Happy Birthday Patriot Act!
The Patriot Act turns 8 today. Is it time for a party? Has it kept us safe from terrorists or just eroded our rights? Huffpo reported in September that
Well, at least, since the act is getting up there in age, 8 yrs!, it's good to know that it's being used less and less right? Oh, wait, it actually is being used more:
Feingold: "I'm going to say it's quite extraordinary to grant government agents the statutory authority to secretly break into Americans homes."
Feliz cumpleanos a ti
feliz cumpleanos a ti................
image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozen-in-time/2263904827/
Only three of the 763 "sneak-and-peek" requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases, according to a July 2009 report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Sixty-five percent were drug cases.Wow. It's great to know that the act has been used toward its intended purpose to protect us from terrorists. And not for other purposes like protecting us from drugs or from overuse of the Orange DHS security level. I mean, we've given them the authority to search our homes without a warrant in secret for no reason whatsoever. So it's good to know that we are protected, right?
Well, at least, since the act is getting up there in age, 8 yrs!, it's good to know that it's being used less and less right? Oh, wait, it actually is being used more:
But the FBI's use of "national security letters" to get information on Americans without a court order increased dramatically, from 16,804 in 2007 to 24,744 in 2008.The 2008 requests targeted 7,225 U.S. people.
So
what's a person to do? Move to Canada? Or push for letting the Patriot
Act sunset away? Or just repeal it? But, it looks like that's not to
happen, thanks to Senator Leahy an extension's up for voting in the full Senate soon. Maybe we ought to let our
Senators know that we wish the Patriot Act a happy birthday.
Feingold: "I'm going to say it's quite extraordinary to grant government agents the statutory authority to secretly break into Americans homes."
Feliz cumpleanos a ti
feliz cumpleanos a ti................
image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozen-in-time/2263904827/
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I feel safer already just looking at the 8 candles.
May I ask, did you just cut and past that photo from flickr, or did you have to use all those funny url-thingies?
October 26, 2009 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I went to mageduley's blog on photos and did the url code. It is quite clumsy to say the least.
October 26, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, thank you. Is that andromeda?
October 26, 2009 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a galaxy called "Black Eye." It has a lot of dust blocking out a lot of the stars, giving it a weird look. I was going to change my moniker on here to Black Eye as well, but thought better of it.
October 27, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tlTeQg5YyY
October 26, 2009 11:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent. Thanks DD for a great song.
October 27, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Contrary to its name, the Patriot Act is not patriotic. Neither does it have its Act together. After 8 years it hasn't learned a thing.
I wish to tell it Farewell, not Happy Birthday.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong."
- H.L. Mencken
October 27, 2009 2:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. I often write it as the "Patiot my ass Act".
And "Patriot" is actually an acronym. The USA PATRIOT Act is the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001." Clumsy in name and clumsy in application.
October 27, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
*snort*
"Patriot my ass Act.
October 27, 2009 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
It's funny how the Bush Regime lied all the time, yet sometimes, they could not lie at all. So, while we may bewail their use of the term Patriot for the act, it is really PATRIOT, and merely an acronym, so suggesting it is not partiotic assumes it once was. This is wrong, it was merely an acronym all the time. Now we may question whether it was used against Terrorism, but do we know the drug-related offenses are not related to Afghani opium? I don't know, just throwing that out there.
We should repeal the Act in my opinion. The FISA court was effective, the tansparency is how we should do things in a free country. Let the terrorists know we know who they are. That requires they find new moles, and we can "out" moles faster then they can find them, IMHO. Most people move to this country end up asking themselves why would they want ot destroy it? Their lives are better hear, more probably then not, then they were in the Middle East.
October 27, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it's another Republican useage of language to tie policy to an image.
Here, we have a bill that actually erodes our rights as citizens and actually stands against some of the basic tenets of what it is to be American, but it's tied to the image of patriotism by the acronym. And you are right, it is by definition PATRIOT, so is not a lie. Well, at least the word isn't.
October 27, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
And dear Patriot Act:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfQYLmxf1AQ
October 27, 2009 8:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
HA!
October 27, 2009 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink