Blog For Arizona

Senator Kyl, Enemy of Freedom, and the Intelligence 'Reform' Act

Today I looked at the 'Intelligence Reform' act in some depth. I honestly didn't follow the process very closely when the bill was being rushed through Congress. I don't expect that this government will ever be able to do a better job of keeping America safe as long as it is bought and paid for by moneyed interests. Until we reform campaign finance, the government's primary interest will be putting our taxes in the pockets of those moneyed interests.

Surprisingly, it turns out that I haven't been nearly cynical enough.

Not only does this bill contain some very troubling provisions which shred the concept of probable cause into confetti and leave it on the floor of the FISA courts, expands the guilt by association law of the PATRIOT Act, making it a crime to be a member of an organization labeled as 'terrorist' (which we've now seen in the case of al-Manar television is not limited to people blowing things up, or paying to blow things up), establishes federal control over state drivers licensing, creating a de facto national ID card (a provision so noxious that even the throughly noxious Grover Norquist opposed it as an undesirable intrusion upon civil liberties), and in one final spasm of disgraceful water-carrying for the corrupt Bush Administration, created an eviscerated, butt-cover of a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in place of one which was meant to idependent and robust.

That final nail in coffin of this DOA 'reform' bill comes compliments of our own Arizona Senator Kyl. He offered the amendment which ripped the guts out of the Board and turned it into a strawman. To what purpose did Kyl transform our loyal watch dog into the President's lap-dog? One can only speculate, but it does prompt a question - why does Kyl hate our freedoms?

posted by Michael Bryan @ 12/17/2004 09:16:00 PM