Category: Rambling

I got an email today from my step-dad. I love and admire the man, I truly do. He tries to do what he thinks is right and that is more than the vast majority of people out there.

The email was a FWD (which I hate, by the way) concerning the alleged “Religion of Peace Demonstration” that took place in London. The email has photos showing the stereotypical Muslim men carrying hate signs (and rather nasty ones, too). The email ends with this text:

Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Moslems?!

Americans need to know – You need to forward this one to everyone! These Pictures tell it all!

Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!

These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush’s war on terror), but were forwarded to me by a Canadian Friend who thought Americans ought to know!

We take a short break to have a quick lesson in how to spot a hoax. Each and every sentence ends in an exclamation point. Second, “forwarded to me by a…friend“. Toss in the misspellings and hit the delete button.

Okay, rant back on. I will say up front that not all the email says is a hoax. Yes, the images are from London. Yes, the people with the signs are Muslims. But the demonstration was not called the “Religion of Peace Demonstration”. It was protests from the Scandinavian cartoons back in Jan. ’06.

My first warning to be doubtful was the statement “These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush’s war on terror)” Puh-leeze! Since when has the US press not supported Bush’s war? Has Fox News buckled to the pressure of true journalism and stopped doctoring news?

Okay, back to my original rant.

I wrote a long missive in response to the email then cut it down to just the basics. My rant would have been lost and would have simply upset my step-father. I’ve decided to post it here, instead. How nice of me, eh? The text below is from me.

What I am going to do is start collecting images and news clips of Fred Phelps. Now there is a Christian extremist! Him and his followers make some of the Islamic extremists look mild! They protest with violent signs, slogans, and shouts at a wide variety of events. Funerals of service men and women who died in Iraq or Afghanistan. Funerals of the people who died when the Minneapolis bridge collapsed. Funerals of AIDS victims, regardless of their sexual preference. Feel like hating someone? Take him on! Sadly, he’s not alone in the Christian extremist realm. Anyone ever sit up late and watch the 700 Club? Or truly listened to Pat Roberts, Jerry Falwell, or any of those other great examples of the Christian faith? I’m glad no one thinks all Christian preachers are like them, either!

Do we condemn the entire Christian religion because of Phelps and Roberts? No. Then why condemn the entire Islamic religion based on the actions of their extremists? Why the double standard? Because we aren’t Islamic and therefore it is okay? Us vs Them? We follow the same God! We follow the same freakin’ God! Christians follow Christ and Muslims follow Muhammad. Different doors to the same God! I cannot hate an entire group for the actions of a small percentage of them. If I did, then I’d never speak to Jim again because he is a Republican.

Please, don’t send me any more “hate” mail. I don’t want to hate anyone. I want to be a Christian, which means to be Christ-like. Christ only got really mad once. That was when he saw the moneychangers in the temple. Like I said earlier, ever watched the 700 Club?

There. I said it. I feel better. As always, I welcome comments.

Linkage:
Urban Legends (now part of About.com) – Muslim ‘Religion of Peace’ Demonstration
Snopes – Muslim Demonstration
NewsBlaze – “Religion of Peace Demonstration Hoax” Photos
Wikipedia – Fred Phelps | 700 Club

From BBCNews, of course:

Bush ‘involved’ in CIA leak case

A former White House press secretary has said the US president was involved in misinforming the public over the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.

In an excerpt from his book, Scott McClellan says George W Bush helped mislead the public over the role in the affair of two White House aides.

The CIA agent, Valerie Plame, says her identity was leaked because her diplomat husband opposed the Iraq war.

The White House said Mr Bush would not ask anyone to pass false information.

Mr McClellan’s book is not scheduled for publication until April and the excerpt released was brief.

It refers to a White House press conference he attended in 2003.

At the conference, Mr McClellan told journalists that the two aides Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby were “not involved” in leaking Ms Plame’s identity.

The excerpt reads: “There was one problem. It was not true.

