Bogus "Terror Threat" was used by Republicans to coerce FISA Expansion

Recall our articles on Constitution Day this week (a day unnoticed by establishment republicans and democrats) that we included excerpts from Bruce Fein, Constitutional scholar in the Reagan administration. We have highlighted his statements in this article below to again prove just how anti-constitutional the Bush administration and the republicans, like Shelly Moore Capito, in Congress are. JUST LOOK AT HOW "TERROR" WAS USED TO COERCE THIS SPECIFIC LEGISLATION--YES, A CONSPIRACY TO LIE, BASED UPON A FEIGNED THREAT! Including and since 9/11 this has been the pattern, using fake fear to coerce Congress who then cowardly bow into absolute obeiscence to whatever "necessary" powers the President requests--i.e. the Constitution be damned.

QUESTION FOR REPUBLICANS: The power that you pretended to give to Bush in this legislation (which the Constitution by the 4th amendment forbids, and the courts will eventually reject, like the recent PATRIOT ACT ruling)--WOULD YOU WANT HILLARY CLINTON TO HAVE THIS SAME POWER? Before you answer, read Bruce Fein's statements about how these powers are always abused, for political purposes. WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND YOU RINO CONSERVATIVE FOOLS--A DEMOCRAT COULD WIELD THE VERY SAME POWERS YOU HAVE AUTHORIZED, AGAINST YOU AS POLITICAL ENEMIES. This is why Constitutional principle, and blindness to party politics, must be the over-riding principle in all legislation, which is also the sworn duty of all in Congress. Expanding the power of the executive branch is constitutionally unlawful, and outright stupidity, for Americans WILL lose their freedom.

Also, Bill Moyer's Journal (watch here) inadvertantly captured soundbites of how that terror threat was used by republicans in Congress to terrorize members into passing the tyrannical legislation. This is an excellent review of precisely what that legislation entailed, and it is the public's duty to examine what Congress has done. The entire program, where he interviews both a liberal and a conservative, is worth watching.

People should write Capito or their representative and tell them to uphold Constitutional rule of law in ALL legislation, or it should receive a NO vote.


Republicans pushed 'bogus' terror threat to expand FISA, lawmaker says

Nick Juliano
Published: Wednesday September 19, 2007


Republicans and the Bush administration used a 'bogus' terror threat that raised specific fears of an attack on the Capitol to scare lawmakers into adopting a dramatic temporary expansion of the government's spy powers last month, a former top intelligence committee Democrat said Wednesday.

Congress agreed to give President Bush and the nation's intelligence agencies extra authority to spy on Americans just hours before lawmakers left for a month-long recess in August. In the legislative session's final week, news emerged of an impending plot by foreign terrorists to attack the US Capitol, and Republicans pointed to the reports as justification to expand the administration's powers.

"That specific intelligence claim, it turned out, was bogus; the intelligence agencies knew that," Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) said at a forum on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act organized by the Center for American Progress in Washington. However, lawmakers did not learn of the claim's unreliability until "the day" they approved the FISA expansion, she said.

Harman was among Congress's "Gang of Eight" in 2002 when she served as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. The gang was briefed in 2002 on President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program initiated after 9/11 before the New York Times revealed its existence in December 2005. The group comprises the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees plus each party's leader in both parties.

Congress's ongoing debate over how to make permanent needed modifications to FISA without trampling Americans' civil liberties was the subject of Wednesday's forum. Later that afternoon, Bush toured the National Security Agency's headquarters outside Washington and urged lawmakers to expand his authority under FISA not restrict it.

Harman, who now chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, accused the Bush administration of pursuing a "Rovian strategy of using terrorism as a wedge issue" in seeking to expand the president's power rather than focusing on the needs of foreign surveillance.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to push lawmakers not only to make permanent the provisions of the expansion, known as the Protect America Act, but to further limit redress against civil liberties violations by providing immunity to the telecommunications companies that facilitated the warrantless wiretapping program.

