Posted on 03/07/2003 10:14:33 PM PST by Commie Basher
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: March 6, 2003
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For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone 202) 333-0008
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
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Sequel to USA Patriot Act is every tyrant's dream, Libertarians say.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Here's great news for everyone who supported the USA Patriot Act, Libertarians say: The Justice Department has secretly drafted follow-up legislation that would allow the government to make secret arrests, create a vast new DNA database of "suspected terrorists" and even strip Americans of their citizenship and deport them.
"If you liked the Patriot Act, you're going to love the sequel," said George Getz, Libertarian Party communications director. "Patriot II offers awesome government power, rapidly disappearing freedom, and an action-packed war on the Constitution. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat as your liberties are stripped away."
The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (DSEA) – dubbed "Patriot II" because of its similarities to the USA Patriot Act – was secretly written by the Justice Department in January and has not yet been introduced in Congress. A draft of the legislation was leaked recently to the Center for Public Integrity and posted on its website.
"The original Patriot Act got rave reviews from authoritarians everywhere," Getz noted. "Rogue FBI agents conducting 'sneak-and-peak searches,' an e-mail spy scheme named Carnivore, secret deportations – this legislation was every petty tyrant's dream.
"It opened to a packed House – and Senate – in October 2001 and got a nearly unanimous 'thumbs up.' Clearly there's a market out there for less freedom, and Washington is rushing to cash in with a sequel."
The plot for Patriot II: A group of unscrupulous politicians in a large, Western democracy capitalize on a terrorist attack in order to vastly expand their powers. They embark on an effort to convince their subjects that by surrendering their freedom they will be protected from terrorists and other criminals.
Working along with a "Department of Justice," they subvert the Constitution by secretly crafting legislation that allows the government to:
* Make secret arrests, overturning a federal court decision requiring the government to identify persons detained in the 9/11 investigation.
* Issue secret subpoenas, and jail people who reveal to anyone except their attorney that they are the subject of a secret investigation.
* Strip citizens of their citizenship for associating with a group designated by the attorney general as a "terrorist organization," even if the individual's conduct is legal.
* Allow the attorney general to deport any foreigner, even a permanent legal resident, whose presence he deems "inconsistent with national security."
* Create a database of DNA collected from "suspected terrorists" and from non-citizens suspected of ordinary crimes.
* Conduct a wiretap for 15 days without a judge's approval, and monitor an individual's Internet and chat room visits for 48 hours without a court order.
* Overturn local court decrees that restrict police from illegal spying.
* Weaken the Freedom of Information Act to prevent journalists from learning who is being held in police custody.
Though Patriot II is expected to be a hit with politicians and much of the public, not everyone will be buying a ticket, Getz predicted.
"Libertarians and other freedom-loving Americans have panned Patriot II for obvious reasons," he said. "It's burdened by the same clichéd cast of characters as the original – a devious attorney general, an opportunistic president, and pandering politicians who hoodwink people into surrendering their freedom.
"Will anyone fall for this story line a second time?"
What's wrong with us NOT fighting in WW II, because a pack of Libertarians don't think that wars should be fought ? If you're being serious, then you need a crash course in WW II histiry, dear.
With all due respect, I think your dislike of the Libertarians got the best of you on this one. Are you really prepared to claim that all of those pilots that have been clamoring for arming pilots are knee-jerkers and bunker kooks ?
Even Superman wouldn't have been able to foresee and prevent at least four separate hijackings, all on the same day, all unexpectedly, all employing a devastating new type of attack
Umm, the part about commandeering airliners by gaining access to the cockpits is hardly new. IMO, what certainly could have defeated the terrorists in question would have been secure cockpit doors, something the airline industry refused to spend the money on and the incompetent sycophants in the FAA refused to require. The airlines didn't have a problem wiring thousands and thousands of seats with those [expletive deleted] LCD spam screens but they couldn't afford to hook up a $49 webcam so the pilots could see what was happening in the passenger compartment? If the FAA didn't deliberately ignore common sense for 25 years after the initial spate of hijackings because somebody told them to, if they weren't jumping up and down demanding Congressional hearings on the subject to force the ever-whining airlines to secure their cockpits, how else can anybody describe them but as incompetent? And frankly, I have very little tolerance for the @#$%ups responsible for this. Whether it's Congress, the FAA, or the cheezers in charge of the airlines who smugly sit silent when the cash registers are chiming non-stop from coast to coast but immediately start whining like stuck pigs the instant there's a predictable downturn in business, in this case, "everybody makes mistakes" doesn't cut it - and that's giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I've heard a lot of whining for public money, I heard a lot of "let's form a Blue Ribbon Panel to study this," I heard a lot of "we need a corps of Federalized Mongoloids to feel up little old ladies," but I haven't heard a lot of heads rolling down the hallways of government and industry for miserably failing to do their jobs.