“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice-president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself.”

link to full article
MyWay News has another article.

Like, this is news to anyone, really. It only confirms what most of us thought was going on anyway. The BBC article has a quote from the current White House Press Secretary who says “The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information.” Oh, right! Let’s not forget The Downing Street Memo from the UK acknowledging everyone knew there were no WMDs in Iraq.

Oh! Did you hear the latest military fiasco-slash-embarrassment? Seems as though in order to beef up the over-worked, over-tired, under-paid military grunts, the various branches offer “bonuses” for signing on. The deal is, remain in for X amount of time and the bonus is yours. Fine. Except…what happens if you are injured and can’t stay in, like far too many young men and women? You guessed it. You lose the bonus. So much for supporting our troops, eh? “We’ll send you into a battle zone where you could get blown up at any time. Survive this journey, and the money is yours. Get injured, well, bets are off. Oh, and buy your own protective gear, learn how to armor your own vehicle, and good luck on that bomb in the sand thing.”

Carpetbagger Report
KDKA Report

From MyWay News:

2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

By WILLIAM McCALL

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – 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.”

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

(…)

Mayfield claimed that secret searches of his house and office under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. Aiken agreed with Mayfield, repeatedly criticizing the government.

“For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law – with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised,” she wrote.

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.”

(link to article)

By the way, the USA Patriot Act’s official title is: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act – what a mouthful! They must have shortened it to Patriot Act in order for Shrub to get it right.

Linkage:

Patriot Act Guide however, each time I try to view this guide, the bandwidth is exceeded and I cannot access it. Gee, if the money wasn’t being funneled into an endless, needless war, the gov’t might be able to afford more bandwidth.

Wikipedia | US Patriot Act

ACLU | US Patriot Act | “Reform the Patriot Act” action | Text of the US Patriot Act

WhiteHouse.gov | Patriot Act it is interesting to read their side of it. Sad, but interesting.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | Patriot Act

From BBCNews:

Shock at archbishop condom claim

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.

Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected “in order to finish quickly the African people”.

The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.

Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them “nonsense”.

“We’ve been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe,” prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC.

(…)

Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.

“Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose,” he alleged, refusing to name the countries.

“They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century’s time.”

Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop’s comments.

“Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids,” said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) – an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness.

“People must use condoms as it’s a safe way of having sex without catching Aids,” he told the BBC.

Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 43 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter.

“If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible.

“If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it’s necessary to have a new mentality, if we don’t change mentality we’ll be finished quickly,” he said.

“It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives… (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations.”

(link to article)

He has valid points. Abstention IS the best way to prevent the spread of HIV. However, that point is lost in his claim of tainted condoms. The Catholic Church has had blinders on for too long. It is my opinion that they feel that if you die from a sexually transmitted disease, then that is your punishment for your sin.

Long ago someone gave this analogy for something quite different, but it fits here, too.

A man is walking along a river and sees a child out in the water, drowning. He goes and gets the child, wraps him in a blanket, then sees another child. He rescues that one, too. Meanwhile, other people stop to help. They gather together to assist the two children when they see yet more out in the water, drowning. The first man and several others, rush out into the water to save the children, bring them ashore, where others help to dry them off, warm them, etc. And, you guessed it, more children are out in the water, drowning.

This goes on and on. Resources are limited and while outside help if arriving, they are not enough to help the growing number of children out in the river, still drowning. Not all are saved, sadly.

As in the first time I heard this, someone needs to go upstream to see why so many children are in the water. How are they getting in there? What can be done to stop them from getting into the water to begin with?

The Catholic Church doesn’t care how you get into the water. You got there through your own sins and if you can pull yourself out, they’ll help you. Good children don’t get into the swift water. If they only went upstream a little bit and see that there are things that can be done to prevent the problem…well, there’d be less people drowning.