Harman said the administration's "trust me theory" that would diminish oversight of intelligence activities was not acceptable. Democrats and Republicans in Congress, she said, are committed to ensuring the nation's spy agencies would be able to effectively gather intelligence from foreign suspects as long as they had assurances that Americans' rights are protected.

"There is a deal to be made if this administration is serious," she said. "If it just wants this as a wedge issue, then I hope Congress will fight this with every breath that we have."

Appearing alongside Harman at Wednesday's forum was Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official, who has emerged as a harsh critic of President Bush. Fein noted that FISA grew out of concerns over Nixon administration scandals and revelations that foreign intelligence resources were being abused.

"Unchecked spying invariably leads to abuses in collection for political purposes, not national security purposes," Fein said. The danger inherent in giving Bush -- or any president -- authority to spy on Americans without oversight is that "it will be hijacked to advance a political agenda."

Fein invoked the Founding Fathers' warnings against concentration of power in government, and he compared the president's arguments about how 9/11 "changed everything" to justify expanded authority to the government's decision to lock up Japanese Americans who had committed no crimes during World War II.

The Bush administration is operating on the belief that it is "infallible," Fein said, and the public and Congress have a right to know which activities the administration authorized so it can avoid an unconstitutional power grab.

"That's exactly what the Founding Fathers feared: hubris, a goal to dominate and manipulate," he said.

Fein also argued that the authority the administration is requesting would give them power beyond simply intercepting foreign-based communications, which the administration has offered as the necessity to update the law. He argued the president could authorize warrantless searches of people's homes or mail if it was justified as part of the "war on terror."

A third panelist, Greg Nojeim a senior counsel to the Center for Democracy and Technology, invoked home searches as a metaphor to explain abuses that could exist even as the administration has promised to "minimize" the use of data on Americans gathered by NSA spies.

In his testimony Tuesday, McConnell acknowledged that NSA wiretaps on people abroad sometimes will pick up Americans conversatons when the foreign targets call into the US. The use of information intercepted in this way is a crux of the debate over FISA.

To say the information is "minimized," is akin to police breaking into an individuals home to search it and remove evidence without a warrant but then say no civil liberties were violated "as long as when they got back to the police station they threw it out," Nojeim said.

He noted that the NSA collects and analyzes information from domestic phone calls before deciding whether to pursue a warrant for further surveillance, and he noted reports that the data was sometimes shared with other agencies. So to say it has been "minimized" is not accurate.

"Words don't have their normal meaning," he said. "Up is down, black is white ... John Ashcroft is a civil libertarian, this is the world of FISA."

Ron Paul Blasts Fed's Manipulation--Devaluing Dollar for Market Bailouts is Immoral;Hurts Poor and Middle Class

"Today we may apply the apostle's words first to those rulers who without cogent cause inflict exorbitant taxes upon the people, or by changing and devaluating the currency, rob them, while at the same time they accuse their subjects of being greedy and avaracious."

-- Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans

Devaluating of currency is theft and robbery, and this is what the Fed does. But you will not hear a word on this from the cowardly "establishment" republicans or democrats, who do not understand America's fiscal crisis, or care, because they are the elite. Only one candidate is addressing the disastrous issue of the Fed's policy of creating and expanding printed money, and manipulating interest rates, like gods, out of thin air. WAKE UP--THIS EFFECTS EVERYONE, AND AMERICA IS HEADED, AS THE U.S. COMPTROLLER HAS ALSO WARNED, FOR A MAJOR ECONOMIC CRISIS, UNPARALLED IN HISTORY. Even network news tonight, finally, had articles that the dollars value is now--for the first time ever--equal with a Canadian dollar, while a few years ago, one American dollar was worth 1.50 in Canadian currency. WHAT A LOSS OF VALUE! (Some are predicting sharp drop in stock market Friday).

Purchasing Power of U.S. Dollar Since Fed Creation
(click to enlarge)

Ron Paul Slams Bernanke For Dollar Meltdown

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Thursday, September 20, 2007

Ron Paul has slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for deliberately depreciating the value of the dollar to artificially bail out Wall Street while poor and middle class people lose their homes and have their living standards lowered.

