Patriot Act Time...

This was in a comment (#12) on Congressman Conyer's Blog.

Patriot Act

SEC. 506. EXTENSION OF SECRET SERVICE JURISDICTION.

(a) Concurrent Jurisdiction Under 18 U.S.C. 1030- Section 1030(d) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

`(d)(1) The United States Secret Service shall, in addition to any other agency having such authority, have the authority to investigate offenses under this section.

`(2) The Federal Bureau of Investigation shall have primary authority to investigate offenses under subsection (a)(1) for any cases involving espionage, foreign counterintelligence, information protected against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national defense or foreign relations, or Restricted Data (as that term is defined in section 11y of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2014(y)), except for offenses affecting the duties of the United States Secret Service pursuant to section 3056(a) of this title.

`(3) Such authority shall be exercised in accordance with an agreement which shall be entered into by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General.'.

(b) Reauthorization of Jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. 1344- Section 3056(b)(3) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking `credit and debit card frauds, and false identification documents or devices' and inserting `access device frauds, false identification documents or devices, and any fraud or other criminal or unlawful activity in or against any federally insured financial institution'.

Combined with this bill:

Secret Service Authorization and Technical Modification Act of 2005 (Introduced in Senate)

S. 1967: To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to certain activities of the Secret Service, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES November 7, 2005, Mr. SPECTER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

SEC. 5. TRANSFER OF THE UNIFORMED DIVISION, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE.

(a) In General- Chapter 203 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 3056 the following:

`Sec. 3056A. Powers, authorities, and duties of United States Secret Service Uniformed Division

`(a) There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'. Subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall perform such duties as the Director, United States Secret Service, may prescribe in connection with the protection of the following:

SEC. 7. MAINTENANCE AS DISTINCT ENTITY.

Section 3056 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding the following at the end of the section:

`(g) The United States Secret Service shall be maintained as a distinct entity within the Department of Homeland Security and shall not be merged with any other Department function. No personnel and operational elements of the United States Secret Service shall report to an individual other than the Director of the United States Secret Service, who shall report directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security without being required to report through any other official of the Department.'.

SEC. 8. EXEMPTIONS FROM THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ACT.

(a) Advisory Committee Regarding Protection of Major Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates- Section 3056(a)(7) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting `The committee shall not be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.).' after `other members of the Committee.'.

(b) Electronic Crimes Task Forces- Section 105 of Public Law 107-56 (18 U.S.C. 3056 note) is amended by inserting `The electronic crimes task forces shall not be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.).' after `financial payment systems.'.

They're voting on the Patriot Act today. Maybe the Ports thing will stall it, but probably not. Calling at this point may or may not help.

If the second bill seems unbelievable, go to the source. The full text of the second bill is at http://thomas.loc.gov/ If you aren't familiar with THOMAS, it is the Library of Congress bill text resource. Put S1967 in the search bar and search on bill number. Read it for yourself. Tell everyone you know to read it. As far as I can tell, this bill is still in comittee. Hopefully all the incompetence at the DHS will kill it there, but who the hell knows with this bunch.

I don't know if we're at a tipping point or well beyond it by this time.

And the money keeps rolling out...

From the NY Times:

Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: February 27, 2006

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.

Entire article linked in the title.
I'm coming to the conlcusion a very bad sitcom writer is running this world... There's just no other explanation anymore.

We have met the enemy... and they are, apparently, us

From TruthOut (via After Downing Street):

By William Rivers Pitt, www.truthout.org

They called it "Cyber Storm," and it was a war-game exercise run last week by the Department of Homeland Security. The war game had nothing to do with testing the security of our shipping ports, borders, infrastructure or airports. "Cyber Storm" was testing the government's ability to withstand an onslaught of information and protest from bloggers and online activists.

"Participants confirmed," wrote the Associated Press, that "parts of the worldwide simulation challenged government officials and industry executives to respond to deliberate misinformation campaigns and activist calls by Internet bloggers, online diarists whose "Web logs" include political rantings and musings about current events."

The full article is linked in the title.

And if you are from CA, please read this article from BlackBoxVoting.org and take action. If you are not, but know someone who is, please pass this link along to them.
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/19353.html

Hezbollah Leader to Bush: 'Shut Up'

The leader of Hezbollah, heading a march by hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims Thursday, said President Bush and his secretary of state should "shut up" after they accused Syria and Iran of fueling protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.