There is a groundswell of anger against the Unpatriotic Act I and its’ sequel, Unpatriot II (coming soon to a Gulag near you). This very civil disobedience will soon make Herr Ashcroft’s life extremely difficult.
I was already well aware of the low esteem in which he and his slab monster laws are held in the blog arena. I quite share it if you haven’t noticed yet. Still, I was very happily unprepared for this uprising in the towns and states of America.
If your town or State has not outlawed the Patriot I Act yet, ask them why not. Show them others have done so. You don’t have to appear anti-war. You may argue we should not discard the blessings of liberty for ourselves at the same time we are bringing them to others. Defending the freedom our forefathers died for is more American than apple pie, Old Glory, mom and the 4th of July. It’s at the core of what allowed them. If we lose that unique freedom and America is “just another country”, hardly worth fighting for. Like France.
With enough effort on the part of our readers and the rest of the blogosphere, this could be the biggest rebellion against Washington since the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. Unlike that one it will be impossible to put down. It is a non-violent, wide-spread effort; it is under the protective eyes of thousands of freedom loving writers like yours truly; and any attempt to kill it will make it grow.
Be a real patriot. Get out there and defy the law!
Hopefully this snowballs just as election 2004 is getting under way, and Bush & Co. realize it’s a bad idea, and repeal it. The Republican Convention is in Sept. so it has a few months yet. I think the closer Patriot II comes to passing, the more resistance to it (and Patriot I) will grow.
What are these acts then?
Your article didn’t actually say, and the link blocked me with a questionnaire.
These ordinances are somewhat similar to the Virginia Resolution of 1798 and the Kentucky Resolution of 1799 (authored by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson). These resolutions declared that the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were unconstitutional and a violation of the compact between the states and the federal government. They did not, however, go so far as to outlaw the enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions relied on the concept of states as sovereign entities willingly bound by an agreed upon contract (a concept that was greatly weakened following the Civil War). Municipalities have no such sovereignty.
I agree that there are portions of the Patriot Act that need to be repealed or struck down. I’m not too concerned about “Patriot II”, because it’s clear that the leaked draft is never going to be proposed as law in Congress.
The Arcata ordinance outlawing voluntary compliance with the Patriot Act is a cute form of protestation. But, despite protestations to the contrary, it is purely symbolic. If they think that their ordinance has any chance of surviving a challenge in Federal court, they are seriously delusional.
Laws only have meaning when they are respected and deemed fit to be obeyed. When a sufficient number of people withdraw their support (as with the Fugitive Slave Act) the law becomes a laughingstock.
I’d like nothing better than to make Patriot and Ashcroft objects of derisive humour.
You Americans need to watch out.
Here in the UK we know all about slippery slopes, and laws that “will never be used for that purpose” but somehow years later they are anyway.
Remember how the EU was sold to us as a Free Trade Area, and now turns out to be an Empire, from which we have no right to secede?
Remember how only the police would have access to your email and surfing logs, and only for purposes of criminal investigation, and now suddenly it’s any official of a local council, for any purpose they want?
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance! We lost ours. Stop these things in their tracks BEFORE they become entrenched and accepted.
You have been warned!
Has anybody here ever actually read the PATRIOT Act? Or practiced law in an area affected by it, such as banking, int’l business transactions or federal criminal / nat security law?
I took a few CLEs (continuing legal education classes) on PATRIOT I, and do some work relating to it. Judging from the authoritative comments, an awful lot of folks here seem to be dyed-in-the-wool experts on it, and I’d love to know who so when I have questions I can ask…
Mark, stop being a pathetic little wanker.
You were asked for your sex, age and postal code at the Washington Post site. No SS number, no DNA sample, just age sex and postal code
Be a man, for God’s sake and do what the rest of humanity does when presented with a snippy little online form like that.
LIE! Lie like hell! Lie as if your life depended on it.
“Im surprised I have to explain this to you people.”
Joe Bob Briggs