During a Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill today, the Texas Congressman confronted Bernanke and accused the Fed of trying to solve the problem of inflation with more inflation by creating artificially low interest rates that have no effect because of the dollar's weakness.

Watch the video.

Paul questioned how it could ever be morally justifiable to deliberately depreciate the dollar and pointed out the fact that the dollar collapse was a deliberate policy on behalf of the Fed.

Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Alan Greenspan have all been busy bad-mouthing the dollar over the past few weeks even as major players like China and Saudi Arabia consider dumping US treasuries, a move that would immediately trigger a dollar meltdown.

Ron Paul identifies the true culprits of the planned economic implosion while the establishment media and the yuppies celebrate the hollow "solution" of an interest rate cut that has no substantive benefit and only increases the risk of another depression by sinking the dollar to historic lows and ensuring foreign holders of US debt run for the door at breakneck speed.

Republican Talk Show Host Laura Ingraham likes Ron Paul?

Action Alert: Time to Call Congress Again

Sharing this action alert from DownsizeDC.org, who as the name implies, is active to restore the Constitution and limit the size and scope of government from the insurgency of BOTH the neoconservatives and the socialist democrat programs. Highly recommend that people GET ACTIVE NOW if they want to do something about their low opinion of both Congress and the Executive branch. Their email alerts are highly beneficial, making it easy to contact Senators and Congressmen on current or pending legislation.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

---

Amplify your voice. Forward this to others.

Quote of the Day:

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad."
-- James Madison

Subject: Congress to vote on important bill

Congress may take action this week to change the so-called "Protect America Act" which permits warrantless Federal spying on American citizens.

We are joining a number of organizations to write and call Congress this week requesting that they repeal this law, and/or change it in specific ways, as follows . . .

* Congress must not allow warrantless surveillance of ordinary Americans

* Congress must not grant immunity to telecom companies that have illegally complied with such surveillance


With regard to the first point, we agree with Mike German, a former undercover counter-terrorism agent for the FBI. German puts the point succinctly: "The Bill of Rights is the perfect counter-terrorism strategy."

German argues that requiring warrants for surveillance forces the government to FOCUS, and not waste time chasing phantoms. We make this point constantly -- government could accomplish more by doing less. Subtraction is addition when it comes to government. Downsize DC!

With regard to the second point, granting immunity to the telecoms sends a message that others in the future can conspire with the government to break the law with no fear of consequences. It makes further abuses nearly certain.

Please send a message to Congress asking them to repeal the so-called "Protect America Act."

In your personal comments, specifically mention that warrants must be required for the surveillance of ordinary Americans, as required by the Constitution, and that you want no immunity for telecom companies that conspired with the government to violate the Constitution.

Follow-up with phone calls that make the same points -- you will see the phone numbers you need when you log-in to our system.

Many other people from other organizations are also calling, so you will not be alone. If one or more of your representatives are Republicans, please also ask them to support a resolution instructing President Bush to NOT attack Iran.

On the Iranian front, we must continue the drumbeat . . .

We must do with Iran what we are doing with North Korea. Negotiations with North Korea are working, because they cover the entire range of issues between our two countries. Negotiations with Iran are failing because the Bush administration refuses to address the full range of issues involved.

We cannot reach a settlement with Iran without addressing Iran's security concerns. If we want them to care about our security concerns then we must care about theirs too.

* Iran has never overthrown the U.S. government, but we did overthrow the Iranian government in 1953.

* Iran has never sponsored anyone to attack our territory, but we did sponsor Iraq to attack Iran

* Iran has never changed the governments of our neighbors, but we have changed the governments of their neighbors


Iran wants a nuclear bomb to prevent us from doing again what we did to them in 1953, when we overthrew their government. Iran wants a nuclear bomb because it does not want to be the next Iraq. We cannot prevent Iran's development of nuclear weapons without addressing their security concerns.

We are doing that with North Korea, and we can do it with Iran too.

