while you were sleeping

[theknife]

the House voted today to make the Patriot Act permanent, 257-171, moving the bill on to the Senate. it includes things like this:

Order any person or entity to turn over "any tangible things," so long as the FBI specifies that the order is part of an authorized terrorism or intelligence investigation.

Obtain personal data, including medical records, without any specific facts connecting those records to a foreign terrorist.

Prohibit doctors and insurance companies from disclosing to their patients that their medical records have been seized by the government.

Obtain library and book store records, including lists of books checked out, without any specific facts connecting the records to a foreign agent or terrorist.

Obtain private financial records without a court order, and without notification to the person involved.

Conduct intelligence investigations of both United States citizens and permanent residents without probable cause, or even reasonable grounds to believe that they are engaged in criminal activity or are agents of a foreign power.

Investigate U.S. citizens based in part on their exercise of their First Amendment rights, and non-citizens based solely on their exercise of those rights. (Naturally, decisions about what constitutes "in part" are left to a secret court, meeting secretly.)

Those served with Section 215 orders are prohibited from disclosing that fact to anyone -- even their attorney.

feel safer?

[albed]

I was awake.


Hope that stuff doesn't make your terrorist buddies feel unwelcome.

[floydian slip]

Originally Posted by theknife

while you were sleeping

quiet knife... we're trying to sleep

everyodys got something to hide except for me and my monkey

[theknife]

some days, things don't look so bleak in this country....like yesterday, for instance:

Patriot Act nixed

WASHINGTON - The White House was handed a sharp rebuke on privacy issues yesterday when the Senate refused to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act and lawmakers demanded an investigation into whether President Bush authorized a spy agency to snoop on Americans' phone calls and E-mails.
Saying it jeopardized constitutional liberties, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have renewed key provisions of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act. The 52-47 vote to advance the bill was eight short of the 60 needed to overcome the Democrats' filibuster.

hehe - it's a little tricky to try to close the deal on the Patriot Act on the same day it's revealed that the Prez personally ordered ostensibly illegal eavesdropping on US citizens.

Lawmakers outraged over secret spy program

December 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress from both parties expressed outrage Friday over revelations that President George W. Bush launched a secret domestic surveillance program in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The president personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official told the Associated Press on Friday.

The disclosure that the National Security Agency has been spying on domestic telephone conversations created a furor that could have far-reaching implications for the Bush presidency. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised a thorough investigation into the secret program early next year.

The surveillance operation was disclosed Friday by the New York Times, which reported that the government has been monitoring phone calls and e-mail messages from the United States to foreign destinations without warrants for the past three years.

"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," Specter said. "It's inexcusable to have spying on people in the United States without court surveillance in violation of our law."

that pesky Constitution just gets in the way of everything the Prez wants to do...Sen. Russ Feingold with the money quote of the day:

"I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this Senate floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care."

[legion]

HAHAHAHA and here i was thinking I was living in a banana republic.

[Mazer]

You know, I may support the president on most things, but I'm gald the Patriot Act fell through. Not sure how I feel about the news that the president illegally spied on people, but if that report is what it took to prevent the act from passing then it has served its purpose, even if it turns out to be untrue.

[theknife]

via Kos:

A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.


The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.


The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily...5/a09lo650.htm