Some Plain Facts
Who voted for the "Patriot" (Police State Expansion) Act?
by Todd Altman
July, 2003
In October 2001, Congress declared war on civil liberties with the passage of the so-called "Patriot" Act:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j112601.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot
So outrageous are the disgraceful provisions of this bill, and so similar in nature to Hitler's Gestapo are the powers they confer to federal bureaucrats, that well over a hundred cities, towns and counties across America have passed resolutions in opposition to this inexcusable assault on the Bill of Rights:
http://www.bordc.org/OtherLocalEfforts.htm
Now, if you intend to vote in next year's presidential primary, and, like me, oppose the shameful manner in which politicians have been using the fear of terrorism as an excuse to wage a virtual terrorist attack of their own on the very liberties for which Muslim extremists supposedly hate us, wouldn't you like to know whether or not the candidate who is seeking your vote supports the "Patriot" (Police State Expansion) Act?
If so, you might be interested to know that the voting records of the candidates who were in Congress at the time the Police State Expansion Act was passed are available at: http://www.vote-smart.org
While at that site, I discovered that Dennis Kucinich voted against this bill, and that Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, John Edwards, Bob Graham, Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden all voted *for* it. Thus, if you vote for Kucinich in the primary, you are saying (in effect) that you oppose the Police State Expansion Act; if you vote for any of the other aforementioned candidates, you're saying that you support it.
Granted, Kucinich may have virtually no chance of winning the nomination, but if the whole purpose of voting in the first place is to have your views represented, then *you* have no chance of winning if you vote for a candidate who *opposes* those views.
Being on the "winning" side and being on the "right" side are not necessarily the same thing.
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Todd Altman is an Air Force veteran, has a bachelors degree from the University of Maryland, and is the author of the Geolibertarian FAQ.
Copyright © 2003 by Todd Altman. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, which includes but is not limited to facsimile transmission, photocopying, recording, rekeying, or using any information storage or retrieval system, without giving full credit to Todd Altman and The Progress Report.
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