Abstention is nearly impossible. It isn’t in our basic nature to abstain from sexual relations. I am soooo glad I am not a teen in today’s world. Surrounded by sex from all sides. Sex is used in advertising, in politics, in nightly news, in newspapers, the vast Internet is overwhelmed by it. How to abstain when surrounded by mostly positive imagery of it? “Drink our beverage and get laid!” “Eat our protein bar and get laid!” “Use our tires and get laid!”

Safe sex in literature is gone. It was so wonderfully present for a while, and now it is gone. Abstinence is rarely in literature unless it is a side-effect of something another. Purity and all that. Why can’t one be pure and still get a little sex on the side? Purity is a state of mind, not a state of body. The body can never be pure. It pees, it shits, it sweats, it grows fungus and bacteria.

Nevertheless, it is scary what this man believes. I wonder how the Catholic Church will respond?

From Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) “Religion and Faith News“:

This calendar year, Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah, two of the most sacred times for Muslim and Jewish people, begin on the same day, September 12. We, in the Religion and Faith Program, hope the season carries with it profound blessings for both Muslim and Jewish people. For our Muslim friends, we pray that your fast is meaningful, that you find opportunity for regular prayer, for reading the Qur’an and for reflecting on Allah’s love. We wish our Jewish friends shanah tova, a blessed New Year. May this time of reflection and introspection usher in a year sweet with the promise of joy and peace. It is our deepest wish that the rich teachings of compassion, self-discipline, and contemplation, present in both the Qur’an and the Torah and reflected in the observances of Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah, enrich all our communities of faith.

I ditto this.

We are all worshiping the same God. We just happen to call God by different names, just like some of us say Ma, others say Mom, and others say Mommy. Same person, just different titles. We see God through different doors. I may see Mom as Mom but Ryan sees her as Grandma and Jim sees her as Honey. Same person, just different angles. We all have holy books. The Qur’an, the Torah, and the Bible all teach love, faith, neighborliness, and how to pray. Some of us pray on our knees, others on our feet. Some pray with their heads on the floor, some pray with their face to the sky. Doesn’t matter. We. Are. Praying. To. The. Same. God.

I am tired of the entire Islamic religion being blamed for the actions of what amounts to very few. We don’t blame all the Christians for Pat Robertson, do we? Not all Christians see life the same as Robertson (thank God, Allah, and G-d!). And while Robertson’s followers didn’t fly four planes into buildings and the ground, I’d bet even more have died as a result of his statements and actions. Death by suicide bomber or suicide is still death.

Oy. Ya know, if the Americans with Disabilities Act (a SEVENTEEN year old law) was followed like it should be, fat obese able-bodied Americans would have one less thing to use as an excuse hindering them from exercising via walking.

From MyWay News:

Exercisers Stuck in Unwalkable Settings
By MIKE STOBBE

ATLANTA (AP) – Nearly one in four people in the Atlanta area are exercise enthusiasts stuck in neighborhoods without sidewalks or other walking amenities, according to a study that illustrates a problem for many Americans. Researchers said the findings point to the need for more exercise-friendly places to live.

“The bottom line is the built environment really does matter to health,” said Lawrence Frank, a University of British Columbia researcher who led the study.

Walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have sidewalks leading to nearby shops, restaurants or other destinations. They are built in a way that makes it easier to walk and get to buses and trains. Many are older neighborhoods, located in more urban areas.

Frank is among a group of scientists who have shown that people who live in walkable neighborhoods tend to weigh less than people who live in more isolated and car-dependent areas.

“He’s the first one to make a connection between land use and obesity,” said Christopher Leinberger, director of the University of Michigan’s real estate program.

Frank’s current study examined whether a community’s walkability affected obesity rates. The research showed that exercisers had a similarly low obesity rate whether they lived in walkable neighborhoods or not. It was 12 percent for those in walkable areas versus 15 percent in non-walkable neighborhoods, a difference that was not statistically significant.

Among those who prefer to drive, however, about 21.5 percent were obese, and it also didn’t matter whether they lived in walkable or non-walkable neighborhoods.

