All you Patriot Act fans out there must be beaming with vigilante smugness this morning. Looks like the Congress capitulated almost fully to the Bushies' request to extend that raw chafing of our civil liberties. The 7-year sunsetting provisions were dropped. Permanence, baby! So if you want to check out any foreign language books from the library or troll the web looking for al Queda websites or buy some overseas goods with a credit card...well, don't. In each of those cases, you can be monitored without your knowledge and there ain't shit you can do about it. Nice world we made for ourselves after 9/11, ain't it?
I continue to be a big fan of Kinky Friedman's run for Governor in Texas. He's an independent so he needs to gather 46K signatures to get on the ballot. But his slogans are the best, I swear, that I've ever heard in a political campaign. When I saw a blurb on his new campaign manager (Wellstone's replacement in the Senate for a few months, Dean Barkley), I checked in on Kinky's campaign website. He's raised $60K and continues to impress. Zogby recently had his support at 21%. If we still lived in Big D, I'd definitely be in the Kinkster's camp. Just remember, "how hard can it be?"
Maya's calling for a more substantial breakfast. After a killer nap yesterday and an equally impressive night's sleep, she appears to have put our travels behind her. The Bay Area's currently steeped in gorgeously unseasonable warmth and Maya's due for her morning jog after her tasty gruel. Hope your own diet is well constituted. Rock on.
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2 comments:
I ran across your blog from a link at tomatonation and have been diggin' it.
Scary PATRIOT Act story. This rather conservative guy I work with just found out he's been reported. Seems he decided to pay his TAP fund, i.e. the tuition assistance fund for his kids' eventual college education, using certified checks. Apparently, if you issue two or more certified checks of over $1000 to the same place, the place is required by law to report you to the IRS via the PATRIOT Act.
Even if there is a legitimate reason, if the net is cast so wide as to reel in guys who are just paying into their kids' college funds, how effective can it be at getting to its actual purported target?
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