Thursday, September 27, 2007

2 Patriot Act provisions ruled unlawful


I guess there is still some reason to hope that our constitution still has some meaning, although I am pretty sure this decision will be shot down at the appellate level.


Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

By asking her to dismiss Mayfield's lawsuit, the judge said, the U.S. attorney general's office was "asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so."

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Local Tennis Great Nails "Betray Us" Petraeus


Great job Alan, per your usual!


Gen. David Petraeus is a four-star general, a man of honor, integrity, valor and patriotism. He is a hero. Imagine that Moveon.org would question his veracity. Imagine that Democrats and some Republicans would suggest that such a distinguished officer and gentleman who is beyond reproach would give testimony that is not his own, but heavily influenced by the White House.
He would never cherry pick, distort and manipulate the facts. He would never exclude death by car bombs as part of the death count. He would never exclude those shot in the front of the head in the death count and only include those shot in the back of the head. We have already established that this is a man to be trusted, because we told you so.
Do you believe someone we told you that you can trust or do you believe independent reports by the Government Accountability Office (Sept. 4), the National Intelligence Estimate (Aug. 23), the Jones report (Gen. James L. Jones, CSIS, Sept. 6) which says otherwise? This is like saying another general of higher stature and integrity, Colin Powell, would mislead us with information dictated by the White House.
Oh, I forgot -- he did.
Alan Cheah
Oakhurst