Congress Votes to Waive All Laws for Homeland Security

[rodeodance]

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0210-14.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 10, 2005
5:04 PM
CONTACT: OMB Watch
Robert Shull, 202-234-8494

Congress Votes to Waive All Laws for Homeland Security


WASHINGTON -- February 10 -- The House of Representatives voted 243 to 179 today to reject an amendment that would have stripped section 102 from the "REAL ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418). The bill, as passed, would empower the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any federal laws, without limit, in the course of building barriers along the nation's borders. This controversial, precedent-setting legislation received no hearings or extended debate prior to passage. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

The following is a statement by J. Robert Shull, Senior Regulatory Policy Analyst with OMB Watch.

"America is a nation founded on the rule of law, but apparently not when homeland security is involved. This is a license to waive any law, for any reason - or for no reason at all........

[merwin]

1. Keith Olbermann said it would probably be tied in to the Iraq budget bill

so anyone voting against it would be immediately labeled as a traitor.

[rawtribe]

2. Wish

we had an opposition party that would protect us from this shit. Oh well.

:hurts:

[HereSince1628]

3. section to allow 3 mile fence through smugglers gulch=Trojan horse

Apparently the 3 mile stretch of the US-Mexico border was "a perfect case" for the Right wing legislation.

Some of the proposed barrier will run on previously private land to now be controlled by the government.

advocacy groups have argued that the area is environmentally sensitive.

the barrier will also disturb a Native American burial site.


So we get anti-immigration, anti-environmental, anti-cultural heritage legislation in one package that hides in its language the empowerment of Homeland Security throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the American Virgin Islands' Homeland Security measures appear to be limited to cotton bikini tops and sunscreen, and they are begging through H.R. 58 introduced on January 4 by Donna Christensen, "To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish at _least one_ Border Patrol Unit for the Virgin Islands of the United States."

[indepat]

4. Liberty and equal justice and protection under the law are fastly dying.

This Administration has likely done more to destroy this Republic and its Constitution than all others before it combined. Yet the people clamor for four more years, four more years.