Parts of Patriot Act are offensive-lawyers group

[Judi Lynn]

Parts of Patriot Act are offensive-lawyers group
Mon Aug 8, 2005 4:42 PM ET

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The president-elect of the nation's largest lawyers group on Monday said some of the federal government's investigative powers included in the anti-terrorism Patriot Act are a threat to constitutional rights.

Michael Greco criticized aspects of the act, passed to bolster security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, at the American Bar Association convention, where U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urged the U.S. Congress to renew it.

"We support the (Bush) administration in its efforts to secure the nation but we have taken policy positions, four or five of them, where we think due process has not been followed," Greco said in an interview with Reuters.

He criticized exceptions the law makes to the constitution's privacy protections that give law enforcement the power to search a home without the homeowner's knowledge and without a judge-approved search warrant.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-08-08T204234Z_01_N08355452_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-LAWYERS-DC.XML

[sabra]

1. I find the whole thing offensive!

reco'd

[wli]

2. it's Bushler's Reischtagbrandverordnung

It's clear Bushler & Cheney want or need a second round of Reischtag Fire + Reischtagbrandverordnung bullcrap.

[indepat]

3. These powers are needed if internal dissent is to be monitored and quashed

[Trillo]

4. Gonzales quote could be a lie:

"We are not interested in the reading habits of ordinary citizens (and) we are subject to the oversight of federal judges," Gonzales said, citing an oft-ridiculed provision that gives law enforcement powers to review library records and bookstore sales.

According to this article:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-08-07-companies-tech-analysis_x.htm

The cooperation is required because so many different kinds of unstructured-data engines have sprung up in recent years, driven in large part by the U.S. government's demand for intelligence analysis. The CIA has funded several unstructured-data management companies, including Attensity.

Another CIA-backed company, Intelliseek Inc., recently partnered with the Factiva information service to offer "reputation insight."

Intelliseek scans 4 million Web logs and e-mail list servers, and Factiva — a joint venture between Dow Jones & Co. and Reuters Group PLC — combs news stories, radio transcripts and other media. Together they produce for companies a detailed analysis of how the public thinks about them at any given point.

It would appear Gonzales is either uninformed and uneducated, or he's spinning.

[TahitiNut]

6. Gonzales' comment is a very chilling symptom of how low we've fallen.

It enrages me that these fascist fucks can get away with saying these things and not be tarred and feathered by an outraged public. Since when are the rights and liberties of the nation dependent on the "interest" of people with power? Since when should we rely on the oversight of Federalist Society judges who don't even believe that human beings have a right to privacy?

If the only protection the people have from wholesale infringements on their liberties by a rabid fascist regime is some ill-placed trust that they're not (yet) "interested in the reading habits of ordinary citizens" then where are the inalienable rights we possess?

It seems to me that this regime is only less "interested" in one thing: the vote.

I guess it should be noted that there's circular rhetoric in Gonzales' comment. After all, it's merely a matter of saying that anyone they do take an interest in is no longer an "ordinary citizen," right?

Orwellian.

[Trillo]

7. They're the one's that have risen themselves

above such mundane concerns such as "citizenry." The election corruption likely provides the mechanism of how it was done.

One large question has to be how to undo the damage, and therein I see two tracks: roll-back, or, 100% government transparency.

While I'm not a Christian, I do know they profess a belief in the "golden rule", popularly quoted as, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

For so many of the supporters of these intrusive government/corporate or corporatist actions, at the same time they deny to government what is prescribed for citizens, to claim to be Christian is laughable and indicative of their own deception, likely first to themselves, then to all the rest of us through their "high position."

[ixion]

5. the unPATRIOTic Act is offensive from stem to stern.

and should be repealed with extreme prejudice. :grr:

[WildClarySage]

8. This is why we were told that they hate us for our freedom

that way when they take them away, the dumbed down public would swallow having our liberties taken away- in the interest of the public good...

and how, following this "logic", is this not letting the terrists win?

[VegasWolf]

9. No! Really? Just finally figuring that out now huh?

[uppityperson]

10. All parts of Patriot Act are offensive-uppityperson

[girl gone mad]

11. Just some parts?

They must mean the part between the first word and the final period. The index and the page numbers might not be so bad.

[WhiteTara]

12. kick

:kick: