Thursday, July 21, 2005

 

House Re-Ups On Traitriot Act

Despite a valiant effort by Rep. Bernie Sanders (Sane-VT), our very own House of Kommons scotched his amendment which would have repealed the "sneak-and-peek" library provisions of the Traitriot Act, which deputizes the local librarientzia into the federal secret police, without your knowledge or consent. (Instead, they added a codicil that requires police agencies get the OK of the FBI Director before they can look at your library records -- ooh, I feel so much more protected!)

Indeed, the GOP House Politburo rammed through the reenacting legislation by closing off any discussion or amendment, making permanent 14 of 16 provisions of the Patriot Act (which first passed with a 4-year sunset), a Stalinist maneuver that even some Western Republicans protested.

Now, only the Senate stands between us and the Permanent Emergency State.

No doubt, Senators Hillary and Joementum will wish to add amendments of their own, regulating violent videogames as a central part of the War On Terror; these efforts should be resisted. Democrats don't have the power to stop this freight train, but with discipline (and a few GOP allies), we might be able to put sunset provisions back into our Terrorism Secret Police Act.

posted by Michael 7:48 PM