- While you were...uh...distracted, Congress was quietly
renewing every major provision of the Patriot Act.
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- Most of the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, including
access to library records, were supposed to "sunset" this month,
five years after the law's passing. Instead, both the House and the Senate
have already voted to renew the entire act, with only minor revisions.
While they're at it, they'd like to add some decidedly unpatriotic amendments
to expand the death penalty.
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- These new amendments would let prosecutors shop around
for another jury if the one they have is deadlocked on the death penalty;
triple the number of terrorism-related crimes eligible for the death penalty;
and authorize the death penalty for a person who gives money to an organization
whose members kill someone, even if the contributor did not know that the
organization or its members were planning to kill.
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- The Patriot Act was enacted during what President Bush
called "a state of emergency." It wasn't even read by most of
the members who voted for it. But the whole point of the sunset clause
was to allow Congresspeople to actually read the bill and debate it in
calmer times. Now, the Act is effectively being made permanent with little
or no debate or discussion.
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- Still, the House and the Senate are still in negotiations
over the final wording of the bill and so it hasn't been made final yet.
The Bill of Rights Defense Commitee is asking people to make one last push
to keep it from getting renewed. They list possible actions you can get
involved in and ways to educate your communities about threats to civil
liberties.
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- http://alternet.org/blogs/themix/27501/
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