The Patriot Act Must Die...

OK, this is COSMOS , so I assume that I am allowed to rant and speculate a bit?

We are now living in a "carpetbagger society" where scumbags with their $3,000 dollar Armani and Boss suits and their alligator shoes scramble to extort the last dollar that they can.

Our governments are acting the same way?.......................when we actually worked, produced, and generated wealth they did not have a care, because the taxation revenue flowed in, and the national balance of payments was positive.

Now, you try to find something that isn't "made in China" these days............... that is the problem , we are nations of middlemen, wide recievers, quarterbacks and so on.......................... useless drones and parasites, and our governments are acting accordingly.

We are a cancer to ourselves, as we are consuming the wealth that we previously earned through hard labour and industriousness.

Stuff GATT, stuff the "free market" now is the time for protectionism, before our time runs out?

That way we all learn to live within our means?

I enjoyed that :D

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I can't stir myself to get outraged over this one.

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I can. SO who is coming out in 2008 who has the BALLS to retract Patriot Act even though our "friends" in congress have made a lot of it permenant. My Guess, no one. And green is right, it does not make sense to always support extra taxation and control of the government and selecetively pick the political battles that only support the dems, just as crazy as it is for the Right Wing to constantly cry fould at government control via taxation and support those currently in power who are using the patriot act to further that power.

Deb I do pay attention. Everytime ANY one this country sends a wire, they are checked against a database. No matter WHAT the ammount it. Anytime someone in this country (sitc) makes a cash deposit over 10k it is repored as a "suspicious activity report" Good thing we are all be check for susicious activity. If the bank "believes" you may be avoiding the 10k limit, you are reported. And it's not limited to wires., it could be an ACH transaction. When you open an account a bank is required to prove they verified your ID. By prove I mean you are checked against every damn database the government provides. Then you are risk ranked to COMPLY with the Patriot Act. Risk ranked as a citizen with no ties to any form of illegal activity. And it gets worse but my pupils are going to explode.

Anytime sitc, deposits miltiple transactions of verious dollar amounts it gets reported. Business' with payroll and reason to deposit these amounts must be analysed risk ranked and then the bank must SHOW due dilegence in keeping on top of these customers. and Document their activity. If that doesn't sound like citizens complying with the wishes of the gestapo out of fear of retibution through indimidation and fines.... I don't know what else is.

My concern for the US people..is this


The Government is collecting all this data...and

who has access to it????....who is looking at it....????

Can they keep this info secure.... :rolleyes:

Here in Canada....most of our civil servents have an IQ well below average ( the ones I have dealt with anyway) :rolleyes:

I am sure it is the same everywhere.....

Anyway...
It is these people looking at this information...and making assumptions ....

To have some diguntled governement employee...reviewing this information....and targeting someone...through envy, jealously...or whatever...makes me shudder

Just a can of worms waiting to be opened.....

MLF

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Can they keep this info secure....

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<sarcasm> yes, very secure. Their track records prove that its secure. **waves hand** this is not the personal data you are looking for</sarcasm>

If proper 'Policies" that dealt with Confidential/Secret documentation were properly handled a lot of these so called leaks would not take place, to say a silly servant is usually the dumbass that is at fault is ignoring the larger picture.

Micro Management has resulted in a breakdown of standards, maybe the Government should be required to apply for an ISO standing like all other companies that require standards to ensure their products meet all requirements (set by law)

Someone mentioned the term "Due Diligence" which is not practised enough, as can be seen with all of the recent "Data" thefts, as for the "Patriot Act" and some of you are going to think what the feck has a Canadian to say about this, well as the border between our two countries is basically only on paper to begin with, a lot of commerce (1 Billion a day) passes between us, so that means there is a busload of information transferred back and forth on a daily basis, we have bank branches in the states, and I am sure the US has similiar in Canada, so whoever reviews this information is seeing it from both sides, also whatever the FBI decides to share with the RCMP or CSIS is also of concern.(not always the case)

