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You Are A Suspect

William Safire has written an excellent column in today's New York Times outlining precisely why the Homeland Security Act needs some serious amendment before being passed. This is not the kind of issue we can afford to take a "wait and see" attitude on. Once something is already in place, it will be next to impossible to dismantle. Get in touch with your Senators now. The bill passed the House by a vote of 299-121 yesterday.

If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

Click on the More link to see a sample letter you can fax to your Senator.

Dear Senator:

Please vote against H.R. 5170 (Revised) Homeland Security Department Bill. I am opposed to any restructuring of the federal government that would strip away our hard-earned rights as American citizens. The bill as it now stands is an unwarranted assault on individual privacy. That is why I urge you to vote against it.

Sincerely,

[Name & Address]

Posted by Lesley on November 14, 2002 10:56 AM |

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Tracked on November 14, 2002 11:30 AM

» Homeland Insecurity from the RANT:
I first read about some of the more troublesome provisions in the Homeland Security bill over at Plum Crazy and have seen it on a number of other sites since then. William Safire has an article that outlines some very [Read More]

Tracked on November 14, 2002 07:41 PM

» Homeland Insecurity from the RANT:
I first read about some of the more troublesome provisions in the Homeland Security bill over at Plum Crazy and have seen it on a number of other sites since then. William Safire has an article that outlines some very... [Read More]

Tracked on April 25, 2004 06:40 PM

Comments

Lesley, if you want scary go to the Rant and look for "Reviewing John Ashcroft" it's long, but will give you a fright. I know, I wrote it and it scares hell out of me. If I was thinking I would have posted it on Holloween. And soon I will post "The Federalist Society" more hair raising political reality.

Posted by: Dietz | November 14, 2002 11:52 AM