TODAY - State of CA Senate - passes REPEAL of Patriot Act!

CA - TODAY - passes Repeal of Patriot Act!

The CA State Senate voted 23-10 this morning, February 16,  to pass the  Resolution calling for CONGRESS TO REPEAL the unconstitutional provisions of the USA Patriot Act.

California has joined seven other states to become the 8th state to pass Anti-Patriot Act Resolutions.

The other states are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, and Vermont.

Colorado, Idaho, and Montana voted Republican in the November election.  Alaska has 2 Republican Senators and its only Congressional Rep. is Republican.

Since the resolution was passed by the State Assembly, this means that the resolution has passed the State Legislature and a letter will be sent to Congress requesting repeal of the unconstitutional sections and that it directs the state agencies to not use any resources to enforce any unconstitutional sections of the Patriot Act.

California has now joined 7 other states in passing similar resolutions.

---Thank you Bill of Rights Defenders,
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) successfully managed to stall the PATRIOT Act re authorization on Wednesday, February 15!  

The White House version of the re authorization recently sold to four Republican senators (Sununu from New Hampshire, Hagel from Nebraska, Murkowski from Alaska and Craig from Idaho) is being held up for at least a few more days.  

John Sununu plans to introduce a "fig leaf" amendment in today's session.  My understanding is that the reauthre authorizationwill come up again in two weeks (Mar 1).  

We have time to continue our campaign against these abrasions to our liberties!

http:HTTPngold.senate.gov~feingold/statements/06/02/2006216.html  
http://www.mercurynews.com/....  

We must keep the pressure on all our Senators - especially in those four states!

IMPT - The reauthorization package is NOT acceptable.  Especially not after all we've learned since July when the original reauthorization bills were passed by the House and Senate - and certainly not after we've learned that a NEW SECRET SERVICE POLICE FORCE AND FREE SPEECH EXCLUSTION ZONES will be created by this White House reauthorization.  

The White House must not dictate the terms of the PATRIOT Act reauthorization!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/....  
http://www.counterpunch.org/....  
CONTACT THESE Rep.'s - NOW - WE THE PEOPLE - MUST STOP THIS ATTACK ON OUR RIGHTS!!!!!

Sununu from New Hampshire;
Hagel from Nebraska;
Murkowski from Alaska;
Craig from Idaho.

•  beautiful!

  i should harass my city council!

  by Cedwyn on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:41:05 PM PDT

•  nice Cedwyn :)

  great diary. recommended.

  by the way I booked my trip to portland yesterday. June 2-12. http://www.portlandpeace.org

  by OrangeClouds115 on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:43:49 PM PDT

•  Great

  Why does CA hate America?

  by Tux on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:44:24 PM PDT

•  Great news, but you might want...

  ...to alter the title from it's currently misleading "passes REPEAL of anti-Patriot Act" to "passes Anti-Patriot Act Act" or something like that.

  if they "repeal" the "ANTI-patriot act", that's basically a double-negative, meaning that they approve of the patriot act, ya know? :)

  by Brainwrap on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:45:10 PM PDT

  •  I also have a title issue

    the state of California cannot repeal federal legislation--John Calhoun and his Nullifiers lost that fight in the first half of the 19th Century.  They can only do what they did: pass a resolution calling for the federal Congress to repeal the act.  The title should reflect that.

    by Superribbie on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:39:17 PM PDT

•  The Libertarian-leaning

  Republican states align with the Dems yet again.  But when it comes to abortion...

  by AnthonySF on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:46:53 PM PDT

•  Can't find a news source...

  ...for the CA Senate vote - do you have one?

  by GreenCA on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:52:05 PM PDT

•  This is great news

  If Sheila Keuhle (D-23) and Kevin Murray (D-26) didn't vote for this, I'll be pissed.  The way I see it, our lead in the State Senate should be 28-12, not 25-15.

  by SoCalLiberal on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:57:13 PM PDT

•  Questions

  I hadn't heard about a "new secret service police force" and "free speech exclusion zones". Can anyone give me a link to more info?

  by cRedd on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:00:25 PM PDT

•  CA bill : SJR10 - House Report - Sec. 605

  The Bill is called SJR10 - it takes 24 hours to post - so not yet avail. - you may check tomorrow?