If we negotiated with the Soviet Union and China we can negotiate with Iran. If we can have peaceful relations with Saudi Arabia, the state-sponsored source of the ideology driving Islamic terrorism, then we can have peaceful relations with Iran too.

Many people are saying that we cannot achieve a settlement if we take the option of using force off the table. But the exact opposite is true. We cannot achieve a settlement as long as Iran feels threatened.

[ed. The neoconservative-Israeli Bush administration is deliberately taunting in attempt to provoke Iran into making a move, as was the case when Israel attacked Lebanon unjustly, baiting Iran to come to their rescue. This is why Cheney saber-rattled and sent a U.S. fleet off their coast for a war-game excercise in spring. They WANT war because it fulfills the neocon's Project for New American Century "new middle east" plan to overthrow all governments. Since none of this has worked their last resort is to claim through propaganda that Iran is providing arms to "terrorists" in Iraq. The gullible swallow this whole, especially those who want it to be true. Funny, since the U.S. has been there 4 years and the claim is only recent. The neocons, via Cheney, are hell-bent on finishing the war course as their blueprint outlines before their term expires, or his defibrillator stops working].

Please send Congress a message requesting a resolution prohibiting an attack on Iran. You can make the above points in your personal comments.

If you are represented by a Republican, please follow your message with a phone call.

Please, also, call Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and ask them to bring a "do not attack Iran" resolution to a vote. Their numbers are . . .

Rep. Nancy Pelosi — 202-225-4965
Sen. Harry Reid — 202-224-3542

It is up to us to provide the leadership Congress is too afraid to provide. We must lead them by encouraging them, and taking away their fear of appearing soft. So much of what the politicians do is simply pandering to what they think the American people fear. We must convince them we are not afraid, and will not be pandered to.

Use your power!

Please, also consider making a contribution to further our work.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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HillaryCare? Freedom Means Personal Responsibility, not Paternal Government

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.

-- Frederic Bastiat

The Constitution (the supreme law sworn to by both democrats and neo-republicans) makes no provisions for a national healthcare system, which also invades state's rights, and forms communist collectivism ("it takes a village") rather than preserving liberty and freedom. This was proposed in the past, and no doubt, would lead to a national ID card (as all insurance requires), while we are already trying to remove REAL ID from the neoconservative side. (We are surrounded by communist socialism on the left and by fascism from the neo-republicans on the right). A dictatorial, paternal government is contrary to freedom and individual liberty.

This is precisely how Roosevelt's communist Social Security system (government theft by force) was implemented as well, just another national insurance program. The details do not matter. HillaryCare represents communist, socialist government akin to Canada and the UK. If people want to live under that paternal system they should move there instead of trying to change America. America needs change, but not this kind.

Here is what Cato Institute has just released on the subject. Anytime the government "requires" you to do something "for your own good" you are not free.

Clinton to Offer Health Plan

"Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is unveiling a sweeping health care proposal Monday that would require everyone to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage," reports the Associated Press. "Fulfilling a pledge to bring health care to all, Clinton's 'American Health Choices Plan' has a price tag of about $110 billion per year. It represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband's first term collapsed."

In a statement issued today on the Clinton health proposal, Michael Tanner, Cato's director of health and welfare studies, writes: " Here we go again. HillaryCare is back, and its apparent that Sen. Clinton has learned little since the American people overwhelmingly rejected her last attempt to overhaul the U.S. health care system. Once again her plan, which would cost $110 billion per year in new taxes, calls for greater government control over American health care. If her plan were to pass this time, it would mean higher taxes, lost jobs, less patient choice, and poorer quality health care."

For Tanner's full statement, click here.

-----------------

THE U.S. CANNOT AFFORD ANY MORE BIG GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, AND ACCORDING TO THE U.S. COMPTROLLER, IS IN A FISCAL CRISIS ALREADY.

The Israeli Bias: "Radical Zionism" commits atrocities; government and media silent

Just who is being "wiped off the map"?

