Revising the Patriot Act
By John Amato Wednesday Oct 07, 2009 11:00amThe Obama administration has been sticking to many of the tactics Bush used in his efforts in dealing with terrorism. The FISA fiasco was telling and now we have The Patriot Act. It's not surprising that any president would like to keep the status quo when they take office if they've been handed an office that has more power over our civil liberties than ever before. Sure, Obama is not Bush or Cheney, and I doubt he'd ever act like them, but that is no justification for not reining in the Patriot Act.
Reining in the excesses of the Patriot Act (and, relatedly, of ever-expanding eavesdropping powers) has long been a top agenda item for civil liberties groups -- and, at least so they claimed, for Democrats generally. In fact, when Obama voted for the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 last year in the middle of the campaign, he emphatically vowed that he would "fix" the problems with the FISA framework. But right as these reforms are finally being considered, the administration seizes on the Zazi case to insist that no such changes should be made:
At the same time, the Obama administration is pressing Congress to move swiftly to reauthorize three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire in late December. They include the use of "roving wiretaps" to track movement, e-mail and phone communications, a tool that federal officials used in the weeks leading up to Zazi's arrest. . . .
"The Zazi case was the first test of this administration being able to successfully uncover and deal with this type of threat in the United States," a senior administration official said. "It demonstrated that we were able to successfully neutralize this threat, and to have insight into it, with existing statutory authorities, with the system as it currently operates."
So the Obama administration has its first allegedly big Terrorism case, and they can hardly contain themselves as they exploit it to justify a continuation of the very Patriot Act and FISA powers which Democrats (and, in the case of FISA, Obama himself) long claimed to oppose. Indeed, key Obama ally Dianne Feinstein has worked diligently in the Senate not just to block Patriot Act reforms, but to make the law even worse, and has repeatedly cited the Zazi case to justify that.
Glenn posted the above video from Julian Sanchez, who destroys the FOX Noise fearmongering arguments of why we just have to have FISA and TPA.
Cato's Julian Sanchez examines -- and absolutely destroys -- the fear-mongering claims from Fox News about efforts to reform the Patriot Act and FISA, with a particular focus on Fox's efforts to use the Zazi plot to justify the need for these powers
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any Brush to clear back in Chicargo? :)
(ducks and runs)
BE AFRAID!
FEAR! FEAR! FEAR! FEAR!
TERRORISTS ARE COMING TO GET YOU!
FLEE! FLEE!
Oh Nos! Quick - give up your freedoms! give up your morals! give up your bank accounts! just give up your country because republicans hate America anyway.
Give up your voting rights and your First Amendment rights!
... more than one person will read it.
to stuff like this. You'd assume they would be more popular among the crowd writing this stuff.
Now I have my answer. The government planned to prop this case up in order to hide behind it as justification for undermining Constitutional Rights in this country.
warrant. And they take such a long time. It takes 2 to 3 minutes to fill in the blanks of a pre-made form, and then 2 to 3 minutes to have a judge sign it. The horror of having to do it legally.
JUST AT THE INSTANT there were the beginnings of an effort to reform the (soi disant) PATRIOT ACT.
Just fucking stunned.
I thought, this MUST certainly be a coincidence... Surely, the Pope of Hope would NEVER manipulate the public fear level so blatantly, to achieve such a spurious "political" end as preventing reform HE promised, would he?
I cannot believe that this guy works for the Cato Inst., unless he is just doing this on his own time, with the video being shot in what seem like a frat living room (speaker, mini-guitar, checkerboard...).
Nonetheless, he does tear Faux a new one, if they had one in the first place.
... is a Libertarian think tank. The Patriot Act, with all its power to invade our privacy isn't very popular with Libertarians either.
For a while Cato was content to allow their qualms about TPA to go unspoken, preferring to side with the Bush Administration on most of their conservative agenda. Now, however, with a "Liberal" in the White House, they apparently feel more inclined to give voice to their concerns about our lost civil liberties and Fox News' propaganda campaign to justify further encroachment.
Just like how the teabaggers waited exactly until Bush was out of office to freak out about "out of hand government spending."
There are a lot of reasons why the Patriot Act is a bad piece of legislation. It is just that the people at Cato are not the ones to bring that up since they were silent when Bush did it.
I think is nothing but a lame attempt at placing the blame squarely on Obama (he shares part of the blame if he continues this legislation BTW) and try to divert attention from the fact that their boy Bush was the responsible party for this crap.
