Why vote if you have no rights?

Does it matter if the voting machines work or not(regardless if they are MS
or iSeries)
 if you have virtually no rights?

Anyone care to discuss the implications to the Patriot Act II?
Does anyone really even care?

I copied this from the CPF0000 list

-------------------------------------------------
This just in:

The Bill of rights was suspended today to further protect our citizens from
terrorism.   The department of fatherland security which recently issued
the Patriot Act II should be applauded for removing the impediments which
previously have hampered the government from protecting you from the wide
spread terrorism.

Special note; Junior members of the TIPS program can now trade in their old
green boy/girl scout uniforms for some new snappy Brown Shirts and pants.
Remember kids,  if you notice any of your neighbors / relatives / parents /
friends saying anything subversive(refer to your handbooks), report it
immediately to your security contact stationed at every school. (Report
everything, let your security contact judge the vapidities).

Read the below articles of the Patriot Act II outlined below.  And just see
how it makes us more safe and secure against the tide of terror that is now
in our streets.

------------------------------------------------

I hope you realize the above was a weak attempt at satirical humor.
BUT the below sections are NOT.  They are the real encapsulation of what
was just proposed by the Administration.  The information below is No joke.
it is real.   (if you are not old enough to understand the "Brown Shirt"
reference, talk to someone who lived thru WWII.)

<SNIP>
Completely gone are the right to a fair trial, the right to be safe in
one's home, the right to confront one's accuser, the right to legal
representation and the right to be recognized as innocent until proven
guilty in a court of law.And further, Attorney General John Ashcroft plans
further incursions into America's privacy by placing new restrictions on
Internet and phone communications.
 http://www.rense.com/general32/asno.htm
<SNIP>

Here is a quick thumbnail sketch of just some of the measures encapsulated
within this legislation:

------------------------------------
Back Ground info.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/lewis.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_lewis2.html

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspatr083121314feb08,0,648543.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print


----------------------

SECTION 501
(Expatriation of Terrorists) expands the Bush administration's "enemy
combatant" definition to all American citizens who "may" have violated any
provision of Section 802 of the first Patriot Act. (Section 802 is the new
definition of domestic terrorism, and the definition is "any action that
endangers human life that is a violation of any Federal or State law.")
Section 501 of the second Patriot Act directly connects to Section 125 of
the same act. The Justice Department boldly claims that the incredibly
broad Section 802 of the First USA Patriot Act isn't broad enough and that
a new, unlimited definition of terrorism is needed.

Under Section 501 a US citizen engaging in lawful activities can be grabbed
off the street and thrown into a van never to be seen again. The Justice
Department states that they can do this because the person "had inferred
from conduct" that they were not a US citizen. Remember Section 802 of the
First USA Patriot Act states that any violation of Federal or State law can
result in the "enemy combatant" terrorist designation.

SECTION 201
of the second Patriot Act makes it a criminal act for any member of the
government or any citizen to release any information concerning the
incarceration or whereabouts of detainees. It also states that law
enforcement does not even have to tell the press who they have arrested and
they never have to release the names.

SECTION 301 and 306
(Terrorist Identification Database) set up a national database of
"suspected terrorists" and radically expand the database to include anyone
associated with suspected terrorist groups and anyone involved in crimes or
having supported any group designated as "terrorist." These sections also
set up a national DNA database for anyone on probation or who has been on
probation for any crime, and orders State governments to collect the DNA
for the Federal government.

SECTION 312
gives immunity to law enforcement engaging in spying operations against the
American people and would place substantial restrictions on court
injunctions against Federal violations of civil rights across the board.
SECTION 101 will designate individual terrorists as foreign powers and
again strip them of all rights under the "enemy combatant" designation.
SECTION 102 states clearly that any information gathering, regardless of
whether or not those activities are illegal, can be considered to be
clandestine intelligence activities for a foreign power. This makes news
gathering illegal.

SECTION 103
allows the Federal government to use wartime martial law powers
domestically and internationally without Congress declaring that a state of
war exists.

SECTION 106
is bone-chilling in its straightforwardness. It states that broad
general warrants by the secret FSIA court (a panel of secret judges set up
in a star chamber system that convenes in an undisclosed location) granted
under the first Patriot Act are not good enough. It states that government
agents must be given immunity for carrying out searches with no prior court
approval. This section throws out the entire Fourth Amendment against
unreasonable searches and seizures.