(click to enlarge picture)

"Radical Islam" and middle eastern states are blamed for all "atrocities" as justifications for war by talk shows from Sean Hannity to the local Michael Agnello. Yet when Israel commits PROVEN abominable crimes against innocent civilians, it never gets mentioned by mainstream media or these same pundits, or is oh so carefully reported, to diminish or excuse the truth. Why? Where is the "moral obligation" when atrocities are committed by the Zionist regime? Why are they un-reported? Because you will not hear the Zionist neoconservatives fire up the propaganda machine, nor will William Kristol or James Woolsey be interviewed then, for whatever Israel does is either "justified" or "self-defense". This is pure propaganda and lies, and an insult to plain observation. There is no Bridgette Gabriel to rail on talk radio on behalf of innocent Palestinian victims, only spurious tales of "Islamo Fascism". Is the blood of Palestinians of less worth than the blood of Israeli's? (This is what Jews and Zionists believe and enact in their racist policies, but you will not hear apartheid mentioned in this case). Where is the "moral outrage" to intervene here against "cruel monsters" and "cut-throats"? "An unjust weight is abomination to the Lord", Solomon wrote, and the scales of Justice are greatly tilted to one side! Dare read this for yourself, and begin to examine the Real Israel, the unreported one, the corruption of its infallible "democratic" government, that has no constitution, and no legally defined borders, (convenient for an expansionist agenda of a Greater Israel), and possesses WMD without complying with Nuclear Non-proliferation Agreements. Talk about "rogue government"! Pray tell us, where is the justification for this brutal, torturous massacre of Palestinian civilians below! It is clear just who controls government and media by the atrocities you do not hear about, as well as the ones you do. Radical Zionism, through the neoconservative administration and Pentagon, is in control of the war policy that follows the blueprint of the Project for a New American Century (see "neoconservatives" tag for previous articles). It's time for the Real Israel to be laid bare, as well as for other propaganda to be exposed, and it is not pleasant to do so. First, this article written for the anniversary of a noteable proven massacre, the blood of the victims still crying up to heaven for justice. This is Zionist Fascism, that is blatantly racist against and brutal toward Palestinians. Sabra and Shatila: On massacres & atrocities

