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House Fails To Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers

Posted by Roblimo on from the patriotism-versus-freedom-chapter-85,672 dept.

schwit1 writes "The House failed to extend three key expiring provisions of the Patriot Act on Tuesday, elements granting the government broad and nearly unchecked surveillance power on its own public. The failure of the bill, sponsored by Rep. James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis), for the time being is likely to give airtime to competing measures in the Senate that would place limited checks on the act's broad surveillance powers. The White House, meanwhile, said it wanted the expiring measures extended through 2013."

9 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who is Roblimo by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Roblimo was the editor in chief of Open Source Technology Group, the company that owns Slashdot, SourceForge.net, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, and ThinkGeek from 2000 to 2008.

    He used to post alot of the stories here from about, oh 2000 to '04. And he was/is the interview editor.

  2. Re:good job Republicans! by AdmiralXyz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Save your praise: most of the Republicans actually supported extension. It only failed by seven votes, and that because almost every Democrat and some of the Tea Party newcomers opposed it.

    --
    Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
  3. Re:good job Republicans! by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the last 20 years, a Republican has been President for 10 years (2 years H.W. Bush 1, 8 years G.W. Bush), Republicans controlled the Senate for 10 years and controlled the House for 12 years.

  4. Re:good job Republicans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Moreover, it failed because Republicans tried to pass the extension _without debate_, thereby upping the required threshold to 66%.

    If they had allowed debate, it would have sailed through as it had much more than 50%. I suspect that this will be the next step (allowing debate).

  5. Re:good job Republicans! by odd42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good job Republicans! Wow, never thought I'd say that.. Well, after being in power for 17 of the last 20 years, it's about time you did something right.

    Um... 90% of Repubs voted FOR extending it...! http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll026.xml

  6. Re:good job Republicans! by besalope · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the vote list:

    http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll026.xml

    Key Stats:

    Republicans:
    Yea: 210
    Nay: 26

    Democrats:
    Yea: 67
    Nay: 122

    Republicans killed the bill my ass.

  7. Re:Why are you thanking them? Here are the numbers by konohitowa · · Score: 3, Informative

    Correction:

    GOP: 210/26 (y/n) -> 89%
    DEM: 67/122 (y-n) -> 32%

  8. Re:Minority government by Third+Position · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, don't start celebrating yet. This was lost only due to being submitted under a special procedure that require 2/3 majority approval. If it gets resubmitted under the standard procedure requiring only a majority approval, it has more than enough votes to pass.

    Unfortunately, I expect this to be a short lived victory.

    --
    American Third Position
    Finally, a real choice!
  9. Re:Hmm. by d3ac0n · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, considering that it was largely the newly minted Tea Party caucus that sunk these three provisions, I'm thinking that a petition from a fringe leftist group probably didn't have much to do with it.

    However, if it makes you feel better, you are free to pretend whatever you like.

    --
    Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory