House Fails To Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers

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."

Comments

Good.

[headkase]

If the Stanford Prison Experiment has taught one and only one thing is that given power without oversight always leads to abuse and corruption.

Re:Good.

[dougmc]

If the Stanford Prison Experiment has taught one and only one thing is that given power without oversight always leads to abuse and corruption.

No, it didn't teach that. It taught that it might -- it's just one instance.

HISTORY, on the other hand, has taught us that power without oversight usually leads to abuse and corruption. (And even then it's not always.)

Stop celebrating - it's going to pass

[AdmiralXyz]

Hate to put a damper on things, but the only reason this failed was that the Republicans assumed that passage was a fait accompli, so they pushed it in under an expediting procedure that requires a two-thirds vote, and the bill only failed that by 7 votes. All they have to do is reintroduce it under the usual majority vote rule and it will be a done deal.

Though I will admit, for the first time since I became aware of their existence I feel something other than blinding hatred for the Tea Party, who are basically responsible for the Republicans not having enough votes. Looks like some of them really do care about civil liberties, and for that at least they should be congratulated.

Re:Stop celebrating - it's going to pass

[yuhong]

At least this time it will be debated and amendments will be considered.

Amazing with all we are facing

[Anonymous Coward]

Massive debt, an economy on the brink of collapse and all the House Republicans are interested in is repealing health care for the people that couldn't get it, tax breaks for the rich and extending domestic spying/the Patriot Act. How about trying to fix something that's actually broken? When I saw the Republican proposed budget cuts they were all things like education, EPA, NASA and the FBI of all things. Not a single cut was actual fat and none of it affected the rich or corporate America. Remember where their priorities lie next time around.

Re:So it worked exactly like it was supposed to wo

[amRadioHed]

People were uppity because they should never have had the powers in the beginning.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who thought Obama was going to change the status quo, you should read the provisions the White House wants to keep:

The three expiring Patriot Act provisions are:

â The âoeroving wiretapâ provision allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps from a secret intelligence court, known as the FISA court, without identifying what method of communication is to be tapped.

â The âoelone wolfâ measure allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason â" even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist. The government has said it has never invoked that provision, but the Obama administration said it wanted to retain the authority to do so.

â The âoebusiness recordsâ provision allows FISA court warrants for any type of record, from banking to library to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation.

In the best traditions of bipartisanship, both parties want to take away your civil liberties and sell out the middle class to big business. The only difference between the two is which big business group they are puppets for.

And this is coming from a Constituional law professor, by the way. A guy who taught at one of the top Universities in the country - the University of Chicago - and was educated at the top law school in the country. If this is what he thinks the Constitution stands for, we're fucked.

Obama is as much of a disgrace to this country as Bush ever was.

Don't tell me it's just politics. Where would be if everyone - Lincoln, Jefferson, etc. - acted as if it were just politics? Sometimes you got to take a stand. But alas, the sad truth is that Mr. Obama simply does not have the balls.

I will now go back to listening to the Who.

Posting anonymously because that's just what this country has come to.

Re:Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

[freakinangry]

The public, us, is fed so much disinformation that most of us don't know which way is up anymore. In the meantime, concentrated interests are pushing through the same agenda no matter whether the administration is Republican or Democrat... and what was once a middle class is slowly being pushed into extinction via economic pressures perpetrated by banksters and absent fed regulatory agencies, the highest incarceration levels among free and industrialized countries, a constant slashing of education, and to keep us frog from jumping out of the boiling pot... endless entertainment online or through the media (news and other junk). But no worries folks, as Egypt demonstrates, people can go hungry for only so long before they start to fight back, so there is hope on the horizon ;-)

Re:Hmm.

[davester666]

I, for one, welcome Congress's inability to come together as one bipartisan group in an effort to eliminate my rights as a non-incorporated citizen.

Sarcastic news placement on NPR this morning?

[Dr. Manhattan]

It might have been deliberate, but NPR segued straight from talking about the (sadly almost certainly temporary) failure to renew the Patriot Act provisions... to discussing protests in Egypt over the decades-old 'emergency provisions' that gave 'sweeping powers to the security services'.