The Patriot Act. Renewal Blocked In The US Senate:

Dcember 16-2005:

PATRIOT Act Renewal Blocked in Senate!

It's the best holiday gift any civil libertarian could hope for: a bipartisan coalition of Senators has refused to end a filibuster that is blocking renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act.
The group of Democrats and Republicans are rightly concerned that the PATRIOT renewal bill lacks meaningful checks and balances to protect civil liberties from roving wiretaps, secret search warrants, super-secret demands for private records, and the many other broad police powers that Congress granted in haste immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Many of those PATRIOT powers are set to expire on December 31st--but Congress is set to adjourn for the holidays today.
If the filibuster holds, and the Administration won't accept a compromise--a short renewal of all the powers in order to give Congress a few more months to consider the issue--it appears that all of those provisions will "sunset" on schedule.
Today's Senate vote comes on the heels of a shocking story in the New York Times, which reports that President Bush allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and email messages of people inside the U.S. without getting a warrant -- all in the name of fighting terrorism. There was no confirmation from the Bush administration, but congressional leaders have already condemned the warrantless surveillance, with Republican Senator Arlen Spector calling for hearings after reading the report.
The irony of this shocking revelation is that while the Administration has been arguing in the PATRIOT renewal debate against reforms to the foreign intelligence surveillance process -- a process that is severely lacking in meaningful checks and balances -- it has in fact already been bypassing that process and getting the NSA to do its dirty work with no checks and balances at all.
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VOTE SUMMARY:
Vote Number: 358 Vote Date: Dec 16-2005: Patriot Act.(Re-authorization. HR 3199):
NAY's: 47.
YEA's: 52
Abstain from voting: 1.
END:
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Alphabetical List Of Senators Who Voted:
Akaka (D-HI), Nay: Alexander (R-TN), Yea: Allard (R-CO), Yea: Allen (R-VA), Yea:
Baucus (D-MT), NayL Bayh (D-IN), Nay: Bennett (R-UT), Yea:
Biden (D-DE), Nay: Bingaman (D-NM), Nay: Bond (R-MO), Yea: Boxer (D-CA), Nay: Brownback (R-KS), Yea: Bunning (R-KY), Yea: Burns (R-MT), Yea: Burr (R-NC), Yea: Byrd (D-WV), Nay:
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay: Carper (D-DE), Nay: Chafee (R-RI), Yea: Chambliss (R-GA), Yea: Clinton (D-NY), Nay: Coburn (R-OK), Yea: Cochran (R-MS), Yea: Coleman (R-MN), Yea: Collins (R-ME), Yea: Conrad (D-ND), Nay: Cornyn (R-TX), Yea: Corzine (D-NJ), Nay: Craig (R-ID), Nay: Crapo (R-ID), Yea:
Dayton (D-MN), Nay: DeMint (R-SC), Yea: DeWine (R-OH), Yea: Dodd (D-CT), Not Voting: Dole (R-NC), Yea: Domenici (R-NM), Yea: Dorgan (D-ND), Nay: Durbin (D-IL), Nay:
Ensign (R-NV), Yea: Enzi (R-WY), Yea:
Feingold (D-WI), Nay: Feinstein (D-CA), Nay: Frist (R-TN), Nay:
Graham (R-SC), Yea: Grassley (R-IA), Yea: Gregg (R-NH), Yea:
Hagel (R-NE), Nay: Harkin (D-IA), Nay: Hatch (R-UT), Yea: Hutchison (R-TX), Yea:
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea: Inouye (D-HI), Nay: Isakson (R-GA), Yea: Jeffords (I-VT), Nay: Johnson (D-SD), Yea:
Kennedy (D-MA), Nay: Kerry (D-MA), Nay: Kohl (D-WI), Nay: Kyl (R-AZ), Yea:
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay: Leahy (D-VT), Nay: Levin (D-MI), Nay: Lieberman (D-CT), Nay: Lincoln (D-AR), Nay: Lott (R-MS), Yea: Lugar (R-IN), Yea:
Martinez (R-FL), Yea: McCain (R-AZ), Yea: McConnell (R-KY), Yea: Mikulski (D-MD), Nay: Murkowski (R-AK), Nay: Murray (D-WA), Nay:
Nelson (D-FL), Nay: Nelson (D-NE), Yea:
Obama (D-IL), Nay:
Pryor (D-AR), Nay:
Reed (D-RI), Nay: Reid (D-NV), Nay: Roberts (R-KS), Yea:
Rockefeller (D-WV), Nay: Salazar (D-CO), Nay:
Santorum (R-PA), Yea: Sarbanes (D-MD), Nay: Schumer (D-NY), Nay: Sessions (R-AL), Yea: Shelby (R-AL), Yea: Smith (R-OR), Yea: Snowe (R-ME), Yea: Specter (R-PA), Yea: Stabenow (D-MI), Nay: Stevens (R-AK), Yea: Sununu (R-NH), Nay:
Talent (R-MO), Yea: Thomas (R-WY), Yea: Thune (R-SD), Yea:
Vitter (R-LA), Yea: Voinovich (R-OH), Yea:
Warner (R-VA), Yea: Wyden (D-O)
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Africa's Genocide Of It's Own People:

December 15-2005:
Africa's Holocaust Of It's Own People:

It is indeed very shameful, that in this century Africans are still killing each other. Many Blacks in The USA seem always too keen on identifying with Africa, and wanting desperately to feel connected.
But connected to what?
Let us look very carefully at Africa today, and we will surely see that Black Africa, is still barbaric, brutal, greedy, sadistic, and perpetually at each other's throats.
President Mugabe has removed thousands who were so poor, and desperate, to a refuge camp, thus making them more desperate, hopeless, and dead, all because they were not his political supporters in the last rigged general election in Zimbabwe.
Uganda's Christians & Moslems have been fighting among themselves for over two decades. This division was cemented during former General & Military Dictator, Idi Amin's reign of terror, and has not yet been reconciled.
In Nigeria, from the presidency down to the common citizen, corruption, bribery, and trickery, is the only means for survival. It has been going on for so long in Nigeria, that it has become institutionalized.
Is this the Africa that Black Americans want to identify with? I hope not, because there is no place in Africa that qualifies to be truly worthy of our praise, and emulation, as Black people, and descendents of that continent.
Om Shanti.
Derryck S. Griffith.
Educator & Advocate.