That being said, I have noticed an increase in "independent conservatives" now that "republican" is such a bad word.
(1) I did it on a whim late at night in my apartment. Obviously, I should tidy up next time first but geez, frat house? It's a reasonably nice place, I just left some movies and a Rock Band controller out.
(2) This is not particularly fair to Cato. They were (and are) vocal opponents of the Iraq War, torture, PATRIOT surveillance authorities, and a lot of other Bush expansions of executive power. Don't take my word for it; go to their site and pull up the "National Security" tab under "Research Areas." They were criticizing this stuff earlier and more forcefully than a lot of Democrats in Congress.
(3) That said, foreign intelligence surveillance law is a narrow and complicated area, and I don't know that they necessarily had anyone who focused *primarily* on that before I came on last month. But this is not about who's in the White House. I've been writing about the problems with post-9/11 surveillance for something like 7 years now. Pull up my archives at Ars Technica or Reason. This is not an issue I started caring about when we elected a Democrat.
As with Fox, two minutes with Google would have revealed these facts... though at least nobody here is pretending to be a journalist.
Probably something that you and yours on that side of the political spectrum think about some of us on this side, too.
I'll admit to having made note of Cato's stand concerning the Patriot Act, but I haven't made it a priority to share my observations.
BTW, this suggestion: If you don't want your domicile mistaken for a frat house, throw down a rug. You're going to be forced into it eventually anyway, seeing that Obama is going to pass a law requiring us all to do so anyway. ;-)
This is change we can believe in?
I just thought I would say that and get it out of the way before someone else felt the mandatory desire to say it. Now it's already been said so others will have to find something new to say.
the Pope of Hope expressly promised his supporters during BOTH the primary and the general election campaigns.
So, whassamatta, PoP? Ain't this believable enough fer ya?
Yes Ir
We Can!... if we'd had USA PATRIOT in place before 9/11, we could have prevented horrible, terrible things like Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech, or the rights marches!
We could have fought Communism! Prevented Pearl Harbor! Exposed the Emancipation Proclamation for the socialist claptrap it was!
/snark
Patriot act wouldn't have gone over too well during the revolution.
And cured acne
right, I would think that BHO and Congress would have committees working full time to reverse the errors, crimes, and downright greedy stupidity done during that administration. But, nooooo! No backpedaling allowed. Onward until there is full corporate control. Patriot Act? No wonder there have been no further terrorist acts here. The rest of the world is laughing at us so hard, they can't move, much less attack.
this mess would have been to do exactly the opposite of every Bush policy. Given his reverse midas touch, doing the opposite would certainly yield copious amounts of aurum ore.
... let's also get this out of the way:
"He has been just n-months in office" (where n=8)
if that does not work, then something about chess or a white pony.
It is also time for new excuses.
He lied. About a lot of stuff. SNL had it exactly right.
I think he is getting some unreasonable resistance to that change that we all believe in. Lie is something that Bushies do.
Power does not relinquish itself voluntarily.
First, it should be recognized that the Executive Branch of government is a big organization. Unlike the other two Branches, it alone has a figure head – the President. But because it is so big, the President must delegate most power and administration duties to subordinates. Rarely does a President know everything that’s going on in “his” administration.
But here is the problem. Who to pick as subordinates. Who to listen to. Who to give free reign, and who to reign in. My gut reaction is that Obama has not chosen wisely. This isn’t necessarily a permanent situation, but neither is it an excuse. Bad decisions are being made.
This is also not unusual in a first-term President. Kennedy had the same problems. I’ve recently gained a grudging respect for the Johnson administration for how quickly he got up to speed and accomplish much so quickly (for better or worse).
Too soon to tell, but the story of the early Obama presidency may be defined by two big mistakes: trying to negotiate with incalcitrant Repubs in Congress, and bad choices as subordinates.
people in place.
Not that I disagree, but if you're referring to prosecution, that is up to the DOJ. If the head of the DOJ doesn't act its a subordinate issue again. Nixon got into some trouble trying to improperly influence Dept of Justice.
to get in trouble for trying to do the wrong thing, than it is for trying to do the right thing. Morally they seem to be worlds apart.
BUILDING on the Bush work, not correcting it. Holder is the chief prosecutor for the administration. I look to and rely on him. Get it up, Mr. Holder!
