| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 11:19:03 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/04/bush.mail.ap/index.html
Bush signing may mean government can read your mail
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A signing statement attached to postal legislation by President Bush last month may have opened the way for the government to open mail without a warrant.
The White House denies any change in policy.
The law requires government agents to get warrants to open first-class letters.
But when he signed the postal reform act, Bush added a statement saying that his administration would construe that provision "in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances. ..."
"The signing statement raises serious questions whether he is authorizing opening of mail contrary to the Constitution and to laws enacted by Congress," said Ann Beeson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
"What is the purpose of the signing statement if it isn't that?"
She said the group is planning to file request for information on how this exception will be used.
The ACLU also wants to know if it has already been used to open mail.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said there was nothing new in the signing statement.
In his daily briefing Snow said: "All this is saying is that there are provisions at law for -- in exigent circumstances -- for such inspections. It has been thus. This is not a change in law, this is not new."
Postal Vice President Tom Day added: "As has been the long-standing practice, first class mail is protected from unreasonable search and seizure when in postal custody. Nothing in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act changes this protection. The president is not exerting any new authority."
However, New York Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer criticized Bush's action.
"Every American wants foolproof protection against terrorism. But history has shown it can and should be done within the confines of the Constitution," said Schumer.
"This last-minute, irregular and unauthorized reinterpretation of a duly passed law is the exact type of maneuver that voters so resoundingly rejected in November."
The ACLU's Beeson noted that there has been an exception allowing postal inspectors to open items they believe might contain a bomb.
"His signing statement uses language that's broader than that exception," she said.
Bush uses the phrase exigent circumstances: "The question is what does that mean and why has he suddenly putting this in writing if this isn't a change in policy," she said.
In addition to suspecting a bomb or getting a warrant, the law allows postal officials to open letters that can't be delivered as addressed -- but only to determine if they can find a correct address or a return address.
Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, more than all other presidents combined, according to the American Bar Association.
Typically, presidents have used signing statements for such purposes as instructing executive agencies how to carry out new laws.
Bush's statements often reserve the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.
"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," ABA president Michael Greco has said.
The practice, he added, "is harming the separation of powers."
The president's action was first reported by the New York Daily News.
The full signing statement said:
"The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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| 24 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/13/2007 : 11:21:43 AM
I'm leaning more towards the jars of money theory... |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/12/2007 : 6:14:20 PM
from what i understand, in their and from some experience, it is the general practice of business establishments to have some sort of bank account, in which they put money, for the sake of using to pay expenses later, such as rent on the building they use, taxes, payroll and that sort of thing. i really don't think they're taking the money they get and hiding in a jar under their beds. |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/12/2007 : 3:38:06 PM
Lazy? (That has not racial implications...generally people are just lazy).
And I don't think that it matters if you are "legal" or not...I think that exchanging money requires nothing more than putting it in a machine and paying the surcharge. |
| Robin |
Posted - 01/12/2007 : 12:35:16 PM
If they are indeed LEGAL immigrants then wouldn't they have exchanged pesos for dollars? Hmmm...Peace, Robin |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/12/2007 : 12:09:12 PM
Check out this article...
Pizza promotion met with death threats
POSTED: 9:24 p.m. EST, January 11, 2007
DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation's debate over immigrants.
"This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico," one e-mail read. "Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans," demanded another.
Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying "Aceptamos pesos" -- or "We accept pesos" -- at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California. (Watch reasons behind the decision)
Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm said the company was just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.
Wal-Mart, H-E-B supermarkets and other American businesses in towns along the Mexican border accept pesos. And some businesses in New York and Minnesota communities along the northern border accept Canadian dollars.
The difference here is that many of the pizza joints are far from the border, in places like Dallas, more than 400 miles away, and Denver, more than 700 miles away.