The distances driven were also noted. Exercisers in walkable neighborhoods drove 26 miles a day, while those in non-walkable neighborhoods drove about 37 miles.

Among non-exercisers, those in walkable neighborhoods drove 26 miles, and compared to 43 miles in areas that were mostly car-friendly.

(link to article)

What? Neighborhoods with sidewalks? Too dangerous for pedestrians to walk on the side of the street? Hello? Wheelers have been asking for sidewalks for eons. Many of us are forced to roll in the street, even when there are sidewalks (curb cuts are not hard to make, folks, really).

A 17 yr old law won’t get sidewalks in American neighborhoods but a study linking the lack of them to obesity will. I think the study and its results are interesting, however.

A good friend of mine, heck, my best friend, sent me an email the other day. Lately she must be in a patriotic mood because a lot of what she’s sent has been anti-Islam/Muslim. But, then again, she’s a devout Republican and has never been exorcised of that demon.

Usually I read what she has forwarded (along with all the other info from other forwards) and I get on with whatever else I have been doing. I roll my eyes and hit the delete button harder than usual but that’s as far as I go.

What she has most recently sent me, I just cannot let it pass.

Basically, the message in the post was “I don’t care.” Here’s a snippet.

“Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they?

And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was “desecrated” when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?..Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all.

I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .

I’ll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I’ll care when the cowardly so-called “insurgents” in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don’t care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don’t care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed “special” food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled,” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don’t care.

Emotional terrorism is being used in this message. First off, the mess in Iran has very little to do with what happened in NYC, PA, and DC. Bush didn’t send troops to Iran to stop terrorism. It has been proven that the reasons for the orders were falsified and had nothing to do with the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 tragedies. Anyone who understands these facts and dares to bring this up is labeled unpatriotic and uncaring. “Proof” of this happens later in the email letter:

If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country!

I care! Hell, I care as much as everyone else! I just don’t think their deaths justify the hatred of an entire religion and people! To say that Islam is to blame for 9/11 is saying that Christianity is to blame for the mess in Iran! Wasn’t Hitler a Christian? Wasn’t Mussolini a Catholic? Aren’t the people who blow up abortion clinics and gay bars doing so based on their religious beliefs? Their Christian beliefs?

When we stop caring about those around us, we become no better than the worst of them. We are lower than the worst of them. Caring is what sets the winners apart. Caring is what keeps us alive. We cannot, should not, use the religion as a basis of war without first understanding our own.

Justifying one tragedy by causing another is wrong. Just plain wrong. We can’t survive as a people by doing that. The U.S. is based on freedoms. This nation was started by folks who were tired of having freedoms taken away. They had enough of financial and emotional terrorism and fought back. Then they set up laws to protect the very freedoms they valued the most. Religious freedom and the freedom to be different were very, very important to them.

To say we don’t care now about the rights of others, the freedoms of others, we spit in the founding fathers’ faces. We step on the very reason so many died trying to gain. We should care, a LOT, about the behavior of our troops in Iran. We should care that they are overwhelmed, understaffed, over-worked, and under-paid. We should care that these factors create an atmosphere where torturing prisoners is an acceptable behavior. We should care that innocents are being killed by alleged “friendly fire”. We should care that their rights to religious items while in prison is being ignored. We should care that their religious items are being desecrated. We cannot stand upon a platform of freedom while shoring up the foundation with the bodies of innocents, the humiliation of prisoners of war, lies and falsified documents, and hatred of religions not our own.

Are we no more than children on the playground? “Osama just beat me up but I can’t reach him so I am going to beat you instead and tell everyone that I’m doing it because you kinda sorta maybe know Osama. But I’m really beating you up now because you beat me up a long time ago and got away with it because the teachers called us back into the classroom.”

Our troops need to come home. They aren’t there being brave Americans. They are stretched to their limit with inadequate equipment surrounded by citizens who didn’t want them there to begin with. They are there doing their job because their boss is a bully in the global playground and told them to go.

