cannabisnews.com: Lawmakers Take Aim at Part of Patriot Act





Lawmakers Take Aim at Part of Patriot Act
Posted by CN Staff on July 08, 2004 at 08:41:57 PT
By Alan Fram, Associated Press Writer
Source: Associated Press 
Washington -- Lawmakers who say portions of the USA Patriot Act went too far are taking aim at its provision that made it easier for investigators to learn what people are reading - despite a veto threat from the White House.The House planned to vote Thursday on a proposal by Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., that would prevent the government from using the Patriot Act to demand records from book stores and libraries. The election-season showdown is the latest over the law, which Bush has sought to expand but which Democrats and some conservative Republicans say has infringed on individual rights.
Sanders was planning to offer his amendment to a bill providing $39.8 billion next year for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State. That is $2.2 billion more than this year's total and $240 million beyond what Bush proposed for 2005.The Senate has yet to write its version of the bill. But in votes Wednesday, the House voted:* By 221-194 to overturn new Bush administration restrictions on the gift parcels that Americans can send to family members in Cuba, in a rebuff to the president dealt by Democrats and nearly four dozen farm-state and free-trade Republicans. The vote came just four months from an Election Day in which Bush would like to once again win Florida, the pivotal state in his 2000 victory, by gaining the support of that state's Cuban-Americans.* By 268-148 to let the federal government continue prosecuting people who use marijuana for medical reasons in states where local law allows its use by patients. By that vote, the House rejected an amendment by Democrats and some conservative Republicans that would have barred the federal government from blocking the medical marijuana laws of Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.As the House debated the spending bill Wednesday, the White House budget office sent a memo to lawmakers warning that if an amendment "that would weaken the USA Patriot Act were adopted and presented to the president for his signature, the president's senior advisers would recommend a veto."With Republicans controlling Congress, it is virtually inconceivable that lawmakers would send Bush a bill - especially in an election year - confronting him on a high-profile topic. Rather than an omen of an impending showdown, the veto threat underscored the administration's determination to take an aggressive stance on law enforcement and terrorism.In a written statement afterward, Sanders fired back."Every American wants to fight terrorism vigorously, but they want to do it in a way that does not undermine basic Constitutional rights," Sanders said. "American citizens ... have made it very clear that they do not want the government monitoring their reading habits when they walk into a library or a bookstore."The Patriot Act, passed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, strengthened the government's surveillance and detention powers.Sanders' target is a Patriot Act provision that lets investigators get court orders requiring book dealers, libraries or others to surrender records. The orders are issued by a special court that handles foreign surveillance intelligence cases, and are easier to obtain than search warrants or subpoenas.Source: Associated Press Author: Alan Fram, Associated Press WriterPublished: July 08, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:The Debate: Hinchey - Rohrabacher http://freedomtoexhale.com/dofcomm.htmHouse Opposes Effort by States To Allow MMJhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19149.shtmlFeds' Wayward Path on Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19142.shtmlU.S. Uses Terror Law To Pursue Crimes http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17414.shtmlOur Big Brother, John Ashcrofthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14809.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by breeze on July 09, 2004 at 02:33:10 PT
So how do I...
So how do I Become a citizen of Canada? 
Any pit falls/drawbacks?
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Comment #7 posted by mayan on July 08, 2004 at 17:40:35 PT
It Failed...
The House vote on this was 210-210, meaning it failed. All it needed was a simple majority! What are the odds of a tie? How convenient for the fascists, eh?Down with the Patriot Act...
http://www.bordc.org/
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 08, 2004 at 15:59:19 PT
Some Music
Since the news has been so depressing I've been listening to this music marathon and it has been great. Right now he is singing the song Blowin' in The Wind. How true it is too. 
WBWC - Neil Young - 18 Hour Music Marathon
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on July 08, 2004 at 15:12:24 PT
Petard
First, the iniative should fail in absence of fraud.Secondly, the six oil companies consolidated into three in short order after the selection of Bush. Changing signs is no problem and the oil companies have their way with everything from war to legalized gauging and elimination of alternative fuel programs. They can change signs and politicians too. They can kill whole villages and keep it out of the press.Either way, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Colombia, and Mexico too, are is the places everyone should watch to see the face of Empire. There is a dome of silence over it all and that should be scary to everyone.
