enemies.
We’ll see if anyone is paying attention.
Filed under: Observations, Politics, Ramblings | Leave a Comment
It is shocking to me and to a great deal of my associates that the political establishment is turning against the only candidates it has with a viable chance of winning over the American people. The current administration has greatly alienated a large segment of the voting population.
The trajedy here is that they fail to realize that their target audience, people who actually vote, are not the easily lead masses who are tuned in to American Idol and who buy 9/11 commemerative memorabilia anymore. The people who actually vote in this country at this point are the ones who are pissed off at the lack of anything resembling discourse between the American people and it’s government.
We are not your father’s constituency. We are the generation of 20 and 30 somethings that run your Internet. We are the ones who make your email flow. We control the information now. It is high time you start listening to what we want.
Do you think that if Ron Paul or Mike Gravel get censored that we can’t launch a media campaign the likes of which no one has ever seen? We own YouTube, We own Google, We own the web. If you can’t see it, can’t see that Generation X has finally had enough of the political demagoguery and empty rhetoric, then you have no business leading a boy scout troop, much less a political party.
We will not stop until we are heard, we have demonstrated that already. Keep ignoring us at your peril.
Promote Ron Paul, promote Mike Gravel they are seen as the only candidate telling the truth at this point, and the truth is the only commodity we are willing to buy right now.
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
How far is too far?
How far is too far? How long will it be before all of our problems as a society come to roost?
Our children are selfish obese sociopaths who thrive on violence. Our leaders are greedy zealots following an imperialist agenda. Our media is a group of polarized sycophants concerned only with ratings. Our citizenry is apathetic ignorant escapists with no hope left for change, or belief that it is possible.
So what now? Where do we go from there? Some sort of change is necessary obviously. Many of us sit behind our keyboards and rail about the injustices and the greed and the murder, secure in our internet anonymity, without the responsibility of taking real action.
How does one make themselves heard in this day, when the cacophany of media is so abundant. The glut of information available and constantly streaming into our heads feeds our inaction.
If anyone reads this poor excuse for outlet, go out and do something. Speak, I don’t care what you say, but say something. Excersize that first ammendment right, we might not have it much longer. Go run for office. Load up the ballot. Make it so that the ballot is 4 pages long. Get out and paper the streets with smiley face posters. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something. The people in this country need to speak out. The idea of our government is to be for the people by the people.
Currently the people consists of rich white dudes who can buy elections. I think it is far past time we shake things up.
Filed under: Social Issues | Leave a Comment
