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ACMA Publication Issue October 1, 2007 Protect the Constitution American Chinese Medicine Association (ACMA)
Introduction In August 2007, Congress passed the so-called “Protect America Act”, a program allowing massive, untargeted collection of Americans’ emails and phone calls without court order. A new poll showed that 61 percent of Americans are in favor of requiring the government to get a warrant from a court before wiretapping conversations of U.S. citizens. We strongly oppose the spy on innocent Americans who are not conspiring with foreign powers. However, currently at Congress, there are bills which will make above unauthorized, unwarranted, and unchecked surveillance program on innocent citizens permanent. Problems These bills are very dangerous because above surveillance program could be abused by different parties for various purposes. For example, if the surveillance program is unauthorized, unwarranted, and unchecked, it could be abused for spying on opponents and competitors in political, commercial, social, or personal settings. Political espionage could be generated. Business and trade secrets could be leaked. Patents and inventions could be plagiarized. Advancements in science and technology will be jeopardized. Personal privacy will be infringed. Selling the secret information for profits could occur. Many political, commercial, social, and personal activities could be at risk if the laptop containing the secret information is stolen. Examples like these are endless. As a result, the unauthorized, unwarranted, or unchecked surveillance program could become an incubator for mass production of new Watergate scandals not only in politics, but also in business, science, technology, social, and personal settings, etc. People will lose freedom, business will not have security, science and technology will be jeopardized, and the society will be in a chaos, etc. Furthermore, bills supporting such unauthorized, unwarranted, or unchecked surveillance program will undermine and destroy the Constitution. Therefore, the unauthorized, unwarranted, or unchecked surveillance program, designed for anti-terrorist, will turn out to be the biggest terror itself threatening the United States. This program will not just demolish two buildings. Instead, it will destroy the entire infrastructure and foundation of democracy, freedom, and the democratic system. In this way, the "Protect America Act" will become a "Destroy America Act". On Immunity Some bills plan to grant telephone companies immunity on violating laws, violating Constitution, and violating human rights. In a democratic society, all men are created equal. Everyone should be equal before the laws. However, immunity will grant someone to be above others, free of legal responsibilities, above the laws, above Constitution, and above human rights. The immunity is in fact a green light to illegal activities, crimes, and criminals. Immunity is not a new invention. It existed thousands years ago in ancient China already. At that time, the emperor and imperial class had immunity, which made them above the laws and above the public. The laws were for the public and not for them. They could do whatever they wanted without being published. As a result, the immunity has become a green light for crimes and criminals, which had brought about and created countless social injustices. In short, the immunity will create, and generate special classes of criminals above laws and Constitution. It will generate modern emperor without using the name of emperor. This will take current democratic society back to the ancient feudal society, in which someone were born above others, above laws, above Constitution, and above human rights. This will be a huge setback of human civilization. So the immunity is the biggest enemy of human civilization. No one, under no circumstance, should be granted any kind of immunity. The immunity should be completely banned and abolished in a democratic society. Action To fix above problems, it is important and necessary to (1) introduce mechanisms to monitor and supervise the surveillance program; (2) increase judicial and congressional oversight of FISA surveillance; (3) restore the necessary checks and balances of power. Unchecked power will lead to disasters and dictatorship. (4) protect the Constitution to be intact. To help above endeavors, please support the following Protect the Constitution actions. Please contact both your representatives as well as the House and Senate Judiciary Committee members below. Protect the Constitution -- Action I Protect the Constitution -- Action II Protect the Constitution -- Action III Protect the Constitution -- Action IV Protect the Constitution -- Action V Protect the Constitution -- Action VI Protect the Constitution -- Action VI (Latest) Protect the Constitution -- Action VII (Latest) United States House Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Background Information Life is a journey through the universe. Every journey is entitled to and born of human rights, freedom, liberty, and happiness. An ideal journey through the universe should have no boundary of country, nation, etc. However, today the human civilization is still far away from ideal. There are still many uncivilized phenomena. Therefore, the company of people -- government -- has been created to maintain the order of the less civilized world. What is a government? What roles should a government play? These are very important issues affecting everyone. Following links have provided some answers on above issues, which will help build a more civilized world for the future. American Civil Liberties Union
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