The Patriot Act and the Quiet Death of the US Bill of Rights

The Patriot Act and the Quiet Death of the US Bill of Rights

by Zack Kaldveer

With the stroke of an autopen from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the once articulate critic of the Patriot Act signed a four year extension of the most dangerous assault on American civil liberties in US history without a single additional privacy protection.

......and the President signed, an extension of this landmark attack on the Bill of Rights with little notice and even less debate.

Most disturbing was the extension – without modification – of the Act’s three most controversial provisions:

• allows broad warrants to be issued by a secretive court for any type of record, from financial to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation;
• allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps from the secret court (i.e. “roving wiretaps”,) known as the FISA court, without identifying the target or what method of communication is to be tapped;
• allows the FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person (“lone wolf” measure ) for whatever reason — even without showing that the suspect is an agent


snip

[]Candidate Obama Versus President Obama

President Obama’s now ardent embrace of the same provisions he so eloquently criticized as a candidate - while aggressively opposing any of the reforms he once advocated on behalf of – has come to epitomize a disturbing shift in this country since 9/11.
The eloquent, pro-civil liberties “candidate Obama” branded the Patriot Act "shoddy and dangerous" and pledged to end it in 2003. In 2005, he pledged to filibuster a Bush-sponsored bill that included several of the recently extended provisions, calling them "just plain wrong".
In perhaps his most forceful critique, he stated, "Government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document -- through library books they've read and phone calls they've made...We don't have to settle for a Patriot Act that sacrifices our liberties or our safety -- we can have one that secures both."

Now, channeling none other than George W. Bush himself, President Obama warns that any delay of the complete and absolute renewal of the Act - or even the addition of a single privacy protection - would endanger American lives.

snip

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/20-10

Someone doesn't want DU to read this.

more about the personality in office than the Presidency or Democracy.

n/t

Fer chrissake.

Thanks for the thread, amborin.

it's that , audacity of change, or, hope we can believe in. Yeah, that's it.
I've lived through 13 presidents in this country......this one is not too convincing!....except for bankers and CEO's....
I'm sure they are all quite happy with the audacity of change.
Sorry........had to vent a little.

Sometimes I wonder if only people of a certain age have lived long enough to know what has been lost with the enactment of the Patriot Act. We know what life was like before the war on terra.

and mind-boggling as evidenced by perpetual wars and whatever else is in the budget. The sacred oath of office to protect, defend, and preserve the Constitution of the United States seems no longer to be in the equation/part of the calculus. :patriot:

It just assures that anyone can be declared an Enemy of the State on an "as needed" basis.

If any insurrection amongst the populace is expected, en masse or by small numbers, then it pays-off in the long-run to have measures in place to protect the Status Quo of the Powers that Be, as the Ruling Class that has already signaled, in so very many ways, its intentions for the rest of us. The Military-Industrial Complex has fully bloomed and is in full force, sucking a large part of our national and personal wealth, (as well as our power) into itself.

This is a very crucial point in our history. It carries an undeniable import and casts its deep and long-term shadow of significance on all of us who are not a part of that small, top percentage in power. It is very unsettling to realize that we are at such a juncture and, no matter how hard we try, avoiding and ignoring it becomes more difficult with each passing day.

Many are in a fight or flight quandary as events unfold as we experience the cognitive dissonance of what we thought was true and reliable, but often exists only as a collective assumption which our usurpers now utilize as a means to assure us this country is still functioning on its original financial and political foundations while they continue a growing and massive dismantling of the very structure of our rights and liberty. What is left now is only a polluted stream of repetitive rhetoric -- without substance -- that flows through the propaganda outlets of corporate media and from the forked-tongues of politicians who serve their paymasters while they utilize their debauchery of representation to create lucrative careers as lobbyists and future henchmen for the Age of Neo-Fascist Corporatism being foisted upon us all without concern for our rights or livelihoods, and that comes by way of a manufactured consent to be conquered.

Some very deep and difficult decisions are knocking at our individual and collective doors. Many of us will find ourselves questioning our stance and our place in these times, wondering if we should stand-up or run from the rabid beast that is aggressively and ravenously tearing apart what's left of our ability to thrive. Who, knowing with some clarity and certainty, what is unfolding before our eyes, can conscience willful ignorance or fearful denial when, it seems, so very much is at stake for so very many of our people, and even for the rest of the world? What is each one of us leaving to future generations? Can we leave this world knowing that it is on the brink of plunging into a very dark, technologically empowered dystopia, and without having made any personal changes or engaging in attempts to thwart this increasingly obvious plunge into bold, naked oligarchy/plutocracy, left to live in America Inc., a subsidy of WorldCorp, ruled without exceptions, and without any right to grievance by the people. Are we ready for the iron fist of the Supreme Board of Directors to own not only the planet, but each of us?

Alone, we can each cower before the face of unbridled tyranny, when it is too late. However, the window is not yet closed and the sirens are going off everywhere, so united we could stand.

nt

And we all keep losing.

In fact the Patriot Act was created because Bush* did not follow the Law requiring FISA Court to issue warrants, thus the "warrantless wiretaps" that took place throughout his Administration. Bush* said the FISA Court was outdated and did not need to be followed..:shrug: