Section 215.
Sep. 19th, 2003 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI was going to post a standard newsie post, the things I saw today. There is some good stuff. The cover of The Economist is hilarious this week. A youth pastor has been arrested for trying to smuggle a 16 year old girl into Canada in the trunk of his car, apparently to have sex with her. The Saudis contemplate the bomb. Viruses become payloads for chemotherapy treatments. And, last but not least, Bush can't really say why we went to Iraq, all post-hoc reasoning aside.
No, what I'm going to rant about today is something known as Section 215. That's the paragraph in the USA PATRIOT Act that authorizes the FBI to obtain business records, including library records, without the need to obtain a warrant from a bench court. Byron York had the sheer gall in an article entitled Patriot Games to repeat Ashcroft's assertion that concerns over Section 215 are overblown and "hysterical," and to belittle those who over the past 18 months have attacked section 215. He points out that, after all the worry, Section 215 "has never been used."
At least, that's what Ashcroft is telling us now. And Ashcroft's been saying for months that he can't tell us how often Section 215 is invoked "in the name of national security." When asked why the information was classified until recently, Ashcroft's spokesminion said, "We don't want the terrorists to know what we're doing. We want them to be afraid. We want them to feel as if we are looking over their shoulder whenever they go into a public building, like a library."
The problem with this is that Section 215 makes everyone feel as if "the government is looking over their shoulder." And that's an un-American way to feel. We don't appreciate the government looking over our shoulder.
Ashcroft says we shouldn't worry. We're only after the bad guys. Well, the fact is, we're all "bad guys" of one kind or another. Even if you don't do anything prosecutable, goddess knows your reading habits are sure to be the subject of ridicule by someone. Do you want to give Ashcroft and company the power to make that information public?
"Justice" in a purely philosophical sense relies completely on there being some give to the system, that sometimes bad guys get away, and that that's the price we pay for having a sense of freedom. It's the presumption of liberty. Ashcroft and his ilk would prefer that we presume that governmental power is more important than liberty until we prove that their actions lead to totalitarianism.
Section 215 is bad law. I'm not reassured by Ashcroft's "We've never used it." I don't want him to have it, period. I don't want to feel afraid when I go to the library, or the bookstore.
I want to be an American. A sovereign citizen, not a subject of the state.
No, what I'm going to rant about today is something known as Section 215. That's the paragraph in the USA PATRIOT Act that authorizes the FBI to obtain business records, including library records, without the need to obtain a warrant from a bench court. Byron York had the sheer gall in an article entitled Patriot Games to repeat Ashcroft's assertion that concerns over Section 215 are overblown and "hysterical," and to belittle those who over the past 18 months have attacked section 215. He points out that, after all the worry, Section 215 "has never been used."
At least, that's what Ashcroft is telling us now. And Ashcroft's been saying for months that he can't tell us how often Section 215 is invoked "in the name of national security." When asked why the information was classified until recently, Ashcroft's spokesminion said, "We don't want the terrorists to know what we're doing. We want them to be afraid. We want them to feel as if we are looking over their shoulder whenever they go into a public building, like a library."
The problem with this is that Section 215 makes everyone feel as if "the government is looking over their shoulder." And that's an un-American way to feel. We don't appreciate the government looking over our shoulder.
Ashcroft says we shouldn't worry. We're only after the bad guys. Well, the fact is, we're all "bad guys" of one kind or another. Even if you don't do anything prosecutable, goddess knows your reading habits are sure to be the subject of ridicule by someone. Do you want to give Ashcroft and company the power to make that information public?
"Justice" in a purely philosophical sense relies completely on there being some give to the system, that sometimes bad guys get away, and that that's the price we pay for having a sense of freedom. It's the presumption of liberty. Ashcroft and his ilk would prefer that we presume that governmental power is more important than liberty until we prove that their actions lead to totalitarianism.
Section 215 is bad law. I'm not reassured by Ashcroft's "We've never used it." I don't want him to have it, period. I don't want to feel afraid when I go to the library, or the bookstore.
I want to be an American. A sovereign citizen, not a subject of the state.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-19 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-19 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-19 09:14 pm (UTC)Well, unfortunately, that net is too broad. "People" are afraid it will be used.
unAmerica
Date: 2003-09-19 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-20 03:54 am (UTC)