"Holy shit!"
From the article:
"The House of Representatives failed Tuesday to extend the life of three surveillance tools that are crucial to the United States' post-Sept. 11 anti-terror law, a slipup for the new Republican leaders who miscalculated the level of opposition.
"The House voted 277-148 to keep the three provisions of the USA Patriot Act on the books until Dec. 8. Republicans brought up the bill under a special expedited procedure that required a two-thirds majority, and the vote was seven short of reaching that level.
"The Republicans, who took over the House last month, lost 26 of their own members, adding to the 122 Democrats who voted against it. Supporters say the three measures are vital to preventing another terrorist attack like those on Sept. 11, 2001, but critics say they infringe on civil liberties. They appealed to the antipathy that newer and more conservative Republicans hold for big government invasions of individual privacy. The Patriot Act bill would have renewed the authority for court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones. Also addressed was Section 215, the so-called library records provision, which gives the FBI court-approved access to "any tangible thing" relevant to a terrorism investigation.
"The third deals with the "lone-wolf" provision of a 2004 anti-terror law that permits secret intelligence surveillance of non-U.S. people not known to be affiliated with a specific terror organization.
"Among the 26 Republicans against the extension were seven freshman lawmakers backed by the Tea Party movement, whose members have said the Patriot Act intrudes on every-day life, NBC News reported. They are David Schweikert of Arizona, Tom Graves of Georgia, Raul Labrador of Idaho, Randy Hultgren and Bobby Schilling of Illinois, Justin Amash of Michigan and Christopher Gibson of New York. An eighth first-term Republican, Michael Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joined them."
Go Tea Party!
This is great news! I always love it when the news decides to go along with what we learn about in class, and here is another classic example. Much of the public has had issues with the PATRIOT Act and they have wanted many sections of it cut out, and finally, here we see that happening.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to bet though, that this story will generate more news coverage than when the PATRIOT Act was put into place, and then extended, because this will be considered anti-American. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, to see if the media will cover it as the positive step forward that it really is or as the support of terrorists that some will say.
After learning about the Patriot Act in class, I was thrilled to see this article. Maybe this is a step in the right direction in protecting our 4th Amendment rights. This is still not perfect, there are still many concerns existing, but any step is exciting.
ReplyDeleteI was most happy about seeing the library records provision addressed with this. Our government was overstepping their bounds and are slowly being reeled back in. This is a major win for those of us who believe in defending our rights.