"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." — Fourth Amendment to the Constitution
Forty-five days after 9/11, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act without reading it. This new law was supposed to protect you from terrorism, but it has really left you unprotected against lawless federal agents. The Patriot Act contains numerous violations of the Fourth Amendment. It gives federal agents vast new powers that have been abused to investigate innocent Americans.
In 2001 and 2006 concerned members of Congress urged expiration dates on some of the Patriot Act's most controversial powers. Regrettably, Congress has constantly renewed these powers, despite a multitude of FBI abuses. Last year, it was done with a voice vote!
The vast powers provided in this bill are explained in detail on this campaign's Background page. They include:
Roving wiretaps, where you can be caught in a phone sweep, without specific warrant
The infamous "library provision," where The State can monitor your reading habits, even if you have no connection to terrorism
National Security Letters, a tool used instead of warrants, whereby the FBI can spy on you, and the service providers who share your private info can't tell you about it
Provisions that require banks to report your financial activities to federal agents
This is only a partial list of the many ways the so-called Patriot Act violates your Constitutional rights.
Everyone agrees that terrorists should be caught and stopped. But before 9/11, the federal government already had powerful tools of intelligence-gathering and investigation to prevent terrorism.
The failures of intelligence before 9/11 were NOT addressed by the Patriot Act. Moreover,
Before 9/11 there were also constitutional checks and balances to protect your liberty and privacy. Under the Patriot Act, those checks and balances are gone.
In fact, the Justice Department's Inspector General has reported that between 2003 and 2006, the FBI issued nearly 200,000 NSLs. The Inspector General has also found serious FBI abuses of the NSL power.
In conclusion . . .
The Patriot Act should not have been passed because it violates the Constitution.
The Patriot Act would not have prevented 9-11, and it is NOT needed to combat future terrorist acts.
The Patriot Act has been constantly abused, in spite of the usual worthless political promises that it would not be.
The Patriot Act should be repealed.
Use the form at right to send your elected representatives a letter about this issue. It's easy!
Your position will be counted by each Congressional office,
Will educate the Congressional staffer who reads it,
May be passed up the chain of command,
May receive a reply (many DC Downsizers get them). If you receive such a letter, please share it with us at Comments@DownsizeDC.org.
The Patriot Act was sold as an anti-terror bill.
That was a LIE. If it was about terrorists, Americans like convenience store owner Lyndon McLellan would have nothing to worry about.
Instead…
The IRS invoked the Patriot Act's banking laws to take $107,000 -- 13 years of savings -- from his store’s bank account. (http://onforb.es/1zzQGrm)
Under the Patriot Act...
If I deposit more than $10,000 in cash in a day, my bank MUST report on me.
But if I deposit than LESS than $10,000, my bank may STILL report on me.
Since you're in Congress, you have nothing to worry about.
Why might they still report me? Because if my deposits can be construed to have the slightest appearance of being designed to fall under the $10,000 mark, then my money is now suspected of a crime.
You don't have to worry about these things, because you're in Congress. And you probably don't really care about me, but I'm going to tell you what YOU did to Lyndon McLellan anyway. I hope it costs you sleep at night.
NO federal agency claimed McClellan's money was tied to terrorism. No official said it was tied to ANY crime!
Still…
The IRS invoked asset forfeiture laws (which you must also repeal) to steal McLellan's hard-earned money.
This happened EVEN AFTER the IRS said it would stop seizing the bank accounts of clearly innocent people!
You can't trust them!
And I probably can't trust you!
Because you know that this $10,000 reporting requirement is just ONE of many provisions in the Patriot Act that take away our liberties, but do NOTHING to protect us from terrorism.
I've had enough! I'm telling my neighbors and friends that you refuse to…
Those who seek out positions of power tend to be paranoid, hypocritical wimps. Consider the issue of firearms. Politicians have many thousands of mercenaries (soldiers and "law enforcers") wielding all sort of deadly weapons--guns, tanks, missiles, drones, etc. Yet those same politicians pee themselves at the thought of the rabble owning semi-automatic rifles. From their twisted, elitist perspective, it's perfectly fine for them to swipe many billions of dollars from their subjects to spend on all manner of armaments, but if YOU want to possess a rifle, they think you should have to ask their permission, and register it, and make sure they always know what you own.