SECTION 109
 allows secret Star Chamber courts to issue contempt charges against any
individual or corporation who refuses to incriminate themselves or others.
This section annihilates the last vestiges of the Fifth Amendment.

SECTION 110
 restates that key police state clauses in the first Patriot Act were not
sunsetted and removes the five year sunset clause from other subsections of
the first Patriot Act. After all, the media has told us: "this is the New
America. Get used to it. This is forever."

SECTION 111
 expands the definition of the "enemy combatant" designation.

SECTION 122
 restates the government's newly announced power of "surveillance without a
court order."

SECTION 123
 restates that the government no longer needs warrants and that the
investigations can be a giant dragnet-style sweep described in press
reports about the Total Information Awareness Network. One passage reads,
"thus the focus of domestic surveillance may be less precise than that
directed against more conventional types of crime."

*Note: Over and over again, in subsection after subsection, the second
Patriot Act states that its new Soviet-type powers will be used to fight
international terrorism, domestic terrorism and other types of crimes. Of
course the government has already announced in Section 802 of the first USA
Patriot act that any crime is considered domestic terrorism.

SECTION 126
 grants the government the right to mine the entire spectrum of public and
private sector information from bank records to educational and medical
records. This is the enacting law to allow ECHELON and the Total
Information Awareness Network to take break down any and all walls of
privacy. The government states that they must look at everything to
"determine" if individuals or groups might have a connection to terrorist
groups. As you can now see, you are guilty until proven innocent.

SECTION 127
 allows the government to takeover coroners' and medical examiners'
operations whenever they see fit. See how this is like Bill Clinton's
special medical examiner he had in Arkansas that ruled that people had
committed suicide when their arms and legs had been cut off.

SECTION 128
 allows the Federal government to place gag orders on Federal and State
Grand Juries and to take over the proceedings. It also disallows
individuals or organizations to even try to quash a Federal subpoena. So
now defending yourself will be a terrorist action.

SECTION 129
 destroys any remaining whistleblower protection for Federal agents.

SECTION 202
 allows corporations to keep secret their activities with toxic biological,
chemical or radiological materials.

SECTION 205
 allows top Federal officials to keep all their financial dealings secret,
and anyone investigating them can be considered a terrorist. This should be
very useful for Dick Cheney to stop anyone investigating Haliburton.

SECTION 303
 sets up national DNA database of suspected terrorists. The database will
also be used to "stop other unlawful activities." It will share the
information with state, local and foreign agencies for the same purposes.

SECTION 311
 federalizes your local police department in the area of information
sharing
.
SECTION 313
 provides liability protection for businesses, especially big businesses
that spy on their customers for Homeland Security, violating their privacy
agreements. It goes on to say that these are all preventative measures ?
has anyone seen Minority Report? This is the access hub for the Total
Information Awareness Network.

SECTION 321
 authorizes foreign governments to spy on the American people and to share
information with foreign governments.

SECTION 322
 removes Congress from the extradition process and allows officers of the
Homeland Security complex to extradite American citizens anywhere they
wish. It also allows Homeland Security to secretly take individuals out of
foreign countries.

SECTION 402
 is titled "Providing Material Support to Terrorism." The section reads
that there is no requirement to show that the individual even had the
intent to aid terrorists.

SECTION 403
 expands the definition of weapons of mass destruction to include any
activity that affects interstate or foreign commerce.

SECTION 404
 makes it a crime for a terrorist or "other criminals" to use encryption in
the commission of a crime.

SECTION 408
 creates "lifetime parole" (basically, slavery) for a whole host of crimes.

SECTION 410
 creates no statute of limitations for anyone that engages in terrorist
actions or supports terrorists. Remember: any crime is now considered
terrorism under the first Patriot Act.

SECTION 411
 expands crimes that are punishable by death. Again, they point to Section
802 of the first Patriot Act and state that any terrorist act or support of
terrorist act can result in the death penalty.

SECTION 421
 increases penalties for terrorist financing. This section states that any
type of financial activity connected to terrorism will result to time in
prison and $10-50,000 fines per violation.

SECTIONS 427
 sets up asset forfeiture provisions for anyone engaging in terrorist
activities.

"I challenge all Americans to study the new Patriot Act and to compare it
to the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. Ninety
percent of the act has nothing to do with.

Joe McCarthy, J.Edgar Hoover, and Joe Stalin would have given their
eyeteeth to have this support behind them.  (actually These ARE the laws
that Joe Stalin had instituted himself.)