Protest Backroom Deal to Extend Un-Patriot Act til 2015

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/22-1


Published on Sunday, May 22, 2011 by Juan Cole

Protest Backroom Deal to Extend Un-Patriot Act til 2015
by Juan Cole

There’s an action alert by a supporter of Rand Paul over at Firedoglake saying that an attempt will be made at 5 pm on Monday in the Senate to extend the misnamed ‘PATRIOT Act’ for four years. There will be an attempt to get unanimous consent for the extension, with just a motion to which there should be no objections.

Rand’s alert says,

“The surveillance state’s ability to snoop through your business records, pry into your library book checkouts, monitor so-called “lone wolfs,” and spy on your personal communications through roving wiretaps will be extended until 2015, which “coincidentally” is not an election year.”
Here is a similarly urgent ACLU alert.

The vote is part of a deal between majority leader Harry Reid and his Republican colleagues to sidestep debate and rush the legislation through, which is becoming a worrisomely common procedure as the Democrats continue to abdicate their responsibilities to the Constitution, as Glenn Greenwald has elegantly explained.

The three controversial provisions being extended are the warrantless ‘roving wiretap’, the government’s warrantless access to business and library records, and the ability of the state to monitor non-US citizens at will and in the absence of any probable cause.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has found evidence of FBI abuse of the PATRIOT Act.

The US Bill of Rights says that people have the right to privacy in their personal effects and their communications from government prying except where the police obtain a warrant from a judge. The tendency in the US for the past 40 years has been to chip away at this requirement, giving government agencies more and more unsupervised surveillance authority.

Please let Reid and Mitch McConnell know that we Americans don’t appreciate their gutting the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

—

I went through the ACLU website.

thanks for the reminder,

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2848

No More Extensions for the Patriot Act!

Share on TwitterKey parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire on May 27, 2011. Thanks in large part to your activism, the Senate has promised a real debate on the Patriot Act, and the House is holding hearings. We cannot let fear-mongering and scare tactics distract from the outrageous abuses that are being perpetrated under the authority of the Patriot Act.

Tell your members of Congress to meaningfully reform the Patriot Act.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

We need it to kill Mullah Omar.

We need it to kill what's their face.

We need it to kill bin Laden.

Licence To Kill

by Bob Dylan


Man thinks 'cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please
And if things don't change soon, he will.
Oh, man has invented his doom,
First step was touching the moon.

Now, there's a woman on my block,
She just sit there as the night grows still.
She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Now, they take him and they teach him and they groom him for life
And they set him on a path where he's bound to get ill,
Then they bury him with stars,
Sell his body like they do used cars.

Now, there's a woman on my block,
She just sit there facin' the hill.
She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Now, he's hell-bent for destruction, he's afraid and confused,
And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.
All he believes are his eyes
And his eyes, they just tell him lies.

But there's a woman on my block,
Sitting there in a cold chill.
She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Ya may be a noisemaker, spirit maker,
Heartbreaker, backbreaker,
Leave no stone unturned.
May be an actor in a plot,
That might be all that you got
'Til your error you clearly learn.

Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool
And when he sees his reflection, he's fulfilled.
Oh, man is opposed to fair play,
He wants it all and he wants it his way.

Now, there's a woman on my block,
She just sit there as the night grows still.
She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Then again they haven't sent the beer and travel money yet either.


There can only be a few outcomes to that.