Blogswarm - Online Political News Magazine

House GOP Leaders Hijack 9/11 Commission Recommendations
Tell Your Representative to Reject PATRIOT Act Expansion and New Assaults on Civil Liberties

The 9/11 Commission made a thorough study of America's vulnerability to terrorist attack and made non-partisan recommendations for steps the United States could take to enhance our security.

Now House GOP leaders have hijacked the Commission's recommendations -- and, in some cases, disregarded them entirely -- to ram through nakedly partisan legislation which will undermine fundamental civil rights and civil liberties without providing greater security.

Call your U.S. House member today and urge the rejection of H.R. 10, the House 9/11 Commission bill.

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

The 9/11 Commission's recommendations deserve careful consideration by Congress with a goal of bipartisan consensus on legislation that enhances safety and protects our fundamental freedoms. Call your representative today and explain that H.R. 10 violates that test and infringes on basic rights and liberties.

For example, H.R. 10 would:

• result in the creation of a de facto national ID card and linked state motor vehicle databases with uncertain privacy protections;
  
  
• codify the problematic "registered traveler" program developed by the Transportation Security Administration, which could allow terrorists to evade more rigorous screening and may result in unequal treatment of Americans on the basis of factors which have no relation to terrorism, such as credit score and employment or rental history;
  
  
• allow greater use of secret electronic surveillance and secret searches; and,
  
  
• significantly undermine fundamental due process and basic fairness in our immigration system by restricting redress for unfair, arbitrary or abusive deportations, and making it harder for victims of political persecution and torture abroad to make asylum claims.

H.R. 10's deeply partisan wedge-politics are not the American Way. Our security and civil liberties are too important to be sidelined by electoral politics. Call your U.S. Representative today at (202) 224-3121 to express your opposition to this legislation.