StumbleKKSS

If my Senator is co-sponsoring the Justice Bill, he should be into protecting citizens of his own state from ongoing and pervasive civil liberties violations.

Scary... An excellent reminder that some of the hysteria over the "Red Menace" was based on deep and genuine human rights concerns.

From the page: "Judicial psychiatry against religious or political dissidents is emphatically prohibited by internationally agreed-upon standards of legal and medical ethics. The exposure of political and abusive psychiatry in the former Soviet Union was once a major human rights concern. It eventually forced the withdrawal of the Soviet All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists from the World Psychiatric Association.

Similar punitive misuse of psychiatry exists in China, but has received far less attention than that of the Soviet Union. Part of the reason is that while the Chinese authorities routinely use torture on prisoners of conscience in special psychiatric hospitals, few reports on this abuse have come to light. "

Sadists...

From the page: "Their cognitive nature is considered rigid and prone to social intolerance, and they are fascinated by weapons, war, and infamous crimes or perpetrators of atrocities. Sadists classically are believed to seek social positions that enable them to exercise their need to control others and dole out harsh punishment or humiliation. For this reason, some have postulated that there is a higher prevalence of sadism among individuals who work in such settings as law enforcement, correctional facilities, the military, government, and the justice system."

Not that I'm some huge fan of the DSM, but if such a pattern is being noted, it seems smart to have genuine public and institutional dialog about it. How much suffering takes place because people use their positions of power and influence to harm and humiliate people? It seems that people become sadistic because they have experienced pain and indifference -- all of us have our sadistic moments. But if businesses and institutions turn a blind eye to the way its woven into our systems, then there aren't opportunities to heal.

Smart, talented professionals who don't deal with their own pain can and do use their gifts for ill (think doctors helping with torture). This may make them feel temporarily safe and powerful, but at what cost -- for all of us? What does our collective future hold if we don't address the way individual pathology is used and encouraged by the institutions that affect all of us?

What about people who are hired precisely because their sadistic tendencies mean they have a higher threshold for the demands of an inherently sadistic job? They (and their pain) are being exploited. They have no incentive to find genuine pleasures in life because they are rewarded for getting a constant fix.

The irony of that is that they only have the illusion of control -- they are used like puppets for their sadistic tendencies. The truth about the world is that none of us really has much control over events. We all have to deal with the terrible uncertainty of being human -- and we can strive to distract ourselves from it with the satisfaction that comes from the illusion of control that dominating others provides, or by striving to find ways to interact with one another that don't perpetuate harm.

The latter is an ongoing, fitful and difficult project, but at least it leaves open the possibility of new and better futures.

"Every single member of Congress wants to give our law enforcement and intelligence officials the tools they need to keep Americans safe," Feingold said in a statement. "The JUSTICE Act permits the government to conduct necessary surveillance, but within a framework of accountability and oversight. It ensures both that our government has the tools to keep us safe, and that the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans will be protected."

The National Security Letter (NSL) provision of the PATRIOT Act is one area in particular where the JUSTICE Act would institute new safeguards. PATRIOT Act allows federal law enforcement agents to use an NSL, instead of a court order, to obtain private records. Civil liberties advocates fear that the lack of appropriate judicial oversight applied to NSLs creates a very high risk of abuse. Indeed, a Department of Justice audit in 2007 found evidence of serious irregularities. Several components of the PATRIOT Act, including a highly controversial provision that enforced a "gag order" against NSL recipients, were deemed unconstitutional and were later stricken.

The JUSTICE Act mandates use of the "least intrusive means" of information collection. It imposes limitations on the process that law enforcement agencies use to gain expedited emergency access to information. It also establishes new tracking and reporting requirements to ensure that NSL usage will receive a higher level of Congressional scrutiny.

Yay.

From the page: "It's more than a risk. Indeed, even this legislation will not claw back everything we allowed a 9/11-cowed Congress to take away from us. "Sneak and peek" searches would still be allowed, albeit with stronger restriction and judicial oversight. Warrantless authorities under FISA would be retained, with stronger requirements to tie investigations directly to terrorism and disallow "fishing expiditions".

But after eight long years of using 9/11 to justify every egregious excess against civil liberties and proffer every protection to telecom companies who enable, JUSTICE is long-needed step in the right direction. Where one step can be taken, others can follow.

I have always thought of democratic government as a generally heartbreaking exercise that gets things done, undone, underdone and overdone. As flawed as it is, it is better than anything else anybody else has ever tried.

When democratic government can be so readily turned on itself, turned against the people it represents by no more than a band of insignificant, cave-dwelling murderers, the society's fragility is made plainest. The JUSTICE Act recognizes this and for once, moves to protect it intelligently. It's about time.


Read more at: huffingtonpost.com/rob-warmowski/the-real-act-of-patriots_b_291853.html [huffingtonpost.com/rob-warmowski/the-real-act-of-patriots_b_291853.html] "