USA Patriot Act

Taken from Dude , Where's My Country? by Michael Moore

USA PATRIOT ACT is really a gross misnomer. This law is anything but patriotic. the "Patriot" Act is as Un-American as Mein Kampf (see blog re Prescott Bush and his Nazi connections). The name is part of a masterful plan meant to camouflage a stench thicker than Florida swamp water.

You can always read the law yourself if you have several days and a gaggle of lawyers at your disposal. You see, this law is not like other laws that read in clear language, "you can do this" or "you cant do that". The Patriot Act is mostly about amending existing laws. There are 342 pages where it really never says what it is doing but rather refers you to hundreds of other passages in other laws written over the past hundred years. So, in order to read the Patriot Act, you need to have all the laws written in the past century in order to see what sentence or phrase the Patriot Act is changing.

Thats why , when anyone has challenged them, the Justice department folks throw up their hands and urge "the public to read the actual language of the act for clarification. t5here is no way to humanly do this.

On October 11th , just a month after September 11th 2001 the Senate passed a version of the bill thats was less tolerable to civil - rights advocates than the House version, to be voted on the next day.

The Bush administration didnt like the protection contained in the House Bill and, with the speaker of the house, worked through the night to strip it of all the civil rights protections The House had voted for. It was finally submitted at 3:45 am. when Congress showed up a few hours later to vote on it, they thought they were voting on the language agreed to the previous day. Instead they voted on the bill whose few protections were gutted by Attorney General John Ashcroft the night before. According to the American Civil Liberties Union few members of Congress read the final version of the act. It was perhaps the most reckless and irresponsbile action our Congress has ever taken.

Here's what the law does: Your government may now "trap and trace" all those countless emails you thought were private. Also up for inspection : banking records, school records, the list of library books you or your nine year old checked out this year (or even how often you logged on to the internet at the library), and your consumer purchases.
Think I'm exaggerating? Next time you are sitting in your doctor's waiting room or waiting in line at the bank, read their new privacy statements. Buried in the legalese you will find new warnings that your pivacy protections do not cover The Big Brother provisions of our New Patriot Act.

There's more. Under the special "SNEAK AND PEEK" provision ,agents may now come into your home and search through your stuff and - get this- never tell you've been there.



So AMERICA WHEN DECIDING WHO TO VOTE FOR (DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS) JUST REMEMBER THEY BOTH VOTED FOR THIS ACT
UNITED KINGDOM - JUST REMEMBER SINCE TONY BLAIR TOOK OVER WE HAVE BEEN JUST ANOTHER STATE IN THE US - ALSO REMEMBER THAT "OUR FRIEND" DAVID CAMERON HAS JUST RECENTLY GONE TO THE US TO MEET GEORGE BUSH - he is not to be trusted