I applaud the efforts of those in government that are doing something effective to see that this type of thing doesn't happen again but I have yet to see any of the screwups held responsible.
Increasing freedom enables citizens to defend themselves, making it less likely that those terrorists will be able to blow your head off.
I think for the sake of safety... enjoyed... freedom... will be restricted for our future.
You then "wish" that we could go back, further admitting "it probably will never be in our life time." But if we do return to a state of freedom we had before, "then we will have homicide bombers or worse."
So what is your solution?
The ONLY way you stop all that is with vigilance. That kind of vigilance restricts the previous freedoms we had....
At the start of this war, the President assured us that he would fight, and not let the freedom hater destroy our freedom. But the calls for surrender by people like you, has resulted in just that kind of surrender, incrementally.
Had just a few of the citizen passangers and crews on those planes been armed in the first place, the hijack could never have happened. Increasing the freedoms of our citizens, would put such kinds of terrorism to a quick end.
Freedom works.
You're a pretty pathetic f---ing excuse for an American. You should go back and re-read the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution...
Please post for me each and every spot in the Declaration and the US Constitution referring to a right to "privacy".
Oh, you've already done so?... Case closed.
Historical points... during every war, the government (Federal, state, and local ) have ALWAYS made certain restrictions upon the actions of our citizenry. Heck, they made them, when we weren't even an united nation; just a bunch of colonies fighting to BE a nation.
WWI and WWII's restrictions were more invasive and difficult, than the ones during the Korean conflict. There were almost none, during the Cuban Missle Crisis, Viet Nam, and later skirmishes. Since the vast majority of FR's Libertarians didn't live through those times and others have either bad memories, or forget what doesn't suit their agendas, it needs repeatings. That those who write / talk for the Libertarian positions choose to totally IGNORE facts, from previous wartime eras, says quite a lot about the value ( usually the lack thereof ! ) of their position and emotional ravings.
Instead of continually quoting Spoonmer, so that they can refight and rerefight and rererefight the Civil War, here, it would be far better, to remember what deprivations, stricter laws, and less freedoms wars have ALWAYS placed upon the deizens of this nation. Yes, some complained, some ran black markets, others were indeed traitors ; however, we are not now less free because of what people were made to do, or not allowed to do. WE ARE MORE FREE AND WE ARE LIVE !
When you grow up, manage to become educated, then and ONLY then, come back and attempt to discuss anything here. It is patently obvious, that you are abjectly lacking in the ability to debate, don't know anything, at all, about Nazis, history, or anything else. It's just name calling and emotion with people like you.
Then we have:
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To: Commie Basher
I guess Usama is actually wining. Stick a fork in us we are done.
2 posted on 03/07/2003 10:17 PM PST by Agent Smith
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To: Commie Basher
"If you liked the Patriot Act, you're going to love the sequel," said George Getz, Libertarian Party communications director.
"communications director" - the guy who managed to scrape together enough to pay his phone bill this month?
3 posted on 03/07/2003 10:22 PM PST by strela ("Stop singing and finish your homework!")
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Then a continuous the line of similar arguments all the way to post 93, where AFPhys rambles about others "ignoring history" and who "want to simply cover up their head with a pillow." AFPhys further fantasizing that those who do not agree, are those "who resist common sense measures in the name of their "Libertarian Utopia," what ever that is.
I guess that is what you call an "ability to debate."
Then along you come in #94, seconding the ravings expressed in 93, further adding your own special flavor of fantasy about the age, education, and a your own mystical incite into the thought processes those who you obviously know nothing about.
And now you suggest that "It's just name calling and emotion with people like you."
Not bad.
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