Current Events

I was going to write today about going apartment hunting this afternoon. I even had a clever title all picked out. Instead, I need to vent a little about current events.

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill - cleverly titled the USA Patriot Act - that will greatly reduce American Civil Liberties. Among the provisions of the bill (from the Wired article):

• Police can sneak into someone's house or office, search the contents, and leave without ever telling the owner. This would be supervised by a court, and the notification of the surreptitious search "may be delayed" indefinitely. (Section 213)
• Any U.S. attorney or state attorney general can order the installation of the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system and record addresses of Web pages visited and e-mail correspondents -- without going to a judge. Previously, there were stiffer legal restrictions on Carnivore and other Internet surveillance techniques. (Section 216)
• An accused terrorist who is a foreign citizen and who cannot be deported can be held for an unspecified series of "periods of up to six months" with the attorney general's approval. (Section 412)
• Biometric technology, such as fingerprint readers or iris scanners, will become part of an "integrated entry and exit data system" with the identities of visa holders who hope to enter the U.S. (Section 414)
• Any Internet provider or telephone company must turn over customer information, including phone numbers called -- no court order required -- if the FBI claims the "records sought are relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism." The company contacted may not "disclose to any person" that the FBI is doing an investigation. (Section 505)

There are other provisions too; read the article. Better yet, read the bill, because it's for real. President Bush is signing it into law in about 90 minutes.

Seems controversial, no? It probably had a hard time getting through the Senate, right? Wrong. It passed the Senate with a near-unanimous 98-1 vote! The sole dissenter? Senator Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin. Read his statement on the bill; it's apparent that this guy understands the gravity of the bill. John Ashcroft says that he will order federal agents to begin taking advantage of some of these new laws immediately.

And what of the democratic process? I wrote letters to Congress about this bill. I've done it twice in my life, and both in the past couple weeks. I am reasonably certain, however, that these letters were never read, and that they were likely discarded in a biohazard bag.

I'm scared.

October 26, 2001 - 09:00 AM