Tag: Patriot Act

Patriot Act Reauthorization

While the country was sitting around watching the TV or scratching their asses while Uncle Bob tells them what is what in the impeachment…..the Dems proved to me that they are just as big a warmonger bunch of d/bags as the GOP…..

Why?

Without much ado the Dems in the House voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act and all the authoritarian crap that goes with it……House Democrats are ignoring civil liberties and including a three month straight reauthorization of the Patriot Act (with zero reform) in the continuing resolution.

Buried in a stopgap government funding resolution unveiled by House Democrats Monday is a provision that would reauthorize the notoriously abusive Patriot Act for three months, a move privacy advocates warned would ensure President Donald Trump’s administration holds on to “terrifying authoritarian surveillance powers.”

Evan Greer, deputy director of digital rights group Fight for the Future, highlighted the provision on Twitter shortly after House Democrats released the continuing resolution (pdf), which would temporarily avert a looming government shutdown by providing funding for federal agencies through December 20. A House vote on the measure is expected as early as Tuesday.

“The continuing resolution would reauthorize a mass surveillance authority that has never been proven useful and that has consistently broken the laws and rules governing surveillance,” tweeted Demand Progress. “Democrats must not hand this president these dangerous Patriot Act authorities.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/19/handing-trump-terrifying-authoritarian-surveillance-powers-house-democrats-include

The Dems are proving that they are bigger Neocon toadies than their GOP counterparts…..https://www.truthdig.com/articles/democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-permanent-war/

I do this stuff so that you do not have and maybe miss an episode of “Naked And Afraid”…you are welcome.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Is The Patriot Act Dead??

Today we will hear all about the victory of Rand Paul and the American people over the Patriot Act……(and the peasants danced)………

But maybe you should save the victory dance for a later day……why?

Critical parts of the Patriot Act expired at midnight, but while the White House and security officials have warned that this lapse in surveillance could open the US up to terror attacks, others are saying there are workarounds that allow the US to still collect intelligence on possible terrorists and spies, the New York Times reports. The biggest bone of contention is the Patriot Act’s Section 215, which enabled the government to retrieve any “relevant” records in terrorism or spy investigations, the Daily Beast notes. But the “zombie Patriot Act,” as the Daily Beast calls it, features grandfather clauses and still-available national security subpoenas that let the feds collect records in certain situations. “I think there are other tools that can be used, but I’m not going to elaborate on them,” Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe notes.

Key to the workarounds are the grandfather clauses, which extend three expired laws if investigations started before today, the Times notes. And national security letters, which the FBI and other intelligence organizations can use to gather phone and Internet records, are still “comparatively easy” to obtain, per the Daily Beast. Officials also acknowledge that there are other existing methods to get around two of the expired laws—one that addressed wiretaps of a person using more than one device, another that allowed officials to wiretap “lone wolf” suspects—and that those two laws were rarely or never used, per the Times. Still, the White House is wary of this limited new scope. “I don’t want us to be in a situation in which … suddenly we’re dark … and we could’ve prevented a terrorist attack,” President Obama told reporters on Friday, per the Daily Beast.

Your rights are still NOT safe!  BE EVER VIGILANT OR BE FOREVER ENSLAVED!

Whose Patriot Act Is It?

The big news over the weekend was that part of the Patriot Act was somehow slowed down and many are blaming Rand Paul……..personally I think it had more to do with the upcoming election and not as much about any rights violations…..but that is just me……..I see ulterior motives in everything a politician does or says……….

The question has been asked if Bush;s original Patriot Act is any different that that of Obama…..and there is an answer…..

 

Can you tell the difference between Bush and Obama on the Patriot Act? | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian.

 

How about that?  NOT a whits difference between the two presidents when it comes to the Patriot Act.

Patriot Act: The Renewal?

Since the Act was signed into being the American people have lost civil rights and liberties….and the sad thing is we know it.  We are so afraid that we allowed the government to look into all aspects of our lives for the sake of national security.

The Act is about to run its course and the Congress has tried to amend the Act with a new version called the USA Freedom Act, a cute little name that has NOTHING to do with freedom.

While most of America was laser focused on a train wreck….with more twists than a Guy Richie movie, the House took up this new act…….

In a 338-88 vote the House of Representatives today voted to pass the USA Freedom Act, a bill which extends the soon-to-expire provisions of the Patriot Act and offers some nominal reforms in the name of privacy.

Starting as a relatively weak reform bill from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – VT) last year, the USA Freedom Act was further watered down, to the point that many are complaining it doesn’t really do anything meaningful in reform at this point.

