Congress Makes Deal To Renew Patriot Act For 4 Years 350
airfoobar writes "A four-year extension to the highly controversial Patriot Act is set to be rushed through in the coming week." Techdirt has its usual trenchant critique. I hope it's not unpatriotic to raise doubts about "one of the critical tools the intelligence community has to keep America safe."
I really must learn to write the Congress Critter. (Score:5, Interesting)
"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." -- Jefferson
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." -- Jefferson
Re:Obligatory stat (Score:4, Interesting)
Or swimming pools.
In 2007, there were 3,443 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States, averaging ten deaths per day. An additional 496 people died, from drowning and other causes, in boating-related incidents.
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html [cdc.gov]
Re:Meet the New Boss (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, how many voters outside the slashdot crowd are even aware the patriot act is still with us let alone oppose it? That doesn't excuse Obama or any of the Democrats, but it's never going to go away until more people start caring about it. Rather than bring up that saying year in year out, why not, oh, I don't know, do something to raise awareness about it?
I mean, I guess that doesn't get you slashdot karma...
Re:I know they say it's throwing your vote away... (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's the problem with third-party voting: the system is completely rigged for two parties. Some of the reasons are positively ancient and some more modern.
The problem begins with plurality voting. All that is necessary to win an election is to obtain the most votes. We all know this, but most people don't really stop and think about the consequences. Let me rephrase the system: you don't need a majority of votes to win an election. Put it another way: a majority of people can vote AGAINST YOU but you can still win the election. There are a number of alternate voting systems, tried with varying levels of success in other countries (and some municipal elections in the US), but there is great resistance to change at the national level. The parties in power obviously have a vested interest in preserving their control. Unfortunately, most Americans agree with them. Talk to an American voter about changing the voting system and nine times out of ten they'll tell you that they're opposed, no matter how well you explain it.
Another major issue is that of primary elections. In most states, primaries are closed, meaning that not only do you have to register your party affiliation with the state, but you cannot vote in another party's primary elections. Nowadays, fortunately, it is fairly simple to change your affiliation, but you can still only vote in one primary at a time. So if you want to have a say in the Libertarian or Green Party primaries (if they even have any), that's fine, but you're stuck with whatever horses the other parties choose. Even among the two major parties, if you vote in one's primary, then you cannot vote in the other's. Party loyalty is enforced by the state.
I would also say that the media contribute heavily to the irrelevance of third parties. All outlets, from the so-called "mainstream media" to cable news and talk radio focus blindly on the two major parties and virtually ignore the others. They also tend to ignore any primary candidates whose views fall outside of their respective parties' mainstream. So the average voter is exposed to a fairly small number of choices, and the mere idea of other choices is treated with contempt and, on occasion, outright derision. You can't win votes without coverage, and you can't get coverage without votes. It's an odd, self-perpetuating cycle of journalistic incompetence and malfeasance.
The end result: the two parties maintain control, and voting for a third party is a form of self-disenfranchisement. If you pick a third party, then you're excluding yourself from the major primaries, and if you pick a third-party candidate, then your net effect on the election is nil.
Re:Patriot Act Renewal (Score:3, Interesting)
Printing massive amounts of money has the fortunate effect of wiping out all of the mortgage, medical, education, auto, and credit card debt held by people like me and the rest of the working class. It also has the beneficial effect of wiping out the dollar denominated debt of the exploited countries of the global south.
I guess it's tough shit for you, but I'll be dancing in the streets when the dollar collapses.
Re:Four More Years (Score:5, Interesting)
There's nothing wrong with optimism. Our country was founded on it (along with slavery and the genocide of natives). But you are placing your optimism in a failed party system, instead of individuals. The Democrats and Republicans have both had their chances to turn a new leaf and do the people's will, but their entrenched interests are set in a self-winding clockwork of greed, power, and obligation. When they act in the banner of "national interests", it is the interests of their campaign funders, partisan base, lobbyists, and future employers in which they act, not the interests of people at large who they supposedly represent.
Obama was a last chance for the Democrats. I think most of us not under the influence of corn syrup and reality shows wanted to believe that Obama was somehow an internal revolution in the Democratic party; someone to whom only the people he was accountable to. But then we saw the bank bailouts, the tacit approval of Bush/Cheney crimes, the defense of wiretapping and assassinations of US citizens, the abandonment of a promise to close Guantanamo, the frail response to the "Arab Spring" revolutions, and in those revolutions we saw ourselves. Except that we don't seem to yet have the unified anger against the systemic violations of liberties to rise up in any meaningful way. Not when people like yourself are still clinging to the ghost of Kennedy.
The only way we can move forward as a country, and avoid a kind of Romanic crumbling of our nation, is organizing around a third party. A third party that represents and addresses the people, not corporations. This is only possible if we leave behind the ridiculous social bickerings of abortion and religious contentions and unite as a wide swath of Americans against the entities and individuals controlling America. But maybe I'm just a dreamer.
Re:Four More Years (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, let's wait until they pen us up then see what we can do about it. Sounds like a plan. You go on and piss away your rights, I'd like to keep mine. No, we aren't under tyranny but if others had your attitude we would have been long ago.
Re:Four More Years (Score:2, Interesting)
At least we can count on both the Republicans and Democrats to stop their partisan bickering for a moment, and reach across the isle in solidarity to screw the American public over.
Because nothing tells the American public that they've been "screwed" like:
Not having hundreds of passenger jets shot out of the sky by surface to air missiles [reuters.com]
Oddly enough, this is also covered under a new law passed after 9/11 - shall we start the bitching about that too? Oooh, those Feds! Oooh... %()*#)($% Bush!!
Not having Talib Islam blow up a federal court with a one ton tuck bomb [fbi.gov]
Not having Farooque Ahmed bomb the subway [fbi.gov]
Not having Ferid "Yousef” Imam set off his Improvised Explosive Device [fbi.gov]
Disrupting Nadeem Akhtar's plan to illegally export nuclear processing equipment to..... Pakistan [fbi.gov].
Interrupting the violent Jihad plots of “JihadJane" and company [fbi.gov]..... very interesting.
Preventing Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari from using a large Improvised Explosive Device [fbi.gov]
Jailing Zachary Adam Chesser for threats against South Park and attempting to support al Shabaab [fbi.gov]
Convicting Russell Defreitas and coconspirator Abdul Kadir for a plot to blow up JFK Airport [fbi.gov]
Hmmmm... only back to mid Feb 2011....and this probably isn't everything..... lets skip back to November 2010.
Not getting blown up at a Christmas tree lighting by Mohamed Osman Mohamud [oregonlive.com]
Imagine how "cheated" the American public feels without all those explosions going off?
By the way.... I'll let you in on a little secret... OK, two secrets.
First, for those that crave them, terrorist attacks are kind of like potato chips.... it seldom stops with just one.
Second, NSA cares if somebody in the US is in direct communication with members of terrorist organizations. That's terrorist organizations that are trying to kill people, not illegal mp3 downloaders, Ron Paul/Dennis Kucinich voters, members of the people's pop tart party, or gold fish fetishists.
As to civil liberties, the fact that these [amazon.com] were published tells me we are probably in pretty good shape overall.