RAW DOGMA written by Nkrumah Steward
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| patriot act being used against common criminals. surprise surprise. |
 It
is being reported across all of the major news services that the Justice
Department has been using the authority given to it by the USA Patriot
act to crack down on terrorist on common criminals not just terrorist.
For example now a pipe bomb is legally considered a "weapon
of mass destruction".
Methamphetamine and crack cocaine are now 'chemical
weapons'.
In case you haven't stuck your head out of your bunker since 9-11
these are some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights
by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the Sept.
11, 2001, terror attacks:
Freedom of Association - Government
may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting
criminal activity to assist terror investigation.
Freedom of Information - Government
may close once-public immigration hearings, detained people without
charges, and encourage bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
Freedom of Speech - Government may
prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell
anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror
investigation.
Right to Legal Representation - Government may monitor federal
prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and
deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
Freedom from Unreasonable Searches - Government may search
and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to
assist terror investigation.
Right to a Speedy and Public Trial - Government may jail Americans
indefinitely without a trial.
Right to Liberty - Americans may be jailed without being charged
or being able to confront witnesses against them.
When civil liberties groups went after the Patriot Act as being the
most blatant trampling of the U.S. constitution in recent memory,
Americans were too afraid to see it.
Now conservatives groups are joining with civil liberties groups in
saying that the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II have gone too far.
Alaska has been the first state to challenge the legality of the Patriot
Act. Soon after Alaska stood up for themselves eight U.S. cities followed
suit.
Logic and emotion are polar opposites. When you are emotional you
can't think logically. You don't make rational decisions when you
are emotional.
And the worst emotion of all to let get away from you is fear.
Far too often the worst laws ever drawn up have been drawn up when
people have been drunk with fear.
When you act out of emotion you are just simply reacting.
In other words you are allowing yourself to be controlled.
There is nothing wrong with having a healthy does of cynicism when
dealing with the government. In fact, I believe that distrust of the
integrity of professed motives of those in government is not only
justified but should be required. Not
because everyone in government is a piece of shit but for the simple
fact that you are dealing with individuals that want you to give them
power to create laws to govern you.
Anyone that wants that kind of power ought to be scrutinized.
Those that advocate that those who have the power to create law that
govern you are to be blindly trusted are not free men.
They are already slaves.
America wouldn't be America without our constitution and our bill
of rights. Essentially what makes this country great can be rested
squarely are the soldiers of those two documents.
This isn't America without our right to privacy, our right to freedom
of speech, press, bear arms, and assemble.
Many Americans have seem to have lost sight of this.
That is why now a pipe bomb is a "weapon of mass destruction".
Apparently that's what we went to Iraq looking for, pipe bombs and
crack pipes.
Maybe if Americans hadn't been so drunk with fear they would've given an ear to more rational voices that seemed to had been drowned out under the charges of being "anti-American for not supporting the president in this periless time."
No one would dream of calling you anti-(insert home team) if you questioned
the play calling of the head coach?
No one would call you anti-(insert home team) if you didn't like the
direction the team was going and called for ownership to fire the
General manager and get someone else in the front office. In fact,
one could argue that it's because you care about the team and because
you support that team that you criticize management because you want
to see them do better.
And you can't blame one side of the aisle for this.
This bullshit law was passed by both Republicans as well as Democrats.
This is why democracy without having any nondiscriminatory criteria
that you have to meet to run for office is a farce. You can't expect
the people to sift out the qualified from the unqualified when they
care as much about "what a candidate stands for" as they
care about "how presidential he looks".
Without setting up essential preconditions for pubic service on a
national level outside of being over the age of 35 what we have here
is nothing more than a popularity contest. And that is why to remain
"popular" our elected officials pass this kind of bullshit
legislation. I just wish the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
would get popular again and not just bottled water, canned foods and
batteries. |
