Image courtesy of John Morgan under CC BY 2.0.
Democrats led the fight to fix the most egregious parts of the misnamed Patriot Act. However, they, along with the conservative Republicans, caved into George Bush and his statist minions and passed Patriot Act II with none of the fixes and some provisions that are even more outrageous than were in the original law.
Now that the Democrats are in charge of both houses of Congress, the question is will they go back and repeal the worst parts of these very bad laws, or were they just posturing? Were they serious about protecting liberty or just opposed to a Republican president pushing through a favorite piece of legislation?
Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Harry Reid were very outspoken about the evil wrapped in Patriot I and II. Yet, the Senate caved in, including most Democrats, when Bush and Arlen Specter offered a “compromise” that Specter bragged was nothing more than a way to “. . . provide enough cover for Senators to change their vote.”
Of course it isn’t just ultra liberals like Feingold who are concerned over the excesses of the misnamed Patriot Act. Rep. Don Young, a conservative from Alaska who has a Kodiak bearskin displayed in his office as a poke at the environmental nut jobs, says the Patriot Act is: (the) “Worst act we ever passed.”
Ron Wyden, a liberal Oregon Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Alaska Republican, introduced legislation to cut the Patriot Act back sharply. The war on terror and the rights of Americans must be balanced, said Murkowski, who went on to say: “To date it appears portions of the Patriot Act may have moved the scales out of balance.”
The excesses of the Patriot Act and the insidious Patriot Act II are well known to those who pay attention to what is going on in government and have brought together people from across the political spectrum in the fight against these excesses. The far left ACLU and the conservative groups, Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, the American Conservative Union, and the Eagle Forum are all against these affronts to the basic liberties that have defined our nation for 200 years.
Bush, Specter and a cabal of neo-cons and statists have duped the ever fearful among us into accepting as truth their claim that it is necessary to forfeit essential liberties and rights for the illusion of temporary security. Political hacks in both parties have gone along to garner votes from the Jerry Springer-Nancy Grace-Jerry Rivers watchers. Rather than fight for the liberties and rights that have traditionally been the shared values of the Right and the Left, hacks have gone along with the neo-cons and statists for putting their own careers ahead of what’s good for the nation.
Well, it’s time to see if Democrats were posturing or were serious about defending liberty. As of today the prospects do not look good.
Rather than announce that he is going to immediately introduce legislation to fix the excesses of the Patriot Act I and II, Harry Reid announced that he will immediately introduce a bill to grant Bush his wet dream of amnesty for millions of illegal aliens and immunity for their criminal employers.
He announced that he is siding with Bush and the criminal businesses against the American people. Rather than fighting Bush and these criminal businesses, Reid will join their assault on American workers.
Reid has announced that he will push through S-2611 and that Bush will sign it. This bill will create blanket amnesty for illegal aliens who are raping our welfare system, medical care and schools and driving down wages. It will also give amnesty to the criminal employers who hired illegal aliens instead of American workers.
The bill forgives felonies of illegal aliens who have stolen Social Security card numbers and identities of U.S. citizens and allows past illegal work to qualify for Social Security benefits. It makes parents of temporary workers who have never paid into Social Security eligible for Supplemental Security Income benefits. This is a sure fire way to send our Social Security system into quicker bankruptcy.
So as it stands now, it looks like Reid and his Democrat majority are not going to fight for Americans’ liberty. Instead, they seem hell bent on joining Bush in his attack on the American people.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”