Written by Sonja Karkar

Monday, 17 September 2007

It happened twenty-five years ago – 16 September 1982. A massacre so awful that people who know about it cannot forget it. The photos are gruesome reminders – charred, decapitated, indecently violated corpses, the smell of rotting flesh, still as foul to those who remember it as when they were recoiling from it all those years ago. For the victims and the handful of survivors, it was a 36-hour holocaust without mercy. It was deliberate, it was planned and it was overseen. But to this day, the killers have gone unpunished. Sabra and Shatila – two Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon – were the theatres for this staged slaughter. The former is no longer there and the other is a ghostly and ghastly reminder of man's inhumanity to men, women and children - more specifically, Israel's inhumanity, the inhumanity of the people who did Israel's bidding and the world's inhumanity for pretending it was of no consequence. There were international witnesses - doctors, nurses, journalists - who saw the macabre scenes and have tried to tell the world in vain ever since. Each act was barbarous enough on its own to warrant fear and loathing. It was human savagery at its worst and Dr Ang Swee Chai was an eye witness as she worked with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society on the dying and the wounded amongst the dead. What she saw was so unimaginable that the atrocities committed need to be separated from each other to even begin comprehending the viciousness of the crimes.1 People tortured. Blackened bodies smelling of roasted flesh from the power shocks that had convulsed their bodies before their hearts gave out – the electric wires still tied around their lifeless limbs. People with gouged out eye sockets. Faces unrecognisable with the gaping holes that had plunged them into darkness before their lives were thankfully ended. Women raped. Not once - but two, three, four times – horribly violated, their legs shamelessly ripped apart with not even the cover of clothing to preserve their dignity at the moment of death. Children dynamited alive. So many body parts ripped from their tiny torsos, so hard to know to whom they belonged - just mounds of bloodied limbs amongst the tousled heads of children in pools of blood. Families executed. Blood, blood and more blood sprayed on the walls of homes where whole families had been axed to death in a frenzy or lined up for a more orderly execution. There were also journalists who were there in the aftermath and who had equally gruesome stories to tell, none of which made the sort of screaming front page headlines that should have caused lawmakers to demand immediate answers. What they saw led them to write shell-shocked accounts that have vanished now into the archives, but are no less disturbing now. These accounts too need to be individually absorbed, lest they be lumped together as just the collective dead rather than the systematic torture and killing of individual, innocent human beings. Women gunned down while cooking in their kitchens.2 The headless body of a baby in diapers lying next to two dead women.3 An infant, its tiny legs streaked with blood, shot in the back by a single bullet.4 Slaughtered babies, their bodies blackened as they decomposed, tossed into rubbish heaps together with Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.5 An old man castrated, with flies thick upon his torn intestines.6 Children with their throats slashed.7 Mounds of rotting corpses bloated in the heat - young boys all shot at point-blank range.8 And most numbing of all are the recollections of the survivors whose experiences were so shockingly traumatic that to recall them must have been painful beyond all imaginings. One survivor, Nohad Srour, 35 said: "I was carrying my one year-old baby sister and she was yelling 'Mama! Mama!' then suddenly nothing. I looked at her and her brain had fallen out of her head and down my arm. I looked at the man who shot us. I'll never forget his face. Then I felt two bullets pierce my shoulder and finger. I fell. I didn't lose consciousness, but I pretended to be dead."9 The statistics of those killed vary, but even according to the Israeli military, the official count was 700 people killed while Israeli journalist, Amnon Kapeliouk put the figure at 3,500.10 The Palestinian Red Crescent Society put the number killed at over 2,000.11 Regardless of the numbers, they would not and could not mitigate what are clear crimes against humanity. Fifteen years later, Robert Fisk, the journalist who had been one of the first on the scene, said: "Had Palestinians massacred 2,000 Israelis 15 years ago, would anyone doubt that the world's press and television would be remembering so terrible a deed this morning? Yet this week, not a single newspaper in the United States – or Britain for that matter – has even mentioned the anniversary of Sabra and Shatila."12 Twenty-five years later it is no different. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second is a video that shows what Jews in Israel really think of Christians (persecution is frequent there) who blindly tend to support the rogue state, in a superstitious manner, contrary to historic Christian teaching, and even orthodox Jewish doctrine, represented by JewsagainstZionism.org. Note this Jewish youth is orthodox in his hair and clothing, not western. [Warning, this video contains mature content, severe language, as the mad Israeli Jew rails against Christians and Jesus, whom he also calls Nazis].

CONSTITUTION DAY PART II: USA PATRIOT ACT--Constitution makes Legislation Null and Void

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."
-- Patrick Henry

"A legislative act, contrary to the Constitution, is not law".

- Chief Supreme Court Justice John Marshall

This story broke a week ago, but received little news coverage. We must again highly recommend CATO Institutes email news and daily podcasts for good info like this. Everyone should subscribe and use the information to educate their family, friends, and especially their local newspaper and radio talk shows, and highlight CATO links or feeds on their blogs.

The Constitution is the silver bullet that can put an end to the growing tyranny--everything this neocon-controlled administration has rammed thru Congress on the pretext of 9/11.

The fact this Federal judge struck down these provisions is proof that your Congressmen (including and especially Shelly Moore Capito), both House and Senate, passed legislation that is in fact "null and void" in that it violates the Constitution of the United States. THERE SHOULD BE OUTRAGE TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPS WHO VOTED FOR THE USA PATRIOT ACT WITHOUT CONSIDERING (AS USUAL) THE CONSTITUTION. Be sure and right your Congressmen and tell them to "read the bills" (as DownsizeDC.org pushes) before passing ANY legislation, and that they should rescind the PATRIOT ACT, as well as REAL ID.

Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions

"A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations," reports The Washington Post.

"The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret 'national security letters' to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters."

In the Cato briefing paper "Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism," Timothy Lynch, director of Cato's Project on Criminal Justice, writes: "The warrant application process is the primary check on the power of the executive branch to intrude into people's homes and to seize property. The Bush administration has tried to bypass this constitutional framework by championing the use of national security letters."

