The U.S. government is on the verge of passing a surveillance bill that some are calling the Patriot Act 2.0. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, aka CISA, will double down on all the bulk data the government has already been collecting on you. Plus now it’ll allow businesses to share your personal info with the government and with each other – if they deem what you’re doing a threat. But we all know that’s open to interpretation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night to extend through 2020 a controversial surveillance authority under the Patriot Act.
The move comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers is preparing legislation to scale back the government’s spying powers under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com …
Freedom Outpost
Over the past few days, the world has been reminded of the dangers of terrorism born from radical Islam. The first attack happened at a busy shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya where a Somali terror group with links to Al Qaeda killed at least 60 people and took many more hostage. At present, it seems that at least 5 and perhaps as many as 10 of the terrorists were American citizens.
The second attack came in the form of twin suicide bombings at an All Saints Church, which is a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan. The terrorist group responsible for this is also Al Qaeda linked with headquarters in Palestinian territory. This attack killed at least 120 people. The reason for the attack is said to be because of American drone strikes in Pakistan.
These recent attacks only echo the mindset behind terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and all radical Islamic terrorist organizations.
This year alone we have witnessed the barbarism of an Al Qaeda rebel fighter in Syria cutting the heart out of a government soldier and eating it. (WARNING: The following videos are graphic in nature)
Family Security Matters
The thing about a police state is that it tends to creep up on you. One day you think the Bill of Rights is intact and the freedoms you take for granted are intact, but the next day you find out that under the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1540), signed into law by President Obama on December 31, 2011, you can be arrested and detained without recourse to an attorney or the courts.
HR 1540 kills the concept of Habeas Corpus by permitting the detention of U.S. citizens without trial. In 2009 the National Emergency Centers Act, HR 645, was introduced for the establishment of “internment camps.” I have not been able to determine if it was passed and signed into law, nor have I found any explanation why the Congress of the United States either passed or even considered these laws.
On January 21, 2013 WeAreChange went to Washington DC for Barack Obama’s second Presidential Inauguration. While we were there we hosted a quiz show where we offered $100 to anyone who could correctly answer 3 out of 5 questions about the man they were there supporting. This was an opportunity for us to possibly educate some people on things his administration has done that they were most likely unaware of. Unfortunately, most people were more concerned about the money than some of the things they learned about their President.
Western Journalism
In the decade which has followed the taking of 3000 American lives by Muslim terrorists, Washington politicians have done more damage to our Constitution and posed a greater threat to the rights and liberty of the American people than could have been conceived of or accomplished by all the Muslims in all the backward, barbaric, Islamic regimes of the world.
After 9/11, the American people were interested in two things—getting even and making certain it didn’t happen again.
CFP
As the attention of most Americans was captivated by the shiny object in Times Square this weekend like infants fixated on car keys dangled in front of them, Barack Hussein Obama signed into law H.R. 1540, better known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Regardless of any concurrent executive signing statements that are mere window dressing and not legally binding, Obama and every member of congress who crafted and voted for this act has essentially declared war on American citizens on U.S. soil.
To quote Rush Limbaugh, “words mean things.” As a career investigator, I can assure you that words contained in local, state and federal laws most certainly mean things, and provide the legal authority for conduct sanctioned by national or state authorities without regard to any promised judicial or prosecutorial discretion that could be likened to the signing statement. The NDAA now codifies the most controversial aspects of the Patriot Act, which “candidate” Obama publicly opposed. What changed?
American Thinker
Last week, the FBI released its preliminary crime statistics for the first half of 2011, and across the nation violent crimes dropped 6.7% while property crimes dropped 3.7%. This continues a downward trend that dates back to the 1970’s.
Many of the violent crimes reported this year have been sensational. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and Federal Judge John Roll were targeted by a lone, crazed gunman and there were a number of other gruesome crimes. The Giffords/Roll shooting was brought to an end by a bystander. The Ft. Hood massacre on November 5, 2009, which killed 13 American soldiers and wounded 29 others was brought to an end by two base police officers using conventional sidearms and procedures. The warning signs for this terrorist attack, the first on American soil since 9/11, were ignored and yet it was the local cops on the beat who faced and dealt with a terrible crime.
American Thinker
An old adage reads, “If it quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.” The push by the Obama Administration to progressively strip Americans of basic liberties in the pursuit of political objectives has now taken on more draconian overtones, and no one seems to have noticed.
While the media quibbles over Romney versus Gingrich, the Occupy movement, and other diversions, President Obama continues to undermine law and order, dismantling the US Constitution piece by piece. When public officials seek to limit freedom, it can be concluded that these officials want to rule instead of govern.
Republican leadership stumbled this week with two bills going down in defeat on the House floor, a highly unusual occurrence in a chamber where the majority rules nearly absolutely and leadership rarely calls votes without knowing in advance they will win.
A key reason one bill went down – a reauthorization of the Patriot Act – was that GOP leaders allowed only 45 minutes of debate on the measure and scheduled the vote under suspension of the rules, usually reserved for non-controversial proposals.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, blasted his fellow party for how they brought up the bill. “Little debate, no committee hearings held, no amendments allowed, and no examination of whether our government had lived up to its responsibility to protect the liberty of the people,” is how he put it in a press release.
Socialism is not the Answer 