Bush Signs Patriot Act Renewal

[Clara T]

BREAKING NEWS ~ Bush signs Patriot Act renewal
Jeannie Shawl at 3:12 PM ET



President Bush has signed legislation to renew the USA PATRIOT Act , making permanent several sunsetting provisions in the anti-terror law, extending two provisions until 2009, and incorporating a number of new rights protections. Bush approved what Congress presented Wednesday as two separate but related bills: the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 , the actual renewal that reflects the conference report agreed to by Congress last December, and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006 , a series of amendments to the renewal legislation reflecting a recent compromise agreement to incorporate more civil liberties protections.

Sixteen key provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of last year, but members of Congress were initially unable to reach agreement on the terms of the renewal, prompting instead two short-term extensions , the latest of which was to expire March 10. Fourteen of these provisions now become permanent and the remaining two provisions - Section 206 on "roving" wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Section 215 on subpoenas under FISA - will now expire in 2009. Additional civil liberties safeguards built into the renewal include allowing recipients of Section 215 subpoenas for information in terror investigations to be able to challenge the accompanying gag order; eliminating a requirement that people who receive National Security Letters (NSL) must provide the FBI the names of lawyers consulted about the NSL; and clarifying current law to ensure that libraries functioning in their traditional roles would not be subject to NSLs. AP has more.

The debate on whether the Patriot Act and the renewal legislation provide adequate protections against intrusions on privacy is not over, however. Last week, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and several other senators introduced a proposal to "enhance the civil liberty protections contained in the USA Patriot Act." The proposal would:
require that the target of delayed-notice search warrants receive notification within seven days of the execution of the warrant;
implement a three-part test to obtain a Section 215 order, requiring the government to provide more information before obtaining the order;
eliminate the "conclusive presumption" of the government's certification of threats to national security for judicial review of NSL nondisclosure requirements; and
add a four-year sunset to NSL provisions in the conference report.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/03/breaking-news-bush-signs-patriot-act.php

[Mithras61]

1. Traitorous Bastards!

Trying to set in permanent law several violations of the Constitution without using the amending process and shredding the Constitution in the process...

[glitch]

2. and that includes those in Congress who enabled it.nt

:grr:

[Mithras61]

3. Damn Straight! (n/t)

[Mnemosyne]

12. Isn't it the 2006 Enabling Act? n/t

[Aviation Pro]

4. Here's the circle jerk...

...of this bunch of third-tier fatheads surrounding their moron, frat boy.

[Double T]

10. "And now we can get back to the business of hearing what........

our political enemies are up to. Tee Hee......Tee Hee, Tee Hee". Let the wire tapping begin!!!!

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Can you say "civil disobedience"?

I knew you could.

[shance]

6. It's illegal and illegitimate like his Presidency.

It is not worth the paper that it is printed on.

It has as much power only as Americans allow.

[Webster Green]

7. Yep!.....The thing is hereby declared null and void...

By WE THE PEOPLE!

It violates our constitution. It's illegal.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Let it go down in history along side the Fugitive Slave Act

I join you in declaring it null and void.

This is a free speech zone . . .



Photo from NASA via StarDome (New Zealand)

[Mnemosyne]

13. Agreed, null and void. n/t

[revree]

9. Did he actually sign or just mark it with a big X in black crayon?

Bush is a mindless moronic asshole and I hope he burns in hell, although I don't believe in hell, but will make an exception for BUsh and his cronies.

[m0nkeyneck]

11. Farewell America

[Clara T]

14. Police state USA and Big Brother's most cool tool

VeriChip Corporation recently announced that already 68 U.S. medical facilities, including 65 hospitals, have now agreed to implement its VariMed system for patient and staff identification and tracking.91 This includes both implantable and wearable ID chips that will tie the health records of patients into Big Brother’s electronic national database. In New Jersey, Hackensack University Medical Center and Trinitas Hospital, will be implanting patients in their emergency rooms.92 These crafty hucksters are targeting the most vulnerable people first-- the injured and the sick who are desperate for care, plus the homeless and mentally retarded who can’t defend themselves.

Sensornet

As injectable ID chips come on line, Homeland Security is paying numerous corporations to develop a national network of object-mounted wireless sensors that will be able to read implanted human chips.93 This network of sensors will eventually relay information on the whereabouts and activities of implantees to teams of surveillance specialists. Conceivably, every wall socket could become a reader for implanted chips.
To quote University of Kansas professor Jerry Dobson, these devices will ultimately offer "a new form of human slavery based on location control. They pose the greatest threat to personal freedom ever faced in human history."94


The argument that implanted chips will protect people from identity theft recently evaporated when researcher Jonathan Westhues demonstrated on the Internet how easy it is to decode a VeriChip number implanted in a person’s arm and then program another chip with that same number.95 


Digital Angel: Fascist Big Brother’s most cool tool

Passive ID subdermal chips are the "good news" compared to grotesque ACTIVE implant chips also developed by ADS. The implantable Digital Angel is a grotesque communication device that can continually relay information wirelessly to either ground stations or to satellite systems.96 Developed to be a true tracking chip like the bulky radio ankle bracelets locked onto prisoners, it is tiny enough to be implanted into human flesh. The Angel has a built-in GPS receiver and a wireless transceiver. In December, 2004, ADS signed an agreement with the satellite telecommunications company ORBCOMM. Such collusion will one day turn implanted citizens into walking radio beacons, trackable by satellite.97

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12121.htm

[lovuian]

15. They all smiled when they did it!!!

Its just a piece of paper thats all it is...

[OneBlueSky]

16. the ruling class owns everything, including us . . . and they want . . .

complete control over us in order to maintain and enhance their rule . . . and their riches . . . they don't care about you or me or anyone but themselves . . . they want us uneducated and incapable of critical thought, just smart enough to run their machines and push their paper . . . the Patriot Act is simply their most recent and most blatant mechanism to control the rabble (that's us) . . .

[High Plains]

17. And we get a federal meth bill, too--no extra charge

In addition to losing ever more precious civil liberties and protection from government abuse, we now get to show ID and sign a register if we want to buy Sudafed.

Sensenbrenner tied his pet meth bill to the Patriot Act. Nice move.