412 STATE AND LOCAL RESOLUTIONS AGAINST PATRIOT ACT.

Mostly unreported, the STATES have also moved (including particularly Huntington, West Virginia) to make null and void the USA PATRIOT ACT because (despite its fraudulent name) of its blatant attempt to overthrow the restraints of the federal government embedded firmly in the Constitution. The source here is the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which solely sprung up to resist PATRIOT ACT powers.

Across the Country:

412 Resolutions Upholding Civil Liberties and Rights

Community
resolutions: 404

State resolutions: 8

Total population
protected: 85,177,895

In West Virginia this included Charleston, Lewisburg, Monroe County, and Huntington.

Huntington, West Virginia Made USA PATRIOT ACT Illegal for Feds

Huntington, West Virginia

City/Town: Huntington
County: Cabell, Wayne
State: West Virginia
Congressional District: (click to contact Rep.)

Population (2000 Census): 51,475
Date Passed: 10/13/03

An Ordinance of the Council Amending, Modifying, and Re-enacting Article 99 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Huntington, as Revised, Concerning People's Bill of Rights.

Approved by: Huntington City Council

WHEREAS, the devastating attacks of 9-11-01 in the United States and the continued national outcry for patriotism causes a need for reaffirmation of the American way of life; and

WHEREAS, the restriction of civil liberties by the United States actually constitutes a defeat of its founding principles as well as a victory for the perpetrators of 9-11; and

WHEREAS, this Council wishes to limit government intrusion upon the personal lives of the people of Huntington; and

WHEREAS, the people of Huntington have a right to be free from profiling, discrimination and general searches; and

WHEREAS, the people of Huntington should not be subject to searches without probable cause and due process of law; and

WHEREAS, the constitution of the State of West Virginia, Article 1-3. (Continuity of constitutional operation), asserts that

“The provisions of the constitution of the United States, and of this state, are operative alike in a period of war as in time of peace, and any departure therefore, or violation thereof, under the plea of necessity, or any other plea, is subversive of good government, and tends to anarchy and despotism.”

WHEREAS, this Council recognizes the people within its jurisdiction as the sovereign of the City of Huntington, Cabell and Wayne Counties, West Virginia,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HUNTINGTON, CABELL AND WAYNE COUNTIES, WEST VIRGINIA, that Article 99 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Huntington, as revised, is hereby AMENDED, MODIFIED and RE-ENACTED to read as follows:

ARTICLE 99
PEOPLE’S BILL OF RIGHTS

99.01 PREAMBLE.

The people have inalienable rights that exceed the needs of the City of Huntington and are granted through the individual’s ability to reason, right to be free, to question the governors of the City of Huntington and to act as sovereign have, by declaration, rights recognized by Council as the basis of American Democracy and our chosen way of life. The essence of American Freedom is founded upon individual liberties, not granted by government, but retained by the sovereign. And therefore, the following actions affect the City of Huntington, Council, Mayor and its subordinate agencies, boards, and committees.

99.02 THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH.

The people shall have the right to express their opinion and the City of Huntington shall not attempt to regulate content of speech. The City of Huntington, Council, Mayor and its subordinate agencies, boards, and committees may regulate time, place and manner of speech, but not content.

99.03 RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS.

The people shall have the right to keep and bear arms within the City of Huntington under the laws of the United States of America and the State of West Virginia.

99.04 RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS.

a. No one shall be compelled to testify against himself or spouse / herself or spouse nor be denied rights of due process under the laws of the United States of America and the State of West Virginia.

b. No person shall be held by the City of Huntington greater than twenty-four (24) hours without charges being proffered.

c. An individual has a right to be secure in his person from unreasonable searches and seizures and no warrants shall be issued without probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the persons or items to be seized and the places to be searched.

d. No stops, searches or inquiry can be made of any person based upon their race, religion, sex, age or ethnic origin.

