(no subject)

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Last year, the Democrat-controlled Congress quietly slipped through a one-year extension to the PATRIOT Act, with little opposition which was later signed by President Obama.

This year, Congress intends to renew three controversial provisions of this Act, and due to legislation introduced by Representative Mike Rogers [MI-8] (H.R. 67) and Senator Patrick Leahy [VT] (S. 193), the pieces are in place to extend them for another year. On Thursday, February 3, at 10AM, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on Senator Leahy's bill.

The three provisions set to expire are the "roving wiretap" provision, which allows the government to conduct surveillance without specifying person or place being wiretapped; the "library records" provision that allows the government to collect "any tangible thing" during an investigation; and the "lone wolf" provision, which targets "non-US" persons unaffiliated with terrorists.

[Poll #1675820]


I think this is crap. I was against the PATRIOT Act when it was first passed and I'm against it now.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I find it really interesting that both this and civil liberties ceased to matter among a great deal of the Democratic rank and file once the Executive switched parties. There's people who criticize it still, sure, but the vast majority stopped giving a shit about the Imperial Presidency 20 January 2009 and will only give a shit if a Republican takes office 20 January 2013. If Obama's re-elected only if a Republican takes office 20 January 2017.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I find it pathetic and infuriating.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Odd that we're agreeing but yes.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

It's disgusting, but it doesn't surprise me. The rank and file of both parties are capricious and self-serving and would pretty much sell their own grandmothers. It's why I quit the GOP in 2003 and why I can't join the Democrats, either.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately by my experience of myself, "Screw you guys" is not itself enough to motivate something for very long. And while I'm dissatisfied with what everyone else offers I'm self-aware enough to know that my personal views are pretty much not that much a better option. It's a bastard because I'm too aware to know that and too ornery-er honest-to be a partisan hack.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

The test of any law is "If your worstenemy was the one enforcing it, Would you still approve?".

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That's too commonsensical for most people to adopt, unfortunately. :-(.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

It's hard to figure out who to hate more: the politicians who do it, or the blindly partisan supporters who buy into it.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Purdy mooch.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I think this demonstrates, as if we need further demonstration, that the Democratic hyperventilating over George W. Bush's policies was entirely in bad faith. In short, libertarians and leftists were played for suckers by a cynics who always knew that, had Al Gore won in 2000, he would have done no differently.

[caerfrli.livejournal.com]

Al Gore did win in 2000. Had a real Democrat been elected anytime in the last 40 years we'd all have been better off.

[hey-its-michael.livejournal.com]

You don't consider Carter a real Democrat?

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I keep hoping he wasn't real at all.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Keep hoping he was a man behind the curtain, eh?

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking those four years were a figment of my imagination.
Not to mention my comment whenever he pops up in the news "Oh no, he can't be for real" (true story bro)

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

I think he was really stoned.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Sorry, we're not all living in your fantasy world.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

He did win the popular vote when all of Florida's votes were counted. Had he asked for this he would in fact have been considered the victor. He asked for counties to be recounted that George Bush won and thus lost. That scale of fuckwittery frankly deserves to lose.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

This.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To me he should have asked for the recount of all of Florida. Asking for specific counties is very, very risky. Even if he had won thus it's a perfect propaganda opportunity for the Republican Party as "the Democrats don't want *all* of your votes to count" (which given their real-life propaganda probably understates some of it). Of course this was Al Gore and he self-destructed, so......yeah.

[dierdrae.livejournal.com]

I am really angry about this. I'm angry at both the rank-and-file and at Obama. I feel like their hypocrisy isn't even the important part- all politicians are hypocritical at some point, really. It might as well be included in the definition. What angers me most is what's always angered me about it, the institutionalization of a complete disregard for our civil liberties and rights. And the fact that this was extended with relatively little fanfare in the press, as far as I can recall, is just another nail in the fail coffin.

Edit: To clarify, I AM angry about the hypocrisy, and it's been a difficult lesson over the past couple of years in why everyone is so cynical about politics and our current parties. I'm just MORE angry about the Act itself.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Exactly, the press is complicit in this instead of helping guard us as we expect them to.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-wanderer-/]

Yes. The hypocrisy is outrageous.

[kawaiimamimi.livejournal.com]

It's absolutely disgusting.

Also, what if I like both purple and green?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Then you check "I like Purple" and do not check "I hate green".

Simple really.

Though it does raise some interesting questions about poll questions influencing results.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Then we end up with some kind of dark blue greyish thing, and I will not stand for that in MY country! PISTOLS AT DAWN!!!!!!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I was giving the administration a lengthy grace period on the assumption that a dismantling of the security overreach post-911 would take careful review and consideration of what is actually necessary and compatible with civil rights and what cannot possibly be justified.

Two years in and that "grace" period is narrower than tracing paper. My biggest complaint about Obama -- either a cynical play for civil libertarian voters from a candidate who did not really oppose the measures or a cowardly play to avoid being beaten up as "soft on security" in the 2012 election campaign.

Neither is acceptable.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

It should never have been passed in the first place. I was against it when Bush did it (and it was a large part of the reason I voted for Kerry and Obama) and I'm against it now.

With regards to the outcry against it, well, as someone said above, libertarians and leftists were played for suckers. I was one of them. :(

[dwer.livejournal.com]

This is a big part of why I didn't vote for Obama the first time (he not only failed to filibuster the FISA bill, he voted FOR it) and it's why I won't vote for him the second time.