Oh, and dear Patriotic zealots who write emails such as the one I quoted above, get your facts straight first. Islamics don’t believe in nirvana, that’s a Buddhism and Hinduism thing. College hazing, such as piling naked men together, is illegal in the US and therefor the same behavior should be illegal in the military.

All of this from Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) newsletter, the EFFector:

(note: some of the URLs’ text at the end of the articles were shortened to fit)

Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches

Landmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls

San Francisco – The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls — the first circuit court ever to make that finding.

Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant. But today’s ruling — closely following the reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups — found that the SCA violates the Fourth Amendment.

“Email users expect that their Hotmail and Gmail inboxes are just as private as their postal mail and their telephone calls,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “The government tried to get around this common-sense conclusion, but the Constitution applies online as well as offline, as the court correctly found. That means that the government can’t secretly seize your emails without a warrant.”

Warshak v. United States was brought in the Southern District of Ohio federal court by Steven Warshak to stop the government’s repeated secret searches and seizures of his stored email using the SCA. The district court ruled that the government cannot use the SCA to obtain stored email without a warrant or prior notice to the email account holder, but the government appealed that ruling to the 6th Circuit. EFF served as an amicus in the case, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Law professors Susan Freiwald and Patricia Bellia also submitted an amicus brief, and the case was successfully argued at the 6th Circuit by Warshak’s counsel Martin Weinberg.

For the full ruling in Warshak v. United States:
6th_circuit_decision_upholding_injunction.pdf

For EFF’s resources on the case, including its amicus brief:
warshak_v_usa

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_06.php#005321

Judge Orders FBI to Release NSL Abuse Records

New Evidence of Misuse Prompts Immediate Response in EFF FOIA Lawsuit

Washington, D.C. On Monday, a judge ordered the FBI to finally release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans’ personal information. The ruling came just a day after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the judge to immediately respond in its lawsuit over agency delays.

EFF sued the FBI in April for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the misuse of NSLs as revealed in a Justice Department report. This week, the Washington Post uncovered more evidence of abuse, and EFF urged the judge Thursday to force the FBI to stop stalling the release of its records on the deeply flawed program.

“The reports we’ve seen so far about NSL abuse are just the tip of the iceberg,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “FBI officials told the Washington Post that there have likely been several thousand total instances of misuse. Americans deserve answers about this scandal and
how the FBI has abused its power to spy on ordinary citizens.”

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI can use NSLs to get private records about anyone’s domestic phone calls, emails and financial transactions without any court approval — as long as it claims the information could be relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation. Without a judge’s oversight, the law is ripe for the abuse that has been uncovered in these recent reports.

“The law itself is the source of the problem. It’s time for Congress to repeal these expanded NSL powers and protect Americans from this abuse of authority,” said Hofmann.

The judge’s order requires the FBI to process 2500 pages of NSL-related records by July 5, and then 2500 pages every 30 days thereafter.

For the judge’s order:
http://www.eff.org/flag/nsl/bates_order.pdf

For EFF’s supplemental memo:
http://eff.org/flag/nsl/supplemental_memo.pdf

For the Washington Post article on NSLs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_06.php#005317

FBI’s Abuse of USA PATRIOT Act Even Worse Than We Thought

According to the Washington Post, “An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, emails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.”

That report painted a horror story, including massive abuses of so-called National Security Letters (NSLs). Before PATRIOT, the FBI could only use NSLs to obtain the records of suspected terrorists or spies. But under PATRIOT, the FBI can use them to get private records about anybody without any court approval, as long as it believes the information could be relevant to an authorized terrorism or espionage investigation.

>From the moment PATRIOT was passed, EFF said the NSL power was unconstitutional and ripe for abuse, and these new revelations make it more clear than ever that Congress should repeal PATRIOT’s expansion of NSL powers and reform the USA PATRIOT Act as a whole.

Take action now and tell Congress to stop the abuse of surveillance powers:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy

For this post:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005314.php