:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 3.23.2005 ::
:: "Groups Fight Patriot Act Reauthorization" ::
By Jesse J. Holland
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Conservative and liberal groups normally at each other's throats over the direction of government are finding common cause in wanting to gut major provisions of the government's premier anti-terrorism law.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and the Free Congress Foundation are among several groups that formed a coalition — Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances — to lobby Congress to repeal three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Having people from all sides of the political spectrum working together will keep politicians from calling Patriot Act opponents un-American or willing to help terrorists, which happened during the original debate over the law, the groups said.
"We don't want this argument to be obscured by those who would suggest that anyone who is for more and more government power is somehow on the side of the right, and those who are against it or are skeptical of such grants are on the side of the wrong," said David Keene of the American Conservative Union. "This is an important question of all Americans on the left, the right or in the middle."
For liberals, partnering with conservatives will ensure that the GOP-dominated Congress and the Bush administration will have to listen to their concerns, said Laura W. Murphy, outgoing director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office.
"Given the number of people in this room wearing elephant lapel pins, I don't think it will be easy for the administration to discount our message," she said at the news conference Tuesday announcing the coalition.
The coalition wants Congress to repeal or let expire prosecutors' Patriot Act ability to easily obtain records in terrorism-related cases from businesses and other entities, including libraries; the provision that allows "sneak and peek" searches conducted without a property owner's or resident's knowledge and with warrants delivered afterward; and what they called an overbroad definition of "terrorists" that could include non-terrorism suspects.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 8:45:00 PM [+] ::
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