  Re: new federal police force:

  Go to House Report 109-333 USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and

  check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads:

  "There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division.'"

  This new federal police force is "subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security."

  The new police are empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

  The new police are assigned a variety of jurisdictions, including "an event designated under section 3056(e) of title 18 as a special event of national significance" (SENS).

  "A special event of national significance" is neither defined nor does it require the presence of a "protected person" such as the president in order to trigger it. Thus, the administration, and perhaps the police themselves, can place the SENS designation on any event.

  Once a SENS designation is placed on an event, the new federal police are empowered to keep out and arrest people at their discretion.

  The language conveys enormous discretionary and arbitrary powers. What is "an offense against the United States"? What are "reasonable grounds"?
  it is whatever the executive branch says.

  Nothing in the language limits the police powers from being used only for Bush/Cheney events in this way. Like every law in the U.S., this law also will be expansively interpreted and abused.

  It has dire implications for freedom of association and First Amendment rights.

  We can take for granted that the new federal police will be used to suppress dissent and to break up opposition.

  by Russgirl on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:18:31 PM PDT

•  2006 ballot

  Sounds like this might be something to put on the ballot. Something to go up at the same time as GOP gay initiative.

  by cwaltz on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:22:37 PM PDT

•  Dear God

  First the new pictures today and now this.  Good thing that I have to go back to work now.

  by NearlyNormal on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:24:27 PM PDT

•  Stop the Patriot Act and your enslavement!

  As another dailykos post observes, we have fiddled while the nation burns...

  Nobody mounted a wave of dissent over the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
  We have lost an opportunity to stop it at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now it is in the Senate where those in control are hell-bent to gag any attempts to remove abusive portions, by disallowing amendments.

  And if the Patriot Act issue goes by without our full and complete opposition to it, we will have lost our rights.

  People!
  This Act has the following abuses in it!

  • setting up a federal police force with all kinds of unconstitutional rights over the citizens

  • provisions for authorities to go around the rule of law

  • provisions for authorities to go around judicial overview to wiretap American citizens

  • gag provisions to keep citizens from speaking out about perceived abuses

  • gag provisions to keep dissenters and protesters from being visible and from speaking out at events

  • new excessive prison terms for dissenters

  This is a clear attempt to ENSLAVE the American people.

  We have precious little time to save ourselves.
  The Republicans are trying to ram this through ASAP!!

  Call, email, and FAX your Senators and Congressman ASAP!!!

  Tell them you hold them personally responsible to stop this abusive and unAmerican piece of legislation. Send them the list of abuses that you are opposed to and tell them you will work against their re-election if they do not oppose the Patriot Act as written. Tell them to back Senator Feingold in his attempts to protect Americans and our freedoms from government abuse.

  http://www.senate.gov
  http://www.house.gov

  by patginsd on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:30:03 PM PDT

•  Link to Patriot Act - Section 605 - here

  Check for yourself - let other patriotic AMERICANS know and understand WHAT we are dealing with!

  http://thomas.loc.gov/...
  

  by Russgirl on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:30:21 PM PDT

•  Makes you wonder

  if those pesky confederates had a point about giving states nullification powers....it sure would be nice to give state legislatures that right about now!

  by michael1104 on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 02:18:17 PM PDT

•  I didn't see this before...

  Great news. Now we need to get every state to do it.

  by Patriot for Al Gore on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 02:27:33 PM PDT

•  Halliburton Prison System

  Maybe thats why Halliburton is building the new 3 or 400 million dollar prison system. They need it to hold the dissenters that the new secret police will begin arresting.

  by rstnfld on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 03:53:48 PM PDT