Protect Civil Liberties: Don't Re-Authorize the PATRIOT Act | Demand Progress
act.demandprogress.org/sign/patriotact/Posted Jan 18, 2011, 5:28 PM UTC
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act.demandprogress.org
If Obama stops the Patriot act I will vote for him in 2012. But I bet he does not however.
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He already renewed it once about a year ago (and it even came with new goodies). Why wouldn't it happen again this time around?
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I highly doubt he will man up on this front so I was willing to wager a vote for him if he did.
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Obama never promised to repeal the patriot act. He promised to add oversight to it: "As president, Barack Obama would revisit the PATRIOT Act to ensure that there is real and robust oversight of tools like National Security Letters, sneak-and-peek searches, and the use of the material witness provision."
The bill the White House supports would fulfill Obama's pledge of boosting oversight in the patriot act.
This is currently stalled though, because CONGRESS passed it for one year without the changes
So, Obama keeps his promise, and he's fighting for the oversight, yet you consider this "not manning up on this front"?
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yep because I see problems he has yet to fix including GITMO, Assasinations, renditions ect. Obama has yet to live up to that Peace Prize and IMO is just another bad US president. I would also mention his stance on transparency he has flip flopped on.
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The Patriot act does not need to be repealed. Just let it expire. How hard is that?
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[deleted]
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He already renewed it once about a year ago
Utterly false. CONGRESS passed it about a year ago, and it wasn't renewed, they passed H.R.3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. They did not pass Obama's measure, which had added civil liberty oversight.
When you say "He already renewed it" can you tell me what you mean? Because as far as I can tell, this was something that CONGRESS did
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Fine, he signed (and yeah he signed it after congress was done with it, that's what presidents do) an extension of the Patriot Act. IE, it got another year of legitimacy it should never have had, which is a kind of renewal (I guess using the word renewed was a little ambiguous). A kind we could have seriously done without, and a kind which leads me to believe that when Patriot Act renewal time comes around, congress and Obama won't miss a beat in passing it.
And don't try to disguise pedantry with being technically correct. That's bogus.
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He voted to renew it when he was in Congress as well.
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And if he does not, you will let those who created Patriot Act come back and make Patriot Act II
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He doesn't need to stop the act. Putting him in charge is good enough for us. It's not like the GOP is still running things.
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please tell me you are being sarcastic
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Why? You don't trust the constitutional scholar in the White House?
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I don't trust anybody with unconstitutional power.
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Remember, Obama never promised to repeal the patriot act, he promised to add oversight to it. He did, but the bill that Congress voted on didn't have Obama's provisions in it, and it won't be until Feb/March until this can be voted on again.
So far, he's fulfilled his promise (albeit, stalled), and I can't see any evidence to the contrary
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Obama has done little to prevent civil liberties abuses. He has continued down the path Bush started and some could argue he is worse than Bush.
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As much as I'd like to believe the patriot act won't be renewed, let's face the facts here. It's going to be renewed and no one is going to stop it from being renewed. All the bitching, complaining, and protesting we can muster won't be able to stop it. I know it's a Debby downer, but it's the truth unfortunately.
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I don't wanna sound like a cynical fear-stricken nutjob, I am though, but it seems like if you really fear government spying as much as I do you would not want to sign your name declaring that you are against the documents which allow these abuses of our rights and than send it to the abusers. Good cause, but I'm not quite willing to put my name on it just yet.
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That's the kind of self-censorship these people count on. Your only chance to overcome government by intimidation lies in refusing to be intimidated.
Besides, if they want to know what you're up to they'll find out, whether or not you sign something like this. So either you cower in fear in all departments of your life or you decide not to.
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Fair enough, but if they are going to "come after me" I want to go for something bigger than signing a petition. Secondly if you think these people are as corrupt as I do why in hell would they care about this petition even if a quarter of America signed it?
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Has anything good ever resulted from the Patriot Act? The only suspected terrorists we ever hear about being caught seem to have been snared simply by dumb luck.
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I understand the wiretapping sections are being used by an 87% majority for drug cases. So we are filling up our jails and the pockets of those private prisons. I'm sure the money the police are seizing help make nice big overtime checks for the cops sleeping on the job.
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this will only happen if people take to the streets in the hundreds of thousands...good luck.
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LOL...Americans are addicted to terrorism and things like the Patriot Act. They'd die for want of it if it was taken away from them.
They want to be controlled. They NEED to be controlled. They can't deal with true freedom. They want to get up, go to work, go to McDonald's at noon, back to work, to Walmart on the way home with a bunch of junk food shit for their fat family, watch HD TV on one of their 2,000 channels while they mindlessly eat a meal of way-too-high fat content, take a sleeping pill and go to bed so they can get up and do it all over again the next day.
Too much is at stake. They demand to be 'kept safe' even when they don't have an enemy where one must be created for them.
We can't get Americans off the couch. They will not act. They will not demand anything. They will never change anything because they're apathetic and mindless at this point.
Accept it. It's true. I remember the heat a decade ago you'd get for suggesting that Americans are mindless and apathetic. People would get worked up and blue in the face. Now they can't deny it anymore. You see it every day...day after day. There is very, very little evidence to suggest anything else.
The patriot act will stand. The people will continue to sit. The powers that be will continue to take freedom away year by year, month by month. Americans will continue to get fatter, more depressed and more addicted to sleeping pills and whatever the fuck they put in McDonald's food.
It will all continue until the day that the empire slowly fades away in huge debt and with Americans on their knees begging to be 'saved.'
It's sad but it's very, very true.
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looks at username
slow clap
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It's so backwards that our government strives to be more secret where they are concerned yet wants to know what everyone else is up to.
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Don't reauthorize Obama in 2012, because you know Obama and the Dems will reauthorize it.
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So will the Republicans.
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I wonder how many of the ignorant tea bag mob are out in force to protest the theft of their liberties via the Patriot Act.....CNN, nope no protesters here...FOX, nope not here either....the fact is that the single most oppressive piece of legislation passed by the congress in, oh, maybe a hundred years, goes un-noticed by the tri-cornered hat crowd.
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Repealing the Patriot Act is unconstitutional. Don't you G-d hating liberals EVER read the Constitution?
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Don't you G-d hating liberals
Is it possible any more to bring up any issue without someone trying to recast it into their conservative-liberal mindset?
A quick skim of the website shows that its primary reference is to the CATO Institute, which is moderate-libertarian and would only describe itself as liberal in the classical sense of the word. The second reference is to the ACLU. The people behind the site are a Reddit cofounder and a Democratic legislator. It's just a damned good idea.
That being said, IIRC from vague memory, only some elements of PATRIOT expire; some are permanent and do not require reauthorization.
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FYI you are arguing with a novelty account.
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Ah, yes, thanks.
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[deleted]
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Good trolls are subtle. Baaaaaad troll. BAD.
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If we fail to renew this EXCELLENT LEGISLATION, the Terrorists WIN. It's really THAT simple.
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Just got this too, cant tell people enough to sign this petition and call their congressperson. 9/11 was almost 10 years ago, enough is enough. In my mind this was America's first step towards a "Reichstag fire". Lets end this before it gets any worse.
Remember all that shit about the TSA... this is your chance to stop them from fucking over your freedoms.