Let me translate that for you…..very little has changed….you will still not have the privacy that we have come to expect living in a free country……the only saving grace is that it now must go to the Senate and there it will face some actual opposition.  Both Sens. Rand Paul (R – KY) and Ron Wyden (D – OR) promising to organize a filibuster against the bill if it does not keep Americans stuff private.

Americans fall the diversion offered them by the media working as the agent of the government and because of the fear we experience we will allow our civil rights to be stomped on yet again.

Since most Americans are not willing to get involved…..then maybe now would be a good time to shut up and learn to live without the privacy you were promised in the Constitution…….you have NOT earned them!

Time For The Big Guns!

From the beautiful mind of Chuq

I am almost always amused at the news cycle……after you have been watching and reporting on the news for as long as I have …..it becomes a challenge to predict what the big story is and try to get ahead of it……it is a difficult task but so fulfilling when you can do it……and gloat!

For instance the latest “terrorist” attack in the US….the one in Garland Texas last week.  First it was ISIS took full responsibility for the attack and then the government came out and said that there was NO definitive proof that ISIS had anything to make it happen.  But we normal Americans hear the part of that saga we want to hear….”ISIS did it”.

Late last week there came out that there was a split in the GOP over the Patriot Act….after all it is up for renewal and the fix is in.  There are many Americans that are concerned over the loss of civil liberties in the name of the Patriot Act….even some of the presidential hopefuls.  we are told that we need it to keep the country safe (point one).

Also last week word came done that the US Court of Appeals has found that the NSA program of data collection is illegal…..let me say nthat again….ILLEGAL!

A key appellate court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency broke the law with its sweeping collection of telephone call data, in a groundbreaking decision that repudiates the Obama administration and encourages Congress to weigh in.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the first to conclude Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act does not authorize the NSA’s bulk collection of so-called “metadata.” It comes just as sharply divided lawmakers try again to rewrite the law.  (point 2)

The ruling sent the hawks into a frenzy of trying to turn the American people against the ruling……..and it began in Congress……..

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R – NC) has slammed last week’s Appeals Court ruling that the NSA metadata surveillance program was illegal.

Sen. Burr insisted the program, which allows the NSA to collect telephone metadata on all Americans, had never intruded on anyone’s privacy, and said the program had to be continued.

Fear mongering at its ultimate best!

With those two occurrences…..it is time to whip out the Big Guns!
Over the weekend a couple reports came out that were as predictable that one id not need a de-coder ring……..
First the FBI report……..

Comey said this amounted to a shift in the process of online radicalization, as where at one point would-be recruits had to go to considerable lengths to find anything, they now make contact on Twitter or Facebook, and are then steered to more secure forms of communication.

The comments were made in the context of Garland shooter Elton Simpson, though officials have conceded they don’t really think he was working with ISIS, but was at most “inspired” by them.

Then secondly the report was………

Citing the “environment” of threat created by ISIS, the Pentagon has announced an increase in its FPCON security level from Alpha to Bravo. Spokesmen confirmed there is no specific threat.

The Pentagon had previously done this in September 2011, in the lead-up to the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, on the theory that al-Qaeda would probably like to do something then.

Third report was a real ear popper……in an interview Sen. Feistein (D-CA) said that there were ISIS cells active in 11 (eleven) states…..but as usual there was NO naming of said states….seems to have been a blanket statement……

These were the talk of the Sunday Political talk shows on the MSM…….

My problem is that the twin setbacks….the court ruling and hesitation over the Patriot Act had the PR people in the government going batcrap crazy……they had to make Americans aware (read “afraid”) of those bad guys lurking in the shadows.  They trotted out ALL the usual suspects to save the Act and try to reverse the ruling…….

This is a desperate attempt to save the programs they have been depending on to spy on Americans willy nilly……

Wait1  I am NOT saying that there is NOTHING to worry about….there is!…….All of this is a huge coincidence…….the problem is that I do NOT believe in coincidence……

How about you?

 

America’s Second ‘Patriot Act’

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American History

Okay sports fans….how about a small history lesson?

With the ascendency of IS to the front pages of the papers we are once again looking hard at the Patriot Act and how to defend the ‘homeland’ from the crazies that want to do us harm.

Recently I wrote about the Patriot act because of all the debate and yelling to some…..some say we lost out rights and others say we need this to protect us from the bad guys that want to cause the country harm….I reminded my readers that the patriot act was not the first time that this country has gone about protecting its citizens from outside harm……in 1789 there was the Aliens & Seditions Act………check it out if your mind has left the room……http://lobotero.com/2014/04/28/the-1st-patriot-act/ ……….

