The Anti-Social Sociologist President Barack Obama: Baracksliding Again
Eli Lamb
If you’re like me, you voted for Barack Obama last November under the totally unfounded assumption that you were helping usher in a new era where petty politics and tyranny itself would be laughable memories and for once, we could all just relax and be ourselves.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Obama administration is now looking to be just as malevolent and inept as the Bush circus.
It is suspiciously coincidental that while the nation was totally occupied with the mishandling of the healthcare issue, President Obama released a resolution to extend key elements of the Patriot Act.
The USA PATRIOT Act is a menace to free society. If one has any respect for civil liberties, the constitution or anything for which America stands, there is no room for debate: The curtain needs to fall on this act.
If you aren’t acquainted with the provisions of this heinous legislature, let me break it down: the act allows the federal government to monitor your communication wherever you go, including your internet usage, business transactions and even library records.
It also allows federal agents to search your home without notifying you until much later.
Additionally, your property can be seized if it is determined to be enabling terrorist activity, though the bill’s definition of terrorist activity is vague enough to be abused: according to the Washington Post, as of 2007, more than 1,000 abuses of the Patriot Act have transpired at the hands of the FBI.
The act also calls for increased funding for entities such as the CIA, FBI and DHS.
Even though the Patriot Act practically soared through congress when it was introduced, it has faced harsh criticism since its becoming a law, including disparaging remarks from Barack Obama himself, who professed to the Illinois chapter of the National Organization of Women in 2003 that he’d vote to repeal the act.
His recent announcement to extend the Patriot Act is just another bullet in a long list of backsliding President Obama has done since his inauguration.
Fortunately for us freedom-lovers, the Patriot Act is comprised of “sunset provisions,” that is, its statutes have expiration dates, seemingly so that the law could be done away with if the “War on Terror” is won, or equally unlikely, that level-headed and responsible senators choose not to renew the clauses.
Unfortunately, neither of these things will happen for a very simple reason: tyranny begets terrorism.
Government oppression necessarily fuels resentment, which has historically led to behavior that would be described as terrorist under the Patriot Act. This behavior will naturally be construed by the government as justification for strengthened tyrannical legislation, and the cycle continues until the general populace is neither safe nor free.
Kingsborough has a large Muslim and Arabic community, as well as many foreign students, who are especially vulnerable to the Patriot Act.
Regardless of your origin, I urge all you readers to inspect the act yourselves and to speak up; it’s becoming clearer every day that when it comes to free speech, you must use it or lose it. |
