Posted on 01/16/2004 4:55:05 PM PST by Federalist 78
Bingo. Spot on again, Byron.
BUT...
Your comment about Bush being the best thing conservatives have going for them? And that one can at least hope that Bush'll come around? Fat chance. Lookit PATRIOT II. Lookit the Prescription Drug, "Improvement" and "Modernization" Act of 2003. The first tears up the Constitution; the second is little more than a whomping huge love letter to big pharma and the insurance industries, paid for by our tax dollars. Despicable, all of it.
I shudder to think what a future Dem administration will do with a weapon like the PATRIOT Act.
R.J. Rummel made the following comment in a speech given to the ABA National Security Conference on "The Rule of Law in United States Foreign Policy and the New World Order. Washington, D.C., October 10-11, 1991:
Today, we can extend the idea of peace through democracy to cover freedom from government genocide and mass murder. But to do so requires overcoming incredible mass ignorance even about the megamurders for which authoritarian and totalitarian governments have been responsible.
Indeed, they are looney enough to try what many communists have. We have an Amendment that hasn't kept pace with the times. Nevertheless, should a situation similar to Tiananmen Square, 1989: The Declassified History occur here, there are enough citizens who own & are capable of bearing the tools necessary to produce a dissimilar outcome. Many members of the armed federal agencies & military would object to enforcing martial law. Others, who wouldn't give a rip about the Constitution, would have to face fellow federal agents and military personnel, along with several million armed citizens and probably most local police who would resist martial law.
Law review article, explaining the need to keep pace with the intent of that amendment:
The Revolutionary Second Amendment
End the voice votes
Then they might be asked what it was they voted for?
those who supposedly represent us have developed an unnerving tendency to approve and vote for legislation that they do not study carefully.
You may well be right, bud. Note I used the word, 'hope.'
I know it's a silly fantasy and ridiculously presumptuous but you know what I'd do if I was a good mate of the President's, now? Urge him to take a break, out in the mountains. Not three hours bass fishing or a morning's quail hunting and photo op, but a week or ten days, after elk or something. Out in the hills all day, no phones, going to sleep physically exhausted every night. Sitting around the camp fire with a very few trusted friends, no 'advisors', and staring into the embers. Just thinking about what the important things are, and what he wants his legacy to be. It is that kind of insistence on wilderness contemplation that made good presidents great. Theodore Roosevelt springs to mind. I still have hope for this president, not least because of his Christian commitments, but I reckon he needs to step off the treadmill for a moment and take stock of where's he's going on the big issues.
SEC. 374. MODIFICATION TO DEFINITION OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IN RIGHT TO FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT.
(a) MODIFICATION OF DEFINITION- Section 1114 of the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3414) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(d) For purposes of this section, and sections 1115 and 1117 insofar as they relate to the operation of this section, the term `financial institution' has the same meaning as in subsections (a)(2) and (c)(1) of section 5312 of title 31, United States Code, except that, for purposes of this section, such term shall include only such a financial institution any part of which is located inside any State or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the United States Virgin Islands.'.
(b) CROSS REFERENCE MODIFICATION- Section 1101(1) of such Act (12 U.S.C. 3401(1)) is amended by inserting `, except as provided in section 1114,' before `means any office'.
This is about the most honest editorial opposing the law I've seen, though the "stealth" argument is very weak since the president publically asked for this in a speech and it was debated and known about all along.
Yep. Your assumption of innocence is gone, your right to be secure 'in your papers' is about to go, and everyone is smeared with collectivist suspicion as a potential terrorist. Bin Laden must be laughing his head off, in a cave somewhere, as he watches Americans wave goodbye to the rights which have secured their freedom and prosperity.
Years ago here we used to have these FR posters who would warn against all sorts of supposedly imagined fears. They'd talk about black helicopters, internment camps, human microchipping, that kind of thing. And a bunch of posters would torment them daily with references to tinfoil, or whatever. Well, the black helicopters came true. The internment camp at Gitmo came true, even though- at this point- it's mostly used for foreign suspected enemies. Microchipping came true, too. I'm going to make my own little tinfoil prediction- that not too long in the future US citizens will ask to wear a biometric chip. Because a lot of people will be like you, furious about the hassles involved in flying, but they'll have to fly, for reasons of work or distance. They'll talk themselves around- 'tagging saves me a lot of hassle', 'it's not so bad', and the old Stasi classic, 'I haven't done anything wrong, so I've got nothing to fear.'
Section 3414. Special procedures
(a)(1) Nothing in this chapter (except sections 3415, 3417, 3418, and 3421 (FOOTNOTE 1) of this title) shall apply to the production and disclosure of financial records pursuant to requests from - (FOOTNOTE 1) See References in Text note below.
(A) a Government authority authorized to conduct foreign counter- or foreign positive-intelligence activities for purposes of conducting such activities;
(B) the Secret Service for the purpose of conducting its protective functions (18 U.S.C. 3056; 3 U.S.C. 202, Public Law 90-331, as amended); or
(C) a Government authority authorized to conduct investigations of, or intelligence or counterintelligence analyses related to, international terrorism for the purpose of conducting such investigations or analyses.
(2) In the instances specified in paragraph (1), the Government authority shall submit to the financial institution the certificate required in section 3403(b) of this title signed by a supervisory official of a rank designated by the head of the Government authority.
(3) No financial institution, or officer, employee, or agent of such institution, shall disclose to any person that a Government authority described in paragraph (1) has sought or obtained access to a customer's financial records.
(4) The Government authority specified in paragraph (1) shall compile an annual tabulation of the occasions in which this section was used.
(5)(A) Financial institutions, and officers, employees, and agents thereof, shall comply with a request for a customer's or entity's financial records made pursuant to this subsection by the Federal Bureau of Investigation when the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (or the Director's designee in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge in a Bureau field office designated by the Director) certifies in writing to the financial institution that such records are sought for foreign counter intelligence (FOOTNOTE 2) purposes to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. (FOOTNOTE 2) So in original. Probably should be ''counterintelligence''.
(B) The Federal Bureau of Investigation may disseminate information obtained pursuant to this paragraph only as provided in guidelines approved by the Attorney General for foreign intelligence collection and foreign counterintelligence investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and, with respect to dissemination to an agency of the United States, only if such information is clearly relevant to the authorized responsibilities of such agency.
(C) On a semiannual basis the Attorney General shall fully inform the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate concerning all requests made pursuant to this paragraph.
(D) No financial institution, or officer, employee, or agent of such institution, shall disclose to any person that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained access to a customer's or entity's financial records under this paragraph.
(b)(1) Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit a Government authority from obtaining financial records from a financial institution if the Government authority determines that delay in obtaining access to such records would create imminent danger of -
(A) physical injury to any person;
(B) serious property damage; or
(C) flight to avoid prosecution.
(2) In the instances specified in paragraph (1), the Government shall submit to the financial institution the certificate required in section 3403(b) of this title signed by a supervisory official of a rank designated by the head of the Government authority.
(3) Within five days of obtaining access to financial records under this subsection, the Government authority shall file with the appropriate court a signed, sworn statement of a supervisory official of a rank designated by the head of the Government authority setting forth the grounds for the emergency access. The Government authority shall thereafter comply with the notice provisions of section 3409(c) of this title.
(4) The Government authority specified in paragraph (1) shall compile an annual tabulation of the occasions in which this section was used.
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