Only in America can a bill which decimates significant portions of the Bill of Rights be referred to as “The Patriot Act.”
You may have heard that today the right palms were greased to ensure the votes to extend “The Patriot Act” another four years. The GOP and lazy law enforcement officials* are thrilled.
Some Dems are talking filibuster. Republicans want the Dems to “unite” and “put politics aside.” What a crock – on both sides. The GOP had no interest in “uniting” or “putting politics aside” when the Democrats were in control of both houses and the executive. And the Dems can’t agree on whether to pack a lunch or buy – or what policy to take in Iraq – what the hell makes them think they can unite on this?
For more on “The Patriot Act” story, click here.
I have another issue with things being misnamed.
I use Adelphia Power Link for my internet. If you really know me, you’ll know that I loathe Adelphia. They are the evil empire. But where I live it’s either power link or dialup – I’m too far away from the hub for DSL. And I can’t abide dialup. I spend too much time on the internet to travel at 56K. Plus, by the time I got done paying for local phone service and dialup, I’d be near the $60 a month I’m paying for highspeed – but at not-so-highspeed.
Anywho – with my Adelphia Power Link internet comes free virus protection, etc. It’s called “Freedom.” It sucks. It makes my computer run really slow. It contantly needs to update. It delays my shutting down. It delays my startiing up. It contantly warns me about crap then won’t fix what it warned me about. It bites. It’s anything but “Freedom.”
But the worst part is – how can you complain about it? What? Am I supposed to call Adelphia and say, “I just wanted to let you know that I don’t like freedom. Yup. That’s right. Freedom isn’t for me.” They’d just laugh.
I thought about doing a show on it. I’ve actually thought about mentioning it several times, but can’t stand the thought of the Birchers sitting at the local coffee shop saying, “Yup. That’s right. I heard that Commie Leffler say, ‘I hate freedom.’ I always knew it. He wants us all to become Stalinists. Shoulda known when he said he liked Clinton.”
I can’t wait until Time Warner actually gets control over the local Adelphia. For one thing, I hope it’ll lower my bill. Secondly, I won’t feel like such a sell-out.
Thanks for listening – or … reading, actually. More later.
*Note that I’m not saying all law enforcement is lazy. But the lazy ones love “The Patriot Act” cause they don’t have to worry about silly things like warrants and “cause.”