{"id":104,"date":"2003-08-23T12:09:00","date_gmt":"2003-08-23T16:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=104"},"modified":"2003-08-23T12:09:00","modified_gmt":"2003-08-23T16:09:00","slug":"victory-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=104","title":{"rendered":"‘Victory Act”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Claire Wolfe <\/a>I learned of the following.<\/p>\n

First Claire<\/a> links to the upcoming “Bill of Rights to Nome”<\/a> run planned by Iditarod racer Mike Lawless.<\/p>\n

In Alaska’s Iditarod 2004, musher Mike Lawless will carry, on his sled from Anchorage to Nome, copies of your Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n

When he reaches Nome, he’ll sign them and personally deliver them to the heads of state of the 13 original states, Alaska, and finally to the President of the United States, as commemorations.<\/p>\n

This is an exciting way to raise awareness of your Bill of Rights across the nation. We here at Rights to Nome are proud that you’re interested in the project, and we hope you’ll spread the news; you might even consider sponsoring <\/a>Mike in the race.<\/i><\/p>\n

Claire goes on to mention the “Victory Act”<\/a>, Orrin Hatch’s latest brain spasm in which he hopes to link the war on terror with the drug war.<\/p>\n

The Victory Act also seems to be an attempt to merge the war on terrorism and the war on drugs into a single campaign. It includes a raft of provisions increasing the government’s ability to investigate, wiretap, prosecute and incarcerate money launderers, fugitives, “narco-terrorists” and nonviolent drug dealers. The bill also outlaws hawalas, the informal and documentless money transferring systems widely used in the Middle East, India and parts of Asia. <\/p>\n

A June 27 draft of the bill, authored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by four fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, has been circulating in Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n

Critics say the bill is an opportunistic attempt to link the fight against drugs to the fight against terrorism by creating a new crime called “narco-terrorism.” According to the draft, narco-terrorism is the crime of selling, distributing or manufacturing a controlled substance with the intent of helping a terrorist group. <\/p>\n

While this draft legislation’s focus differs significantly from the much-criticized Patriot II draft leaked to the press in February, Hatch’s bill contains several passages from that draft. <\/p>\n

Among other things, the bill would: <\/p>\n

Allow the FBI to get a wiretap order on a wireless device, such as a cell phone, from any district court in the country<\/p>\n

Force defendants who are trying to exclude illegal wiretap evidence to prove police intentionally broke the rules <\/p>\n

Further restrict judges’ sentencing discretion in drug cases <\/p>\n

Ease restrictions on government access to sensitive financial records <\/p>\n

Increase penalties for selling drugs to people under the age of 21 <\/p>\n

Make it easier for the government to seize or freeze assets of people accused of money laundering <\/p>\n

Remove gradations of sentencing for those convicted of selling amphetamines so that anyone convicted of possessing more than 250 meth pills would automatically go to jail for 200 years <\/p>\n

Increase the ability of the FBI to self-issue subpoenas for terrorism investigations without having to consult a judge <\/p>\n

Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said he suspects that the Justice Department was heavily involved in the drafting of the bill. <\/i><\/p>\n

I think they should have a test case before implementing any changes to the current drug laws. For instance Hatch could investigate why the opium trade in Afghanistan is booming and why Rumsfeld’s response to it is ‘more education for the addict’<\/a>…???<\/p>\n

No, instead we’ll give 200 year sentences to people convicted of possessing more than 250 amphetamines? Would that apply to the doctors who prescribe them on a regular basis to fliers on combat missions?<\/p>\n

I’m not being facetious here. I mean we all know the drill and the double standards in our judicial system related to this ‘drug war’. If you have the money and connections [or a doctor’s prescription] you can circumvent laws without fear of prosecution. If you’re poor forget about it. What was a temporary lapse in judgement for one suddenly becomes an example of intractable anti-social behavior.<\/p>\n

But we all know this. So why do I think it’s possible Hatch will succeed in this? For one he’s linked it to the ‘war on terror’ and that still has a hypnotic effect on the masses, a dosing that deserves at least a mention when debating any of the more recognisable illegal substances.<\/p>\n

For another there is an undercurrent of contempt for those Americans who fail to harness the abilities to play the system for all its worth. An inversion of morality if you will, where the worth of an individual is measured by their power to rise above the laws we then unmercifully impose on the ‘losers’.<\/p>\n

Shame on Hatch. And shame on us for putting up with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Claire Wolfe I learned of the following. First Claire links to the upcoming “Bill of Rights to Nome” run planned by Iditarod racer Mike Lawless. In Alaska’s Iditarod 2004, musher Mike Lawless will carry, on his sled from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-1G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}