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Comment #4 posted by Petard on July 08, 2004 at 15:02:26 PT
Virgil, On Venezualan Oil
Right now, and for the last decade, Venezuela WHOLLY owns Citgo Oil. They originally "purchased" half the company in a barrels of oil for stock swap (hence the designation of purchase in quotes, no $ just barrels of oil). About 5 -10 years later they got the rest of the company. It made sense for the nationalized Venzuelan Govt. Petroleum Consortium to do so at the time. They were sitting on the largest oil reserves at the time, pumping it into storage with no way to market it. Through the purchase of Citgo it gave them complete vertical integration into the oil industry, from drilling for crude through refining to marketing (Citgo has had refineries and a distribution network and service stations for decades). This was basically made possible by the Southland Corporation (of 7-11 fame) when the sons of the founder bought back all the stock and converted it from a publicly traded company to a privately owned one (that was after the old man died and they inherited everything he founded). Southland bought it from Occidental which was owned by Dr. Armand Hammer. Hammer had split Cities Service Oil Company DBA as Citgo into 2 companies, Citgo and Cities Service and retained Cities Service while selling Citgo (he alrady had Occidental so didn't need the refineries, distribution network, and gas stations). They also jumped into the Finance arena and opened an employee's only, originally, Federal Credit Union, Energy One.How do I know all this? Dad retired from there after almost 40 years with the various incarnations of the company. Plus I cost them millions when after I graduated college and needed some resume copies, the DOS on my program disk replaced the company mainframe DOS and EVERYTHING, from cash registers at the gas stations to refinery systems worldwide, shut down immediately. Took about 2 hours for the systems engineer to reboot it all. (Nice guy though, he took all the blame as he should've put me on a stand alone terminal instead of one of the networked ones.) I also wrote their Corporate Philosphy, Mission Statement, and some other offialese, designed their packaging labels, and modified the logo to modernize it from the 1960's version. The gas pumps still bear my design.So, currently Citgo is the sole outlet for Venezuelan Oil supposedly (after all, why sell to your competitors if you can make a bigger buck selling direct to consumers?). If they try to privatize the company they'll have to clear soo many SEC hurdles and figure out how to employ the thousands of unionized Venezuelan field workers as well as pacify the politically appointed Venezuelan Citgo Executives who replaced the Americans, plus confound their relocation from Tulsa, OK, to Houston, TX, of the corporat headquarters. The process would take years.
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Comment #3 posted by RasAric on July 08, 2004 at 10:39:54 PT
Legal cannabis in a country near you?(off topic)
At a conference about the decriminalisation of cannabis, the Canadian Senate Committee has gone a step further in unanimously endorsing the legalization of cannabis. This includes amnesty for those who have cannabis charges on their criminal records.
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on July 08, 2004 at 10:32:19 PT
Clinton had two sweeping Acts himself
The move towards a complete police state had two major contributions under Clinton. There was something at CounterPunch in the last week mentioning them.The iron fist has occupied Iraq and now the Empire must secure Venezula. Lula in Brazil was a sellout and privitized the national oil company and even sent troops to Haiti in support of the great American Empire. The vote on August 14 in Venezuala to keep or oust Chavez, not only effects cannabis prohibition, it effects the whole of the Empire. It effects the status of democracy in the entire world and not just now, but probably the rest of my life.This piece at CounterPunch is mainly about the false image of Jimmy Carter, but its opening paragraphs cannot avoid the importance of the upcoming vote in Venezuala. Here are the opening paragraphs from the article titled "Beware Jimmy Carter"- http://www.counterpunch.org/petras07082004.htmlOn August 14, 2004, Venezuelan voters will decide on a referendum, which has the utmost world historic and strategic significance. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the energy world, the relations between the US and Latin America (particularly Cuba), and the political and socio-economic fate of millions of Venezuela's urban and rural poor. If Chavez is defeated and if the Right takes power, it will privatize the state petroleum and gas company, selling it to US multinationals, withdraw from OPEC, raise its production and exports to the US, thus lowering Venezuelan revenues by half or more. Internally the popular health programs in the urban "ranchos" will end along with the literary campaign and public housing for the poor. The agrarian reform will be reversed and about 500,000 land reform recipients (100,000 families) will be turned off the land. This will be accomplished through extensive and intensive state bloodletting, jailing and extrajudicial assassination, and intense repression of pro-Chavez neighborhoods, trade unions and social movements. The apparently "democratic" referendum will have profoundly authoritarian, colonial and socially regressive results if the opposition wins.Regionally, an anti-Chavez outcome will tighten the grip of US and Europe on Latin America's oil resources; the denationalization of the petroleum industry in the post-Chavez period will follow in the footsteps of Lula's privatization of Petrobras in Brazil, Gutierrez' privatization in Ecuador and the continuity of private foreign ownership in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Control of Venezuela's oil will heighten US control over world oil, decrease its dependence on the Mid East, especially with high intensity conflict in Iraq now, Saudi Arabia and Iran in the future. Equally important the US will eliminate the strongest opponent of ALCA--the free trade treaty--and pave the way for direct US control over the rules and regulations for trade and investment in the hemisphere. Strategically the US takeover of Venezuelan oil will have grave consequences on the Cuban economy as Washington will abruptly end exports and its client regime will likely break relations. Direct colonial control over Iraq and Venezuela, two of the top suppliers of oil will increase US global power over its competitors, while serving as an "object lesson" to potential opposition regimes.
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Comment #1 posted by psthbng on July 08, 2004 at 09:43:11 PT:
Revision of the Patriot Act
Would this include mailing list's such as High Times etc.?
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