They also expect to be allowed to do things in secret, while claiming the right to spy on you and everyone else. As far as they are concerned, it's none of your business what they do, or what weapons they have, but it is their business to know everything that you do and everything that you have. Of course, they will pretend that their goal is to protect you from the "criminal element," but you'd have to be pretty dense to actually believe that. Why do you suppose they mostly whine about civilians having weapons that:
are used in only a tiny percentage of actual crime, and;
are the most effective types of weapon for resisting "government"
aggression?
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. People who gravitate towards political office think they have the right to rule you. That's the job they applied for. And, of course, extorting you and bossing you around could be rather more difficult if you are better armed than their enforcers. So they hand out machine guns to their mindless thugs, but have tantrums about you having a 30-round magazine.
A new Congress has been seated, and it brings the prospect of perhaps, maybe, potentially, in a possible way doing something about the runaway federal deficits. And in other news, several New York area bridges are for sale, which you can acquire at a bargain price.
Excessive Spending Destroys!
Feds Have a Spending Problem — DO NOT RAISE THE CEILING!
Feds Have a Sewage Problem!
Becky Gerritson: "...government is out of control!" and "...our representative government has failed us."
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the IRS to detail under oath how some of former agency official Lois Lerner’s emails went missing, as well as any potential methods for recovering them.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington gave the Internal Revenue Service exactly a month — until Aug. 10 — to file a report, which he demanded as part of a lawsuit from a conservative watchdog, Judicial Watch, against the agency.
Judicial Watch is seeking a wide range of documents from the IRS, including Lerner’s emails, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. It has complained that the IRS didn’t tell it that the agency couldn’t recover all of Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011.
Sullivan cast his ruling as a compromise, and a potential way for Judicial Watch to get answers without the court wading any deeper into the matter. Judicial Watch had asked the court to potentially compel IRS officials to testify about the lost emails, through a process called limited discovery.
The FairTax is a consumption tax unilaterally applied to all Americans at the same rate. For businesses, payroll taxes would no longer exist. Our exports would include a heavy tax for overseas buyers purchasing our products, while our imports would be cheaper for us to purchase. I'm not sure how this would affect GDP, as more information is necessary.
According to the FairTax website, "Under the FairTax, every person living in the United States pays a sales tax on purchases of new goods and services, excluding necessities due to the prebate." The prebate gives every legal resident household an "advance refund" at the beginning of each month so that purchases made up to the poverty level are tax-free.
So a family of four making something like $50,000/year should not have to pay taxes, thus preventing an unfair burden on low-income families. Since the FairTax eliminates both federal and payroll taxes, you get to keep your gross pay amount of each paycheck earned.
John Adams said, “Without [term limits] every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey”. That being said, here are some of the reasons we believe our country needs Term Limits.
Term Limits can help break the cycle of corruption in Congress. Case studies show that the longer an individual stays in office, the more likely they are to stop serving the public and begin serving their own interests.
Term Limits will encourage regular citizens to run for office. Presently, there is a 94% re-election rate in the House and 83% in the Senate. Because of name recognition, and usually the advantage of money, it can be easy to stay in office. Without legitimate competition, what is the incentive for a member of Congress to serve the public? Furthermore, it is almost a lost cause for the average citizen to try to campaign against current members of Congress.
Term Limits will break the power special interest groups have in Congress.
Term Limits will force politicians to think about the impact of their legislation because they will be returning to their communities shortly to live under the laws they enacted.
Term Limits will bring diversity of people and fresh ideas to Congress.
[Editor's Note: If you want to get rich, i.e. advance from a low paying government bureaucrat job on the local or state level, THEN GET ELECTED TO THE US CONGRESS (House or Senate). Once you're elected, it's easy to steal from your campaign contributions or the Congressional budget allocated to your seat and staff. You can go on a government-funded junket with 'lavishly' paid expenses. The list of ways to steal from the government while in office is inexhaustible. There are only a few Congressmen who left Congress just wealthy instead of a multi-millionaire. Of course, there are several who arrived in Congress as multi-millionaires and don't need to steal from the government.]
