Among its many, many, MANY faults, apparently Patriot Act II also guts the Clean Air Act. Bizarre. In related news, Attorney-General Ashcroft finds an unlikely ally in NY Senator Chuck Schumer.
Category: Civil Liberties
Now for ruin, and a red dawn.
It looks like the worst-case scenario outlined by Alternet yesterday is coming about sooner than expected. Senator Orrin Hatch leads a GOP charge to eliminate the sunset provisions in the Patriot Act, thus making permanent the sweeping antiterrorism provisions of the first bill and setting the stage for PATRIOT II. Let’s hope Hatch doesn’t have the votes.
Don’t suspect a friend – report him.
Wiretaps, deportations, DNA databases, secret arrests, you name it. Alternet summarizes the many dangerous implications of PATRIOT II, Attorney General Ashcroft’s upcoming salvo against American civil liberties. The Bushies are going to need another war to pass this one off on us. (Via Genehack, whom I’ve got my eye on…)
Stop me before I think again.
When times are this crazy, trust The Onion to come through in the clutch. “True patriots know that a price of freedom is periodic submission to the will of our leaders — especially when the liberties granted us by the Constitution are at stake. What good is our right to free speech if our soldiers are too demoralized to defend that right, thanks to disparaging remarks made about their commander-in-chief by the Dixie Chicks?” I should not be allowed to say the following things about America, especially during wartime.
Freedom of the…oh, never mind.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia accepts a free speech award…while muzzling the press. War or no, the blatant examples of conservative doublethink lately are getting outrageous. In loosely related news, the FBI track down a long-lost copy of the Bill of Rights. Think they could let Ashcroft take a gander before they return it to NC? The Attorney General seems to have gotten caught up somewhere around the Second Amendment.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Nat Hentoff recoils at the provisions of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, Attorney General Ashcroft’s next salvo in the war on civil liberties. Meanwhile, Dubya’s bean counters at the White House OMB try to ascertain the monetary value of lost privacy and freedom. Sigh…you know it’s gotten bad when even GOP apparatchiks like Dick Armey are calling out the Justice Department.
Next stop, Room 101.
It came out yesterday that two suspected Al Qaeda operatives held in US custody died from “blunt force injuries” during interrogations. Even if these wounds were perpetrated before their capture (which is a big if), it’s utterly dismaying to read where the line is being drawn by our government between “stress and duress” and out-and-out torture. Equally stomach-turning is that we apparently subcontract out the tough nuts to crack to those nations even less perturbed by the ethics of torture than we are. What have we become?
Happy President’s Day.
“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.” – George Washington
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” – George Washington
“As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.” – George Washington
“Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” – Abraham Lincoln
“People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.” – Abraham Lincoln
“It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.” – Abraham Lincoln
License to Incense.
Dahlia Lithwick fills us in on the legal standing of the pro-life license plates sprouting up across the South these days. Hmmm. I assume these plates afford much better protection from random police stops than would, say, a “Jah is my Co-Pilot” bumper sticker. I’m curious as to what percentage of these license plate owners also drive easy-to-flip SUV’s. If you’re so pro-life there, fella, why are you driving such a pro-death vehicle?
Do whatcha like.
Checks and balances? Bah, humbug. Like the legislative branch on the matter of Iraq, the judiciary has now also capitulated to the chief executive, allowing Dubya to detain American citizens at will in the name of fighting terrorism. Oh, heck, let’s bring back torture too while we’re at it.