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Congress Makes Deal To Renew Patriot Act For 4 Years

Posted by timothy on from the bipartisan-nomenclature dept.

airfoobar writes "A four-year extension to the highly controversial Patriot Act is set to be rushed through in the coming week." Techdirt has its usual trenchant critique. I hope it's not unpatriotic to raise doubts about "one of the critical tools the intelligence community has to keep America safe."

3 of 350 comments (clear)

  1. The more things change the more they stay the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    "Whenever a controversial law is proposed, and its supporters, when confronted with an egregious abuse it would permit, use a phrase along the lines of 'Perhaps in theory, but the law would never be applied in that way' - they're *lying*. They intend to use the law that way as early and as often as possible."

    - http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=169254&cid=14107454

  2. Re:When? by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Better, the National Security Act of 1947.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_of_1947 - that established the CIA and started giving legalized spying huge budgets.

  3. Re:When? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because the Supreme Court says you didn't, and they, not you, determine that answer.

    Back in the day, the Supreme Court said that slavery is perfectly constitutional, since slaves don't count as "persons" (and thus don't have rights).

    Just because SCOTUS says black and white, war is peace, and freedom is slavery, doesn't make it so. They're just people, as corruptible as anyone else, and with their own personal agendas.