"If people would understand that the majority of our customers are Hispanic, then it might make more sense for a company to sell pizza for pesos," Gamm said. "It doesn't make sense in Connecticut. And it doesn't make sense in North Dakota or in Maine. But it makes perfect sense here in Dallas, in Phoenix, in Denver -- areas far from the border that have significant Hispanic populations."
The company said it has received hundreds of e-mails, some supportive, most critical.
While praising the pesos plan as an innovative way to appeal to Hispanics, a partner in the nation's largest Hispanic public relations firm said a backlash was inevitable.
"Right now there's a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric going around that could make them a lightning rod," said Patricia Perez, a partner at Valencia, Perez & Echeveste in Los Angeles, California.
Pizza Patron proclaims on its Web site that "to serve the Hispanic community is our passion." Its restaurants are in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods, and each manager must be bilingual and live nearby, said Pizza Patron founder Antonio Swad, who is part-Italian, part-Lebanese.
The take-home menus are in both English and Spanish, and the dishes include the La Mexicana pizza, with spicy chorizo sausage; La Barbacoa pizza, topped with spicy pulled pork; and chicken wings flavored with lime, peppers and garlic con queso.
Many Pizza Patron customers have pesos "sitting in their sock drawers or in their wallets," Gamm said. "We're talking small amounts, where it would be inconvenient to stop and exchange on the way back -- maybe 10 or 20 dollars' worth of pesos."
The promotion will run through the end of February and then be re-evaluated, Swad said.
In the first week, payments in pesos have accounted for about 10 percent of business at the five restaurants operated by the corporation, Pizza Patron said. The others are franchised, and the company will not get reports until the end of the week.
The company has set a conversion rate of 12 pesos per dollar, which is slightly higher than the official rate of about 11 pesos per dollar. Any change is given in U.S. currency.
At a Pizza Patron in Dallas, Veronica Verges bought a pizza Wednesday for her son Nathan's fourth birthday. She paid with pesos her father brought home two weeks ago after a trip to see family in Mexico.
She said she is an occasional Pizza Patron customer, but came that day because she could pay with pesos. Her father wasn't going to use them because he had no plans to go back to Mexico anytime soon.
"I would mostly think a restaurant would do this in a border town," she said. "But it got me over here."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/11/pizza.pesos.ap/index.html |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/12/2007 : 09:26:38 AM
The pizza place that accepts pesos is likely very close to Mexican border. Their choice to accept pesos is probably a simple economic concept...to make money.
It is also probable that many patrons of said pizza place are recent arrivals from across the border...and may not have dollars at all...only pesos.
Also, I think that it's possible that the owners of the pizza place are also of a Mexican heritage. So, they can send the pesos back to family in Mexico or use it there themselves.
It's not like anytime someone gets money they run to the bank to deposit their cash. They could save up the pesos and exchange it for American dollars. Do they do that down there? Exchange foreign currency, like in Canada?
Of course, more than likely, I am completey off on this, and really, it's just some bozo that decided one day to start accepting pesos. |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 10:55:52 PM
also, i find it odd, and i mean really odd, that a place, allegedly a business in america is accepting anything other than american currency or the usual assortment of cards and checks. pesos? don't these people, like, have expenses? things you need to pay money for? don't they put money in a bank? what do the people who run the place tell someone when they need to pay for something? "here, let me get my pesos. you do accept money from a [icompletely different country][/i], don't you?
is it even legal to accept pesos? |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 10:48:38 PM
i sort of agree with robin. it does set a precedent for that kind of thing. it's just so hard to tell the difference between devious plot and policy set forth by stupid people. |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 10:22:18 PM
Who cares what kind of money some place accepts? I mean the fact that we as a society have been brainwashed into thinking money means something is the sad part. When farmers and a self sufficient people traded in having actual material goods as an economic wealth for paper, we were essentially screwed. Now everyone is in debt and paying more for their money than it's worth.
It's like the part of Gulliver's travels where he is with the yahoo's and he has to convince the horses he isn't a yahoo because all they do is dig up gold. The whole point of the book was genius. We as a society value shiny dirt instead of things that could actually mean something to us or do some good.