99.05 RIGHT OF PRIVACY.

a. No government agency shall invade the privacy of a person located within the City of Huntington by electronic eavesdropping, intercepting Internet transmissions, or by opening correspondence transmitted electronically, lest he be an officer of the law who has obtained a specific warrant for such searches.

b. No law enforcement agency shall seek to invade any telephone, computer transmission or personal correspondence that is private between the sender and receiver without a warrant.

c. Each invasion shall constitute a separate act and the individual perpetrating the act and those directing the invasion shall be equally subject to the penalty as stated in Section 99.99.
99.99 PENALTY.

Any violation of Article 99 shall be subject to a fine of up to Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) and/or thirty (30) days in jail.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all other articles, sections and sub-sections of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Huntington, as revised, shall remain in full force and effect until further Ordinance of this Council.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that Article 99 shall become effective upon its adoption by council and approval by the Mayor

"I see the Constitution as being written precisely for one purpose -- to restrain the power of government; never to restrain the people."

-- Congressman and Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul in Seattle

Constitution Day: Bush is Liberal about the Constitution, So are Republicans in Congress

The Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the example of King James II, whose practice of suspending or dispensing with laws he believed encroached on royal prerogatives eventually occasioned his overthrow in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. With such precedents in mind, the framers of the United States Constitution directed the president to execute the laws without fail. The Republican Congress, however, has acted as a disinterested spectator while President Bush has stolen its legislative authority in plain view and exercised the tyrannical power of making, executing, and conclusively interpreting the law and the Constitution.

--Bruce Fein, Constitutional Scholar, Reagan administration

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TODAY IS "CONSTITUTION DAY", SO WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION? WHERE IS CONSTITUTIONAL "RULE OF LAW" FROM REPUBLICANS? The neoconservatives and Bush are LIBERAL regarding the constitution as if "it evolves with us", as Al Gore once stated. The plea of "necessity" is the tyrant's plea, and warned of in West Virginia's own Constitution above as well (see quote under banner).

Since the public largely missed it, let's look at a recent power play here below by Bush, to usurp powers, which did not make network news. The claim of "war powers" is a direct threat to constitutional government, and for the expansion of Executive Branch powers--without any checks or balances. What emergency? Do Americans act like there is an emergency, watching ball games and American idol? THIS IS A LIE TO EXPAND POWER, AND AN OLD TRICK EVER SINCE WILSON AND ROOSEVELT--BOTH WAR DEMOCRATS. The "terrorist threat" is a fiction, overblown to invoke fear and justify war to "reorder the middle east" and to clamp down on "free Americans"--i.e. surveillance, REAL ID, Homeland Security, PATRIOT ACT, et al.

Bush Extends 2001 National Emergency Declaration For One Year --Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks (whitehouse.gov)

12 Sep 2007

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States. Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, last extended on September 5, 2006, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2007. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

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See also this article, Bruce Fein justifying the censure of George W. Bush:

Statement of Bruce Fein, Deputy Attorney General to Ronald Reagan

Statement of Bruce Fein Before the Senate Judiciary Committee Re: S.Res. 398 Relating to the Censure of George W. Bush (2006)

"I am grateful for the opportunity to express my support for Senate Resolution 398. It would censure President George W. Bush for seeking to cripple the Constitution's checks and balances and political accountability by secretly authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens in the United States in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and misleading the public about the secret surveillance program."

Another fine conservative article regarding Bush's record on the Constitution, is from CATO Institute here. Please republicans note the credentials of the authors before blowing it off:

May 1, 2006

Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush

by Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch

Gene Healy is senior editor and author of "Arrogance of Power Reborn: The Imperial Presidency and Foreign Policy in the Clinton Years".

Timothy Lynch is director of the Project on Criminal Justice and author of "Dereliction of Duty: The Constitutional Record of President Clinton."

Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes

• a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election;
• a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
• a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as "enemy combatants," strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
• a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave.

President Bush's constitutional vision is, in short, sharply at odds with the text, history, and structure of our Constitution, which authorizes a government of limited powers.

John Turley, Constitutional Scholar interviewed by MSNBC on Bush and Constitution and "War Powers"