Patriot Act Renewal a Sure Thing

Opposition swept away 96-3

Published on February 17, 2006 By singrdave In War on Terror

The New York Times reported last night that the Patriot Act was going to be passed, as the motion to reject its renewal was rejected 96-3...

Earlier today, the Senate handed the administration a victory as it voted, 96 to 3, not to hold up the Patriot Act to incorporate changes urged by Senator Russell D. Feingold, the act's most persistent critic.

Mr. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said he wants to make the Senate debate several more days on the bill, and under the Senate's rules he can do so. But today's vote signaled that, once Mr. Feingold has exhausted his moves, the act will indeed be renewed by the Senate before its scheduled expiration on March 10.

The USAPATRIOT Act is a necessary tool in the War on Terror, since most mportantly it allows the seamless cooperation of our agencies and law enforcement officers in fighting terrorists and tracking bad guys as they enter and leave our country.

Comments

singrdave

on Feb 17, 2006

The New York Times is burying the lead BIG TIME. The title of the article is not anything about passage of the USAPATRIOT Act, but rather that the "Senate Panel Decides Against Eavesdropping Inquiry, for Now":

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush's domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being.

"I believe that such an investigation is currently unwarranted and would be detrimental to this highly classified program," Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the panel, said this afternoon following a closed session.

While Mr. Roberts's announcement signaled that the administration's eavesdropping program would not be subject to Senate scrutiny, at least for the time being, there was no guarantee that the House would not go ahead with an inquiry of its own.

Mr. Roberts said "an agreement in principle" had been reached with the administration whereby lawmakers would be given more information on the surveillance operation run by the National Security Agency.

It's not till paragraph NINE that they mention, in passing, the USAPATRIOT Act's congessional action. Amazing. They really know how to bury a lead. So did you read the whole article?

Chaos Manager

on Feb 17, 2006

Sounds like it's time for the President of the Senate (VP Richard Cheney for the Constitutionally clueless) to tell the Honorable Senator Feingold to "STFU!"

While I may not agree 100% with the provisions in the Patriot Act, a good number of them are necessary for protecting our safety. Now, if only they'd get smart and put a sunset clause in these instead of making them permanent.

singrdave

on Feb 17, 2006

While I echo your sentiments about the nature of the Act, the sunset clause is already in there. That's why the USAPATRIOT Act is up for renewal. The sunset clause kicked in and it went back to Congress for readdressal. Now if they made them permanent, rather than inserting a sunset clause... that would be progress.

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