The Patriot Act will not be renewed and so now, the founders can sleep well at night... Oh, and also all those who the government was spying on. The most dangerous threats of the Sept. 11 attacks has been defeated but I doubt you will see a parade for it. I know for sure G. W. won't have a publicity stunt on an aircraft carrier to celebrate its defeat. I will however, as any freedom loving, constitutional adhering, American should.
Much like our forces in Germany, the Patriot Act will hopefully go down as a relic of the war against terrorism. Constitutional scholars will hopefully wright many books on the inherent dangers of such laws in a free society such as ours. Wiretapping of citizens, unlawful arrests of citizens without trial, as well as the right to hold you indefinitely, secret warrants on books, businesses and any other organization and many others, will hopefully go down in history like that of McCarthyism, a cruel and un-American experiment in response to unsettling times.
I'll be anxious to see what happens to this administration on the chargers of unlawful espionage that has been thrown around lately.
In simple terms, thank you Mr. Feingold, Mr. Craig, Mrs. Clinton...in short, thank you Democrats. (and a couple of right thinking Republicans)
Saturday, December 17, 2005
This is why we need Democrats
Posted by Head Master, Society of Saints at 7:04 AM
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5 comments:
Head... its not very often that I would associate your thinking with the likes of Ms. Rodham Clinton. You are going to have to do a better job of articulating your position on this one. Give some evidence to back up your position on unlawful arrests without trial, wiretapping, yadda yadda, and show that there was not probable cause in particular cases.
Your skepticism of government, which I wholeheartedly agree with, has delved into downright fear.
In recent posts it seems as if you FEAR the right, more than the left. Should we not fear extremism on either side equally??
In private conversation with Citizen I have voiced my fear with the extremism of the right. In my view the right posesses a greater tendency toward authoritarian rule that the left. This manifests itself in many ways, this Patriot Act is only one. Below is why I fear the extremism of the right more than the left.
The right of America is characterized by religious zeal and general bigotry. In history, the right has has strongly manifest itself by general authoritarian rule, kingship, theocracy and false priests who oppress. In my opinion the extreme right is generally bigoted. All those that do not believe the way they do are generally relegated to a second class. If you are not part of the majority class then you are generally not accepted on the same level. Majority rule in this case does not follow the typical idea of majority in a democractic philosophy but, instead rears its head as authoritarian rule. This leads to inequality, injustice and bigotry against the minority. The history of the world gives us countless examples of this. I think extreme leftist ideology hadn't manifested itself until the Age of Enlightenment. Such ideas that were extreme leftist thought was Communism and Nazism.
I fear the extreme right more because diveristy, difference, uniqueness and opposition are not tolerated. This intolerance does not faciliate enlightenment, thought or even prophecy to exist. Please see World History volumes I through Infinity as proof. As the Book of Mormon states, I paraphrase, to depose of a King is not possible without much bloodshed. We as Latter-day Saints have seen how such extreme right ideology can almost destroy a movement that "they" are fearful of.
Now, regarding the Patriot Act. There are countless stories that have been reported of Americans who were illegally detained on suspicion of subversion and treason that were unproven and wrong. With an Act such as this, there is no oversight, no one independent that can prove or disprove any charge. These things are done in secret, without government transparency. This new wiretap controversy is a perfect example. This story finally broke years after the first wiretappings were done and admittely the government has not charged anyone of whom they had been spying on. This should scare us all very, very much. Who is determining probable cause? Who is issuing these false warrants? Who has oversight once these persons are detained? Who decides when these detainees should be released? Who is defending your civil rights? Why if there is suspicion are these persons not given reason, or a trial when detained? My fears arise when the good do nothing at all. In this case I am fearful of those persons who wish to destroy our republic. I think we as a society are in grave danger of choosing sides when in all probability, they are both wrong.
I think that I am about to do something I haven't done yet on this blog. I am going to agree with the Head... with some reservation however. I do believe that there needs to be some red tape circumvented in some cases in order for our intelligence folks to move on the fly. However, this detaining of citizens without trial on suspision of terrorist acts is very very scary. There was a time bretheren when Mormons were considered enemies of the state... what if that was to happen again? What if it was YOU? Being held in prison without any hope of release or trial, is probably my greatest fear.
Now.. wire taps? Don't care. Listen to my conversations, I just don't care. If you are innocent, you are in good shape. But this deal with imprisoning citizens... freaks me out.
I think there needs to be a massive overhaul of the system to make it smarter, quicker and easy to manage. Our justice system is difficult, expensive and ludicrous. If we could expedite some of our processes, I think the Patriot Act wouldn't be necessary.
I am with Head and Citizen, it is very scary. I, too, dont care really about the wire taps, maybe I should, but with nothing to hide, it doesnt bother me really. I just finished reading a post on a blog called Donkephant, I think it is appropriated here. It sounds a little bit parnoid, but it is very interesting, and brings up interesting points. What do you guys make of Pres. Bush asking the Times not to run a story? Does this limit the "freedom of the press?" Or, are there times when this is really necessary? I think Kennedy once asked a paper not to run a story about the Bay of Pigs, and I think they ran it anyway, I dont remember. What were the ramifications of them running that story during that time? (if they did) I just think that politicians asking the press not to run stories looks bad; maybe there is a time and place for that to be justified, but who decides that?
anyway, here is the link to that blog post-
http://donkephant.blogspot.com/2005/12/terabyte-paranoia.html
Another story about the wiretapping, this one from the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113521681931529119-eHpzQmLUyX8mf_4UNw2D11NYP74_20061222.html?mod=blogs
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