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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sylvester80 who wrote (415012)	6/14/2003 8:08:37 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Everyone should take a deep breath and find out for themselves what the Patriot Act really does. Running around claiming the "sky is falling" and Ashcroft is the devil is a lot more fun, I know. The Basics -Applies the looser standards and more lenient search and wiretap authorities that have existed for decades in Foreign Counter Espionage cases to Foreign Counter Terrorism cases. These standards, basically longer wiretaps, searches without telling the suspect (black bag jobs) and other elements of spy world tradecraft only apply to to Foreign Counter Terrorism cases and not domestic ones. -Makes the State Department and INS keep better records on visas, immigrants and actually requires them to (gasp!) run criminal histories and record this information in central databases. Yeah, that is really shades of "Big Brother." -Allows the FBI to also enforce some immigration violations, so that when they don't have enough to arrest Joe Suspected Terrorist, but still don't feel safe around him, they can actually enforce the law about immigration status and boot him out of the country. -Gives some federal LE agencies increased authority to investigate suspected acts of terrorism against Americans overseas and to prosecute terrorists for those crimes. -Funds a bunch of 9-11 relief funds, rebuilding funds, victims funds and rewards for terrorist funds, plus the normal pork-barrel riders that you could expect from such an august, revered body as the US Congress. The only part that effects local LE was a provision that allows any LE agency to get personal data from a telecommunications service provider during an actual life-threatening emergency, like when someone calls 911 on a cell phone, but Acme Wireless won't give any customer information until Monday when they get served with a subpoena. Basically, the Patriot Act will not affect you unless you are: a) A foreign terrorist; b) A potential immigrant; c) An immigration violator; d) A victim of the 9-11 attacks, or someone who who suffered a loss during the attacks; e) A federal agent, now assigned to East Goatrope in the Republic of Kraplackistan, for CT duties. sptimes.com Graham quiet about his role on Patriot Act On the campaign trail, he isn't bringing up that he co-wrote the controversial bill in the Senate. By BILL ADAIR, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published June 14, 2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON - When Sen. Bob Graham campaigned in Iowa last weekend, at least two Democratic activists complained that the USA Patriot Act threatened civil liberties. They asked what he planned to do about it. The Florida senator replied that he was unhappy with Attorney General John Ashcroft's implementation of the antiterrorism law, but Graham neglected to mention an important fact: He co-wrote it. The controversial law puts Graham in a difficult spot. As the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he wrote sections of the bill dealing with foreign intelligence.But as a presidential candidate, he doesn't want to alienate supporters." Now, what are we supposed to get from this. Maybe laws are for show and not for "implementation". Or maybe that his supporters are from some of the above-mentioned groups. LOL

To: sylvester80 who wrote (415012)	6/15/2003 12:31:29 AM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

Let's get it on. All of these right wing gung-ho bastards have abused their positions to lie to and deceive the American people, and they deserve the worst of punishment. Never before has America attacked another sovereign country without being unprovoked. They have smeared our name for all time. And we need to get rid of a lot of the mainline lapdog media who were nothing more than cheerleaders for the Iraqi invasion. Those of us who were called traitors for being opposed to this great deception from the start should be commended for standing firm. We are the true patriotic Americans who are upholding the values embodied in our Constitution. We need to get rid of these self-serving sleazebags ASAP. They belong in prison. Del