After that act was beaten down in the Congress we thought all was well…..but then in1917,  basically because of the Russian Revolution that brought communists to the forethought, we passed yet another patriot-like act……..The Sedition Act of 1918…….and yet another Patriot Act, the second in our history……..

Thanx to about.com we have a look see……….

To punish unpatriotic speech during wartime. Rep. Percy Quin (D-MS), a co-sponsor of the bill, summarized its intent: “I want to curb these fellows,” he said, “who are disloyal in their hearts.” The Espionage Act of 1917, passed the previous year, had already criminalized speech that could have the effect of limiting military recruitment – but the Sedition Act broadened these penalties to include all criticism of the U.S. government. The intended targets were the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), referred to as “pernicious vermin” by Sedition Act co-sponsor Sen. Kenneth McKellar (D-TN), who tended to be both labor organizers and socialists. The language of the amendment was based on Montana’s notorious anti-sedition law, under which 79 people were convicted.

The Sedition Act amended the text of the Espionage Act of 1917 to include the following paragraphs:

Amendment to section 3 of the Espionage Act:

Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States, and whoever when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause, or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment services of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of war, and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both: Provided, That any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service.

Passage of Legislation:

The Sedition Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a 293-1 margin. The only representative to vote against it was Rep. Meyer London of New York, who was himself a member of the Socialist Party and subsequently could have been prosecuted under its provisions himself due to his political beliefs. It passed the U.S. Senate by a much closer 46-28 margin, and was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on May 16th, 1918.
There you have it….our 2nd patriot-like act…….can you imagine how many extreme twats would be in prison today if had stayed on the books……..most of the tea party and about 90% of the Right wing bloggers…….
Did our 2nd Patriot Act go too far?  Does today’s Patriot Act go far enough?
we could also say that Lincoln put into effect the second Patriot Act during the Civil War…….
On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the Constitutional privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus along the military lines from Washington to Philadelphia.  Habeas Corpus is the personal right that goes back to English common law, predating our own Constitution.   In short, the Writ says that a person being arrested must be charged with a specific crime or he/she must be released.  It is a safeguard against unlawful seizures and violation of due process.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

I. By direction of the President of the United States, it is hereby ordered that until further order no citizen liable to be drafted into the militia shall be allowed to go to a foreign country. And all marshals, deputy marshals, and military officers of the United States are directed, and all police authorities, especially at the ports of the United States on the seaboard and on the frontier, are requested, to see that this order is faithfully carried into effect. And they are hereby authorized and directed to arrest and detain any person or persons about to depart from the United States in violation of this order, and report to Major L. C. Turner, judge-advocate at Washington City, for further instructions respecting the person or persons so arrested or detained.

II. Any person liable to draft who shall absent himself from his county or State before such draft is made will be arrested by any provost-marshal or other United States or State officer, wherever he may be found within the jurisdiction of the United States, and be conveyed to the nearest military post or depot and placed on military duty for the term of the draft; and the expenses of his own arrest and conveyance to such post or depot, and also the sum of $5, as a reward to the officer who shall make such arrest, shall be deducted from his pay.

III. The writ of habeas corpus is hereby suspended in respect to all persons so arrested and detained, and in respect to all persons arrested for disloyal practices.

EDWIN M. STANTON,  Secretary of War.

Under Lincoln it was not foreign problems that he was worried about….NO it was American citizens……somethings NEVER change.

You just thought that the US was entering into virgin territory with Bush’s Patriot Act…….not so….we have a long list to times that the president acted to take away the rights of American citizens……Ain’t life Grand?

The 1st Patriot Act

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American History

The Patriot Act….now there is a term that will send most normal Americans into a frenzy…….to some it is a violation of the trust that we gave to our government and to others it is a useful tool in fighting global terrorism…….which are you?  (no need to answer…it was rhetorical).

But for those that know the term but little else let me refresh the memories of my readers…….The Patriot Act……

The USA PATRIOT Act (officially the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate
Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) was quickly developed as anti-terrorism legislation in response to the September 11 2001 attacks. The large and complex law received little Congressional oversight and debate and was signed into law by President Bush Oct. 26 2001.

PATRIOT gives sweeping search and surveillance to domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies and eliminates checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that those powers were not abused. PATRIOT and follow-up legislation now in development threaten the basic rights of millions of Americans.

Do I have your attention now?

But before that act came COINTELPRO………now there is a blast from the past……I know what the Hell is that?

COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception; however the formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971.   The FBI motivation at the time was “protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order.” Targets included groups suspected of being subversive, such as communist and socialist organizations; people suspected of building a “coalition of militant black nationalist groups” ranging from the Black Panther Party and Republic of New Africa, to “those in the non-violent civil rights movement,” such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), and other civil rights groups; “White Hate Groups” including the Ku Klux Klan and National States Rights Party; a broad range of organizations lumped together under the title “New Left” groups, including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen, almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, and even individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; and a special project seeking to undermine nationalist groups such as those “Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico.”   The directives governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI agents to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” the activities of these movements and their leaders.

Smirk if you will…those were NOT the first attempts by the government on control of the population…….ever hear of the Alien and Sedition Acts?

No protesting the government? No immigrants allowed in? No freedom of the press. Lawmakers jailed? Is this the story of the Soviet Union during the Cold War?

No. It describes the United States in 1798 after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The strong steps that Adams took in response to the French foreign threat also included severe repression of domestic protest. A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. Previously a new immigrant would have to reside in the United States for five years before becoming eligible to vote, but a new law raised this to 14 years.

Clearly, the Federalists saw foreigners as a deep threat to American security. As one Federalist in Congress declared, there was no need to “invite hordes of Wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of all the world, to come here with a basic view to distract our tranquillity.” Not coincidentally, non-English ethnic groups had been among the core supporters of the Democratic-Republicans in 1796.

The most controversial of the new laws permitting strong government control over individual actions was the Sedition Act. In essence, this Act prohibited public opposition to the government. Fines and imprisonment could be used against those who “write, print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the government.

Under the terms of this law over 20 Republican newspaper editors were arrested and some were imprisoned. The most dramatic victim of the law was Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont. His letter that criticized President Adams’ “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and self avarice” caused him to be imprisoned. While Federalists sent Lyon to prison for his opinions, his constituents reelected him to Congress even from his jail cell.

The Sedition Act clearly violated individual protections under the first amendment of the Constitution; however, the practice of “judicial review,” whereby the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of laws was not yet well developed. Furthermore, the justices were all strong Federalists. As a result, Madison and Jefferson directed their opposition to the new laws to state legislatures. The Virginia and Kentucky legislatures passed resolutions declaring the federal laws invalid within their states. The bold challenge to the federal government offered by this strong states’ rights position seemed to point toward imminent armed conflict within the United States.

Enormous changes had occurred in the explosive decade of the 1790s. Federalists in government now viewed the persistence of their party as the equivalent of the survival of the republic. This led them to enact and enforce harsh laws. Madison, who had been the chief architect of a strong central government in the Constitution, now was wary of national authority. He actually helped the Kentucky legislature to reject federal law. By placing states rights above those of the federal government, Kentucky and Virginia had established a precedent that would be used to justify the secession of southern states in the Civil War.

(thanx to ushistory.org for the breakdown above)

There you have it….our very first Patriot Act……..

The violation of anyone’s civil rights is NEVER in the interest of the nation….no matter how they try to spin it….it is just the government taking over control of our lives…..some have been warning of this for a long time…..just few were listening.

Obama To Continue Telecom Policy

In a brief filed late Wednesday obtained by Raw Story, the Department of Justice provided its views to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, after the San Francisco federal judge questioned the constitutionality of the wide-sweeping law and whether it gives the U.S. Attorney General too much power in deciding whether a company is immune from lawsuits after it has shared information with federal agents.
The law was specifically designed to protect companies who participated in government wiretapping programs from legal claims and is one that President Obama supported as a senator when it was approved by Congress last year.

“Electronic communication service providers play an important role in assisting intelligence officials in national security activities. Indeed, the intelligence community cannot obtain the intelligence it needs without assistance from these companies,” the Administration’s 18-page brief says.

“The department is compelled to defend the statute as long as it can reasonably do so, and in this case the department was asked by the court to make a defense of the statute passed by Congress,” DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement accompanying the submission of the brief. “The [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Act passed by Congress in 2008 is the law of the land, and as such the Department of Justice defends it in court.”

The Justice Department brief was filed in support of the department’s motion to Walker to dismiss or to provide summary judgment in the lawsuit against AT&T for sharing customer telephone and e-mail records with federal agencies. The constitutionality of the law is defended on the grounds that the attorney general is only carrying out powers specifically given to him by Congress.

The Department asserts that the “presumption of constitutionality becomes even stronger” when Congress delegates authority to the executive branch in matters of national security or foreign affairs.

Somethings never change…..even when change is called for.