The worst part is everyone out there is conditioned to think the government is there to screw us over. So what do we expect them to do and what do they do while we apathetically wait? Our society is like a virus on the face of the earth at this point because of the memes past on to us and which we stupidly keep. |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 6:00:37 PM
Parts of Canada accept American dollars... |
| Robin |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 5:25:09 PM
We are so screwed....Peace, Robin |
| rubylith |
Posted - 01/09/2007 : 4:47:47 PM
They are now accepting pesos at a pizza place in Texas....our contry is dying. so fucking sad. The population is so dumbed down and obsessed with propoganda. I hope the huddled masses wake up before it really is too late....but....maybe it already is.
"Today the Dallas Morning News reported that patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos. What kind of twilight zone have we entered here? Yeah forget the dollar, it's basically dead now anyway - lets just use the Peso as the national currency."
WATCH THIS
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XdxI0zClV_Y |
| Robin |
Posted - 01/09/2007 : 11:55:33 AM
It's really not that my mail is so private either, it's the principle. When we say it doesn't matter because we don't send anything private, it's easy for that right to disappear. If there actually were intelligent means for searching mail,or people getting on planes etc. maybe I'd have a little more respect for the system. Right now I feel like things are too easily taken away and for granted.
The air security is the worst set up I've ever experienced, and it's extremely frustrating because it's (to me anyway),a huge blundering mess that has very little basis in anything but perpetuating fear. To me the right to search mail at random is another brick in the wall if you will. Peace, Robin |
| tericee |
Posted - 01/09/2007 : 06:29:33 AM
I think all I ever send through the post anymore is post cards and those aren't private anyway. |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/07/2007 : 3:56:32 PM
No I mean perfect plan for the terrorists. |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/06/2007 : 8:47:29 PM
actually, i think that's why it's such a stupid plan. what is there to gain by giving yourself access to the nation's most obsolete form of communication this side of smoke signals? "restrict our freedoms" or "further invade our privacy." ok, fine. i'll take that an answer. but to what end? more power, simply for the sake of power? that's far too much like the motive of a villian in some book or movie. there has to be another reason. what would "they" want more power for? there has to be a specific desired outcome. and i get the feeling that mail has little to do with it. |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/06/2007 : 5:56:07 PM
quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
i don't know that it's tyranny per se, but it certainly is a violation of privacy. it just seems like a stupid sort of thing to want to search, though. who seriously uses regular mail anymore? all anyone ever gets is junk mail and bills. it's not as if people are mailing their plans to bomb something through the post office, are they? what's the point?
See that's why it's a perfect plan. No one thinks of using the mail for something useful anymore and no one would suspect someone to be mailing all sorts of sensitive terrorist information. |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/06/2007 : 11:01:46 AM
i don't know that it's tyranny per se, but it certainly is a violation of privacy. it just seems like a stupid sort of thing to want to search, though. who seriously uses regular mail anymore? all anyone ever gets is junk mail and bills. it's not as if people are mailing their plans to bomb something through the post office, are they? what's the point? |
| Ranting Thespian |
Posted - 01/06/2007 : 02:42:09 AM
I'll just make sure that anyone sending me mail and any mail I send will say: Cheney Approaved Mail.
That should work. :) |
| rubylith |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 11:51:27 PM
Hooray for tyranny! |
| Robin |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 6:11:37 PM
When I saw the clip on the news of Bush and all his cronies, smiling as he signed away our right to privacy with the mail, I was disgusted, and sadly not surprised.Peace, Robin |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 3:53:54 PM
This, just like tapping phones or any other sort of domestic intelligence program that they've tried to make quasi legal really doesn't matter all that much. Why? Because they were already doing it and have been doing it for years. |
| dan p. |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 3:16:07 PM
does this or does this not apply to my thai mail-order bride? |
| Hopeful Rolling Waves |
Posted - 01/05/2007 : 2:43:01 PM
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