The USA Patriot Act

[kasia]

http://www.immigrationforum.org/documents/TheDebate/DueProcessPost911/CLRAstories.pdf


click on the link to see a compliation of stories about the civil rights violations of South Asians, Muslims, etc. by our government authorized by the usa patriot act.

[Yeahman]

You mean...
The Patriot Act: What Kerry and Edwards allowed.

[kitty]

... and bush's administration wrote. no one comes off clean here.

[VV o n g B a]

You mean...
The Patriot Act: What Kerry and Edwards allowed.while that's true, the way it was brought to the floor didn't allow most of the senators to even read the bill. many said afterwards that if they had time to carefully read the bill they wouldn't have voted for it w/o significant changes. in any case, kerry and edwards want changes to water down the bill now while ashcroft wants to strengthen it.

[Yeahman]

while that's true, the way it was brought to the floor didn't allow most of the senators to even read the bill. many said afterwards that if they had time to carefully read the bill they wouldn't have voted for it w/o significant changes. in any case, kerry and edwards want changes to water down the bill now while ashcroft wants to strengthen it.
Senators don't read bills, period.
The current Kerry and Edwards position is that the Patriot Act was necessary and that they did the right thing for voting for it but that there were abuses.

[lethal]

The USA Patroit Act, written by Assistant US Attorney General and current Georgetown Law School Professor Viet Dinh, Vietnamese American.

Whether that's a source of shame or a source of pride is up to the individual reader.

[hooligan]

Senators don't read bills, period.
The current Kerry and Edwards position is that the Patriot Act was necessary and that they did the right thing for voting for it but that there were abuses.

i heard some place that the patriot act that everyone going to vote for was changed, altered by this administration right before everyone voted on it. the previous edition did not contain many of the problems that we discuss in the patriot act now, but it was alleged that they were added on by the bush administration. (too much fahrenheit 9/11)

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=143236

Here's an anecdote about being affected by the patriot act as a south asian. peace.

http://www.alternet.org/story/15770

[SunWuKong]

what does it actually matter that Kerry and Edwards voted for the Patriot Act? do we have to be madly in love with them in order to vote for them? hell, i'm only voting for them because i don't like Bush.

[hooligan]

Senators don't read bills, period.
The current Kerry and Edwards position is that the Patriot Act was necessary and that they did the right thing for voting for it but that there were abuses.

right, now how does this affect the south asian, middle eastern communities living in the US? how does this affect APIAs in general?

[ChinaLama]

while that's true, the way it was brought to the floor didn't allow most of the senators to even read the bill. many said afterwards that if they had time to carefully read the bill they wouldn't have voted for it w/o significant changes. in any case, kerry and edwards want changes to water down the bill now while ashcroft wants to strengthen it.

i don't think that's a valid reason. sure they're busy and don't have the time to read every bill, but i don't think they can shrug off responsibility of their vote for it by saying "we didn't read it."

[hooligan]

i don't think that's a valid reason. sure they're busy and don't have the time to read every bill, but i don't think they can shrug off responsibility of their vote for it by saying "we didn't read it."

especially after it suspended and took away SO many civil liberties that as citizens, we're entitled to.

[kitty]

agreed. i think the 'we don't have time to read bills' defense is weak.

however, i applaud kerry and edwards for wanting to alter the bill so it doesn't remove so many civil liberties, even if i don't approve of passing something you didn't read. if nothing else, it's bad for your political career to not know what you're putting your name behind.

[VV o n g B a]

i don't think that's a valid reason. sure they're busy and don't have the time to read every bill, but i don't think they can shrug off responsibility of their vote for it by saying "we didn't read it."okay, let me me reword my previous statement. kerry and edwards themselves didn't say that they didn't get to finish reading the entire bill. it was other senators that now regret passing the bill. apparently only one or two senators did get finished reading the bill and they were trying to get that across in the debate before the bill and it they just didn't have enuf time.

that doesn't absolve them of responsibility of voting for it but if they are talking now about rolling back pieces of the bill, then i'm all for it. and i'm all against what ashcroft wants to do which is to strengthen it. it seems like a very simple idea to me. i don't understand why ppl are trying to pin all the responsibilty on kerry and edwards. hell, 98 senators voted this thing for passage. there's not a single person to blame for this bill.

[hooligan]

I've been doing a lot of reading on this topic and apparently what the USA Patriot Act I and II tries to do is erode Civil Rights for security. Amazingly, with the paranoia and fear that followed 9/11 people didn't mind sacrificing Civil Rights for their supposed security.

What's ironic is that the powers that the USA Patriot Act I and II gives the government are not used to fight terrorism. What it does promote is the government's ability to tread on our bill of rights as well as being able to spy on anyone, anywhere, using almost anything.

The government can investigate anyone without consulting and okay-ing the process in court. All they're required to do is stipulate that the survellainace that they're putting you under is based on the on-going fight against terrorism.

They're allowed to see the websites you visited, the books you've checked out, and even your credit records and things you buy. All without the checks and balance process that law enforcement has to go through to be able to do these things pre-patriot act.

We need to fight this ridiculous law and the administration that backs this stupid erosion on our liberties. What's ironic is that pre-9/11 had the administration and the law enforcement agencies practiced what worked before to stop terrorism, a lot of people believe that 9/11 could have easily been prevented.

cliff notes: stop the patriot acts.