Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Senate Panel OKs Expanded Powers for FBI
And so, here we go again. Congress makes another back-door assault on our Constitutional rights, in the name of national security.
Ben Franklin said:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Let me explain:
The 4th Amendment of the Constitution (one of the original 10 amendments that were included with the Constitution when it was ratified by the original 13 states, now known as the Bill of Rights) protects us against unlawful search and seizure ... as in, without a search warrant.
This amendment to the bill that renews the Patriot Act (which expires this year) would give the FBI the power to seize and search, among other things, your credit history, your financial records, your email , and everywhere you have ever gone on the Internet (your Internet service has the ability to track anything and everything you do on the Internet from email to all of your surfing, to include pop-ups). In the provisions of this amendment, the FBI would be bound legally to get this information from where it was held, but not bound to inform you.
For instance, the FBI could, without a warrant, demand that your bank turn over all of your transactions with it, ever. The FBI would not be bound to inform you, at all. Informing you would be the responsibility of the bank, if they so chose. The bank would not be legally bound to inform you, at all.
The same goes for your phone records, medical records, and everything your internet service could provide about your activity on the Internet. Your Internet service provider has everything you have ever done on the Internet. They have to. Everything you do on the 'net passes through them. Now, just how far back those records go is another thing.
I have a problem with this.
Why?
Not because I have anything to hide. It's because it's none of their business! Not only that, the Constitution guarantees that, unless they have a real good reason to go snooping in those things, they can't. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. Congress just can't willy-nilly override it with a simple law.
If they want to change the Constitution, why don't they just amend it? There are two ways lined out in the Constitution to change it, legally.
Actually, I know why. It's a long drawn out process. One that would require for the American people to know just how much freedom Congress was attempting to take away from them.
They think they are acting in our best interests.
Frankly, at this point in my life, it's not the people that want to harm me that scare me most. It's those that want to act in my "best interests" and think I am too ignorant to understand.
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -- Louis Brandeis, Olmstead vs. the United States, 1928.
If you think just handing over your Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to the highest law enforcement agency in the land is a good idea, just raise your right hand, and say "Heil!".
Ben Franklin said:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Let me explain:
The 4th Amendment of the Constitution (one of the original 10 amendments that were included with the Constitution when it was ratified by the original 13 states, now known as the Bill of Rights) protects us against unlawful search and seizure ... as in, without a search warrant.
This amendment to the bill that renews the Patriot Act (which expires this year) would give the FBI the power to seize and search, among other things, your credit history, your financial records, your email , and everywhere you have ever gone on the Internet (your Internet service has the ability to track anything and everything you do on the Internet from email to all of your surfing, to include pop-ups). In the provisions of this amendment, the FBI would be bound legally to get this information from where it was held, but not bound to inform you.
For instance, the FBI could, without a warrant, demand that your bank turn over all of your transactions with it, ever. The FBI would not be bound to inform you, at all. Informing you would be the responsibility of the bank, if they so chose. The bank would not be legally bound to inform you, at all.
The same goes for your phone records, medical records, and everything your internet service could provide about your activity on the Internet. Your Internet service provider has everything you have ever done on the Internet. They have to. Everything you do on the 'net passes through them. Now, just how far back those records go is another thing.
I have a problem with this.
Why?
Not because I have anything to hide. It's because it's none of their business! Not only that, the Constitution guarantees that, unless they have a real good reason to go snooping in those things, they can't. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. Congress just can't willy-nilly override it with a simple law.
If they want to change the Constitution, why don't they just amend it? There are two ways lined out in the Constitution to change it, legally.
Actually, I know why. It's a long drawn out process. One that would require for the American people to know just how much freedom Congress was attempting to take away from them.
They think they are acting in our best interests.
Frankly, at this point in my life, it's not the people that want to harm me that scare me most. It's those that want to act in my "best interests" and think I am too ignorant to understand.
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -- Louis Brandeis, Olmstead vs. the United States, 1928.
If you think just handing over your Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to the highest law enforcement agency in the land is a good idea, just raise your right hand, and say "Heil!".
