Last
night the Senate reached an agreement to extend provisions of the
Patriot Act which had previously been filibustered for another 6
months. The Patriot Act is part of the police state package opened
after 9/11, which also includes spying without warrants by the NSA.
This is the law that justifies round-ups of immigrants, increased
surveillance including on protesters, and greater unchecked power in
the hands of the executive, as well as many more Orwellian measures.
The fact that this was passed in the midst of outrage over recent
revelations of Bush’s illegal NSA executive order is telling of the
fact that we cannot rely on a savior from the Democratic Party, but
must instead take history into our own hands. Just listen to what
Senators say about this agreement.
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada: “victory for the American people” and
“There’s a right way and a wrong way to mend the Patriot Act. The wrong
way is to force senators to cast their votes on legislation written in
the middle of the night. The right way is the agreement we have
tonight.” Actually Harry, the Patriot Act is wrong period, so there’s
no “right way” to make a police state.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, co-sponsored the deal to extend the provisions of the Patriot Act.
And Bill Frist (no explanation needed) proclaimed “that there is broad bipartisan support that the Patriot Act never should expire.” Unfortunately, he’s right on this one.
Moreover,
the Bush regime continues to ardently defend its secret spying orders,
even as yesterday new revelations came out that the NYPD has been
infiltrating and video-taping anti-war protests, and the NSA wiretaps
also snared communication within the US. Nonetheless, they are having
real problems justifying this rupture from the rule of law, as
evidenced by the resignation of one federal judge today in protest of
the illegal NSA spying. The game that the Bush regime is playing is
very dangerous, and we can’t allow them any rebounds. Nor can we count
on referees to call foul play with game rules like the Patriot Act.
January 31, when Bush gives his state of the union address, break out
of the killing confines of politics-as-usual and demand “Bush: step
down, and take your program with you!”