Here is my letter to my Congressman, Joe Baca (DLC-CA):
I am very distressed over your recent vote on HR 3199, The Patriot Act Reauthorization. Although I am not a one issue voter, I consider this vote to be very critical. I have contacted your offices by telephone on this issue.
Several parts of the Patriot Act are clearly and unarguably inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. I have particular revulsion to the sections allowing people to be imprisoned without charge, without trial, and without legal representation for indeterminate periods of time, the right to search without warrant (sneak and peek), and the right of the government to secretly spy on its residents' reading habits at libraries and bookstores.
Furthermore, the Patriot Act as interpreted by our current one-party government, clearly extends these Constitutional violations far beyond what I could have imagined possible. In our name, the one-party government has used the Patriot Act to justify unconstitutional imprisonment without any check and balance whatsoever and without even a meaningful opposition. These excesses have included torture which is allegedly still going on. How are we to know? We have a right to know.
If George W. Bush is correct that "They hate us for our freedoms," every time we give into war on terror hysteria and abridge those freedoms, we must admit that we have lost a battle to the terrorists.
I cannot think of this issue without recalling Benjamin Franklin's prescient words:
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
As my representative in Congress you have sworn to uphold the Constitution. When you voted "yes" on HR 3199 you violated that oath. I will therefore be searching for another candidate for next year.
I included a copy of the Bill of Rights with the letter.
It's tough love time for Joe Baca.
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