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Patriot Act Extension By Autopen Raises Questions for Congressman
Okian Warrior writes "Congress passed the [Patriot act extension] bill Thursday night, shortly before certain provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire. However, Mr. Obama could not sign the bill right away in person, since he was in Europe for the G8 Summit. In order to sign the bill before the measures expired, he authorized the use of the autopen machine, which holds a pen and signs his actual signature. Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia sent President Obama a letter today questioning the constitutionality."
I'd like to question the constitutionality of a lot more than just how it was signed.
Because you can't extend a law which has expired. The provisions would have expired at midnight this morning, before the bill could have become law by default. This would have (arguably) rendered the extension null and void.
Hm... very interesting. He actually seems to have voted against it. "Graves said he believes the act gave too much power to the government, a problem cited by many of the people who helped elect him." Source here
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Hmm, interesting that you call one of the few who stood up and voted against the law a "partisan hack". It would seem you can't see past the D or R next to a person's name. There's a name for that I think. It's right on the tip of my tongue...
"Congress bumped up against the deadline mainly because of the stubborn resistance from a single senator, Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights. Paul held up the final vote for several days while he demanded a chance to change the bill to diminish the government's ability to monitor individual actions. The bill passed the Senate 72-23."
- from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/26/politics/main20066686.shtml
Here's to the crazy ones
Gosh, I thought the thing was that the president works FOR US.
We've had more than enough of putting more power and gravitas than was intended into the role of the presidency, doncha think?
The whole point was to not have kings.
This space available.
House Dems votes against by more than a 2-1 margin. If Republicans didn't control the House, the Patriot Act would have expired this morning.
Source: http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/376
Of course not. However, this "Made in China" engraving makes me seriously question that the Autopen is a natural born citizen.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Why such a discrepancy between House and Senate for Dems? Most Dem Senators voted yea...
Anyway, you can't assume that Dems in the House would have still voted the same way if they were the majority. US politics being what it is, minority parties tend to vote against things out of spite, but flip flop on the issue as soon as they're running things and could use some extra levers.