The PATRIOT ACT (The son of the German WWII's Enabling Act)was designed to spy on Folks like Daniel Sunjata:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB3gwgBVUyw&fe...
and reporters as SY.HERST
The President wants to be liked by everybody, and he thought all he had to do was talk reason. The Republican Party cannot be reasoned with because it is a mindset which is full of hatred. The best way to handle them is to scare the shit out of them. It's time to treat them like nails and hammer away.
I'm sorry your husband is still beating you, but it's your fault and you need to deal with it.
the past, to better face the slaps of the future ;-)
The most patriotic thing you could do with the patriot act is to get rid of it.
Why would we want to revise it? Get rid of the whole blessed thing! Then, we'll talk about what really needs to be done.
Love the nod to "The Prisoner" at the end...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TfdA9fWb_g
The Republicans are crashing and burning - put on your flack jackets - a cornered animal can be very dangerous and destructive.
You would have thought that the Bush administration would have thought this one through. (Kidding) They managed to give the President unprecedented power without realizing that the next president will also have these powers. Sucks to be them. The uppity so and so is in charge now and apparently he intends to abuse those powers with the same gusto that Bush did.
I don't care who I piss off but Obama is sucking on so many levels. What a disappointment. Status quo you can believe in.
... I am an eternal optimist, so I have to look for the silver lining somewhere ;-)
True. It's just all the "hope" seems misplaced and it depresses me. It pisses me off that Bush is allowed to ride off into the sunset with absolutely no consequences to face for his actions.
Oh well, I'm an optimist as well. There will be a silver lining.
rather than actual ideologues. I always told people that a "pragmatist" is a bad thing when it comes to politics, because politics by definition implies ideology. And thus, it is no wonder why many of us have absolutely no clue where Obama stands and what is he for or against, and in order to cope with this ideological void... many people simply projected their political leanings/ideologies/hopes on to the guy. And I think some of the freak out we are seeing is by people who are now realizing that fact and figure it is easier to cope by blaming him rather than their projection. I think it is probably one of the stages of coping.
That being said, I think Obama has done a relatively good job in stabilizing the economy from its previous tailspin. Far from ideal situation I know, but also far from the complete and utter disaster that another GOP administration would have been in that regard.
You're not alone, marcellajoy. So much for all that "hope".
I'm an optimist, though. I have to be. It saves my sanity.
"Sure, Obama is not Bush or Cheney, and I doubt he'd ever act like them, but that is no justification for not reining in the Patriot Act."
so tell me how is he not like bush and dick? what has really changed? lets see... still in 2 wars, still have rendition, illegal wiretaps, bale outs for wall street and the banks instead of for the people who would have really put money back into the system. you know, you need to take care of the people who caused this mess and not "CHANGE" anything so they can set it up to happen all over again. that's right another bale out is coming for our corporate "CAPITALIST" system while the same action for the masses would be... welfare? ahhhh oh yeah, let us not forget that public option health care, but he was never for it so why would it be in the plan anyway. i lost faith in this man long before the election when he went back on his pledge of not voting for the telecommunication immunity bill. so happy i did not throw away my vote giving it to "O" but rather gave it to the real man of the people Nader!
You certainly aren't pissing me off when you realize that O-bought-ma is just a black-faced Bush, and his 'choice?' of Rahmie is also smelly with the brother 'advising' on Healthcare??? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzze!!!! I'd have to work hard to get that stoooooooooooooooooopid!
The bushies are crashing and burning. their failures and their embarrassment has completely consumed them. There is no room left for politics if they wanted - the bushies have too many law suits to deal with to think about anything else but the bushies - bushies first, country second.
Bush is right now relaxing and laughing his ass off. Probably trying to decide which one of the twins they are going to unleash on us in the next couple electoral cycles, when the mess is clean and they get to suck us dry again.
Republicans couldn't legislate their way out of a wet paper bag.
They gave that gig up years ago. Good luck trying to run the country again - we know what would happen now... Even rich people can appreciate this if they're smart.
BTW - the bushies are not just the Busch family proper but a whole inner ring within the walls of government. They've been screwing with the country and slowing it down for decades. there are other inner circles that work counter to democracy too, including the recently revealed C-Street cult.
Terrorists coming back again ? Hell , i just crawled out from under the chesterfield from last alert. Frankly , im scared shitless. I think they need a new boogeyman. The terrorist bullshit is getting kinda old. Statistically , i still have 6 lightning strikes to endure before i would be in high probability zone of getting killed by terrorism. I wait...
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