I don't like the Patriot Act, but I like it more than I dislike it. If my choice was to keep or toss it, I'd keep it; if my choice was to keep, amend its most egregious provisions, or toss it, I'd amend it.
Based on what I see on CNN, the White House would say that this clearly showed I was in favor of it, and smoothly elide into a statement that therefore not only should it be kept as it exists, but it should be amended to expand those provisions.
From the CNN site:
The Senate on Friday rejected attempts to reauthorize several provisions of the USA Patriot Act as infringing too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders.
In a crucial vote early Friday, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a threatened filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47.
President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent, and add new safeguards and expiration dates to the two most controversial parts: roving wiretaps and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.
Feingold, Craig and other critics said that wasn't enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards. But Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they won't accept a short-term extension of the law.
If a compromise is not reached, the 16 Patriot Act provisions expire on December 31.
Frist changed his vote at the last moment after seeing the critics would win. He decided to vote with the prevailing side so he could call for a new vote at any time. He immediately objected to an offer of a short term extension from Democrats, saying the House won't approve it and the president won't sign it.
"We have more to fear from terrorism than we do from this Patriot Act," Frist warned.
Politics is really amazing. You're against something, so you vote to retain it as it is. You're for it, so you vote against it so that you can call for a new vote. Paging Alice in Wonderland......
And yet...and yet. We do need this. We even need the NSA monitoring communications that it never did before, because we have a dangerous, elusive enemy. So how can we trust the people who are doing it to use what they find correctly? Not just Republicans, not just Democrats, but everyone? How can we believe in the basic honor and decency of people whose job it is to peek and pry, and the people who would ask for it secretly? How do we keep focus on what's key while remembering what's important?
Makes you want to go back to 'Gentlemen do not read each other's mail', doesn't it?
4 comments:
What happened to America, Land of the Free, home of the Brave? It seems to have become Land of the controlled, home of the scared!
The patriot act (an absurdly named bill if I EVER saw one!) is a shame. I read it from front to back, (I really did! Scary stuff!) and all I can say is, " This act will cause you to you to give up that which makes America great!" It is a seriously flawed legislation which resembles Canada's "War Measures Act" in many respects, however every time the WMA has been enacted, it was recincded as soon as possible. Because the USA is perpetually at war somewhere, some politicians are getting away with a sort of permanent WMA.
You don't need to amend it...you need to get your congressman to replace it with a slew of beefed up perfectly good existing legislation. Examine EVERY codicile, and hang onto the rights for which so many brave men have died over the years.
That "home of the scared" comment? I stand by it. Fear caused thousands of Japanese Americans to be interned during WWII. Germans in New York were lynched. Fear is a powerful tool which your politicians are using with surgical precision. Lets put this into perspective....more Americans die from obesity related illness every year than died in the World Trade Centre bombings. More die from lung cancer and heart disease thanks to Big Tobacco. Highways...lets not go there.....4 thousand die every year in fires!
Winston Churchill said "There is nothing to fear.....but fear itself." His words calmed a nation on the brink of mass hysteria. To give away your freedom because of fear.....let it be at least a reasonable fear!!!!
America is the greatest country on Earth. Not the richest, or the biggest, or the toughest, or the meanest, or even the nicest place to live.... It is the greatest...because you have human rights, responsive politicians, a by and large honest court system. Jealous regiems all over the world can't change that....but your Patriot act can.
Okay...rant over. Its not like I have any say in the matter....as a Canadian, I am on the outside looking in, and can maybe see things when you are all too close to the trees to see how big a forest you got.
Regards, and Merry Christmas
Bill
From Ottawa
As a general statement, Americans don't like it when people don't like us. It surprises us. And we don't like sneaks. When we find out that people actively don't like us and are using sneaky methods to attack us, we get testy.
We deal in slogans as much as we ever did, and thanks to modern politics, we are manipulated by slogans cleverly engineered to make us think of our glorious past as if it were still true. But this isn't the land of the wild frontier any more, and it isn't a land of unbridled freedom. It can't be, without giving up something else that we also cherish -- security. We're willing to give up freedom to enhance that, and clever politicans know that. Merging the two, clever politicians call their act the Patriot act because heck, who doesn't want to be a patriot, and who doesn't want to be safe? Here's both; you want fries with that?
As for rescinding the PA, we're working on it.
The thing to keep in mind is: even the paranoid have enemies. Heck,hard as it can be to believe, even Canadians have enemies. (And yes, I do find that hard to believe.)
Come to think of it, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to believe. Who couldn't like Canada?
Oh, anybody opposed to same-sex marriage, legalized marijuana, anybody who owns a hand gun, and anybody with a forest he can't get sell wood out of because of "unfair gov-in-mint subsidy in the form of welfare, Unemployement insurance, and stumpage on crown land.
I stand by my statement that the USA is the greatest country in the world. Though it sometimes seems that Canadian's national sport is not actually Hockey, but "Teasing Americans", fact is that by and large, America is the known recognized leader in many things we take for granted. We recognize that illegal immigrants sneak into Canada, and then, not content with our own ridiculously generous hospitality, they then proceed to sneak across to the USA. There must be a reason! We often feel quite hurt by that rejection!
I am relieved to see that your congress had a sudden attack of conscience, and refused to renew the Patriot Act. Honestly, it is fascist to the core. You can do better, eh....
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