So whatever your "Homeland Security" decides to do under the protection of the "Patriot Act" does affect us as well...should be a concern for everyone, your constitution is different then our constitution (Charter of Rights and Freedoms)http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/C...h/ca_1982.html but with every change to your's, you can bet it will affect our's, espescially now that the border's are a major concern for security (both ways)

The Gov't's of both countries know's when you are born and when you die, when you pay your taxes and of course when you don't, they have a wealth of information on you now, the scary part is what happens when they get coordinated enough to put it all together, I am sure the beuracracy on the State level and Federal level is mindboggling sometimes, I know the Provincial and Federal in Canada can be confusing...Information Overload.......sponges can only hold so much water, at some point the water has to go somewhere, same with information, it gets out...

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Here in Canada....most of our civil servents have an IQ well below average

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Same here.............when I asked her to marry me she said "yes"......... and compounded the felony by showing up at the church :D

IQ of Civil Servants? That is why they are civil servants. They got a job, have to do 1/4 of the work and keep behind on trends. Easy. Not everyone, but 99.9 percent.

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The Government is collecting all this data...and

who has access to it????....who is looking at it....????

Can they keep this info secure....

Here in Canada....most of our civil servants have an IQ well below average ( the ones I have dealt with anyway)

I am sure it is the same everywhere.....

Anyway...
It is these people looking at this information...and making assumptions ....

To have some diguntled governement employee...reviewing this information....and targeting someone...through envy, jealously...or whatever...makes me shudder

Just a can of worms waiting to be opened.....

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From what I can tell it's pretty secure. But who cares? It's just waiting for someone to decide their politics are more important than their duty. There is no reason to collect so much. I have spoken PERSONALLY with those high in the food chain on this and "they" cannot keep up with the massive reporting. Imagine every bank in the US doing this? Regardless of what the congress wants law enforcement branch to do, this only backlogs their efforts and makes the real crimes less noticable because of volume. "They" have asked congress to back off. But Laws is laws... until someone closes this can of worms. Watch.. no one will do it.... then we'll have to get our guns the libs want to steal and take this country back. Open our own can... a can of American Whoop-Ass :D Might be 20 years but someone is going to push enough of us into a hole and history will repeat.

So should the NYTimes be held accountable for treason?

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Some right-wing politicians have even called for the New York Times' editors to be charged with treason

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source

What I find funny about this obfuscation by the current administration is that they treat everyone
as ignoramuses, I am sure the majority of the terrorists can barely read (The New York Times) but to think that they are idiots is really stretching it.

Like any organisation these terrorist's are sophisticated, I am sure they know all about these tricks that are in place to track the flow of money, they probably don't even care as a lot of it comes from offshore anyway's or by courier, which is a whole lot harder to track I bet.

This is just about payback, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this info was surrepticiously provided so that the administration can go after some of the media, let's face it, lately Bush and Company have come under a lot of scrutiny lately thanks to the wire tapping fiasco, and also there is an election in the fall, so Bush needs to win some brownie points for his successors, so why not go after the media and make them look "Un-Patriotic"....

Slippery slope here, IMO the news media should with respect to National Security be allowed to report on just about anything it has handed to them or finds out on their own (Watergate), if the media becomes muzzled, then the last voice of reason is gone and the administration will have free reign to do what it please's without the public knowing anything about it.

I think they should batten down the hatches and start finding these people who conveniently leak this information to the press, all federal employees I would assume are vetted by the NSA before becoming employed by the Government, and must be induced to sign something like an "Official Secrets Act" waiver that they cannot divulge information, for at least 6 months from their last day of work or retirement, I know I had to sign one when I retired, the reason for the 6 months is that any information sensitive or otherwise that I may be in possesion of, has a shelf life of relevance.

Looking for scapegoats, sh*t rolls downhill, usually this stuff is leaked by higher ups, and you know upper management will never take the fall for this stuff.

Just my 0.02 cents

IMHO I dont believe the New York Times should be held accountable for treason. I do how ever beleive the US government and Department of Homeland Security should be held accountable for their incompatance in securing their program. If the data was secure, which it is not, the world would have never known about what they were doing.