Patriot Act Expansion Fails In The House (thehill.com)

An anonymous reader write: The "Anti-terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act" failed in the U.S. Congress on a vote held earlier this week. "Many libertarians warned of potential privacy violations if the measure went into effect," reported The Hill, "which helped prevent it from reaching the necessary two-thirds majority to pass through the fast-track process under which it was considered." The bill would've expanded the number of crimes which would trigger the expanded investigation powers, including crimes covered by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. "The Patriot Act should not be casually expanded," warned the House Liberty in a statement, arguing the bill would "permit the government to demand information on any American from any financial institution merely upon reasonable suspicion."
In a related story, a new campaign ad is criticizing Senator Russ Feingold for being the only Senator to vote against the original Patriot Act in October of 2001. Shipped to TV stations Thursday night, its narration begins "Islamic terrorists slaughtering innocents. And when Congress gave law enforcement the tools to keep Americans safe from international terror, only one senator voted no: Russ Feingold." After Friday's attack in Nice, Feingold's opponent attempted to reschedule the ads until a later date, but was unable to stop them from airing on at least three stations.

Comments

Fingold

[phantomfive]

Feingold is ahead in all the polls, so........

Party breakdown

[Anonymous Coward]

From TFA, 147 Republicans and 82 Democrats voted in favor of the expansion, and 86 Republicans and 91 Democrats voted against the expansion. So 63% of voting Republicans support expanding the Patriot Act versus 47% of voting Democrats. Please keep that in mind if you're the sort of person who believes that the Republican party supports small government and civil rights.

Note also that this only failed because it was on a fast track that requires 2/3rds majority; it almost certainly will pass eventually (with a 50%+1 majority), thanks to Republicans.

Re:Party breakdown

[fustakrakich]

The "Democrats" you are referring to were what was colloquially known as "Dixiecrats" who were conservative by every measure.

So what? They were still democrats. That should tell you something, the democrats are still full of conservatives. And quite a few of them voted for the patriot act and all its extensions, and for war, mass incarceration, and everything else. The democrats have no monopoly on civil rights. They are in bed with the devil on most issues, this one being more notable at the moment.

And your silliness still makes the republicans look even better. You should quit while you're behind. The shame of misunderstanding the situation is yours, whatever you are.

Re:Party breakdown

[fustakrakich]

Not all of them. The conservative democrats are now called "blue dog", "third way", and the old name "Bourbon democrats". And they are still at least half the party. The civil rights and "liberalism" was only during the brief time Kennedy was president and Bobby and MLK were still alive. And it came crashing down with Humphrey's nomination. Their history, going back 150 years right up to today, is something most democrats refuse to acknowledge. The cops' billy club have their name written all over it. Deep down it is still the party of George Wallace, now with more tokenism. Bill Clinton confirmed that with his mandatory sentencing laws, DOMA, and welfare "reform".

Re:Party breakdown

[fustakrakich]

you missed a chunk of American political history.

Yeah, I guess watching it happen doesn't mean much these days. I am fully aware what happened to the GOP. What you seem to ignore is that democrat "liberalism" lasted all of about 8 years until Humphrey was nominated against a 19 to 1 popular vote for the other guy (Eugene McCarthy). I guess everybody's eyes were on the events outside the convention hall, without even understanding why it got so exciting. They made it all about the cops, instead of the crooked delegates inside.

Disclaimer: I can grant my view might be colored by the tenure the infamous Richard J. Daley, who epitomized the party's very essence in the north, as George Wallace did in the south. It really is and has always been a party of gangsters.

Re:Would his opponent be Ron Johnson?

[HornWumpus]

You feel the same way about the ACLUs ignoring the 2nd amendment?

What's in a name

[markdavis]

"Anti-terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act"

Seriously, who names these stupid things? How about we call it one of these:

"Government Spying on its Own Citizens is Unconstitutional Act"?

"Acting Like Citizens Are All Terrorists Is Wrong Act"?

"Giving Up Your Rights Is Weakness Act"?

"Calling People Who Give Up Liberty Claiming To Be Patriots Is an Unpatriotic Act Act"?

Re:What's in a name

[NormalVisual]

It'd be nice if they spent half as much thought on the actual legislation as they did inventing a childish contrived acronym for it.

Re:What's in a name

[PPH]

Some low level legislative staffer probably just Daeshed off a name without thinking about hidden meanings.

Re:Yeah... Tried to stop the ads...

[gtall]

Well, seeing as it is Ron Johnson, it is probably due to ineptitude. He's right up there with Jeff Sessions from Alabama as being the lowest wattage senator in Congress.

Ron Johnson decided he knew something about stock markets because he has an on-line brokerage account and buys and sells stock. So he invites some whizzes from Wall Street to interrogate about Administration policy. One whiz fellow explained that brokerages were stealing a pence here and pence there by delaying buy and sell orders and coming out millions ahead. Ron, who's light was particularly dim that day, explained that he used to pay lots to buy and sell stocks but now he could do it for $19.95, so what's the problem?

As Ron White said, stupid is forever.

Terrorists attack democracy - democracy cancelled

[khz6955]

July 14 2016: "France will not extend the state of emergency imposed after last year's Islamist militant attacks in Paris in November beyond 26 July"

July 15 2016: "Terror attack kills scores in Nice, France"

July 16 2016: "France extends state of emergency"

'The declaration of a state of emergency empowers the prefect whose department is wholly or partly included in a constituency in Article 2:'

1. To prohibit the movement of people and vehicles in places and times fixed by decree;
2. To establish, by decree, areas of protection or security where the presence of individuals is regulated
3. To prohibit the stay in any part of the department to any person seeking to hinder in any way the action of the authorities

.. The Minister of the Interior may impose the house arrest, the place it determines, any person residing in the area set by the decree mentioned in Article 2 .. in any case, the arrest will have the effect of creating camps would be held the persons mentioned in the first paragraph

I. - The decree declaring or law extending the state of emergency may, by an express provision conferring on the administrative authorities mentioned in Article 8 the authority to order searches anywhere, including a home of day and night ..

II. - Minister of the Interior may take all measures to ensure the interruption of any online public communication service leading to the commission of acts of terrorism or glorifying.

.. The Minister of the Interior, for the entire territory is established the state of emergency, and the prefect, in the department may order the temporary closure of theaters, pubs and places of any meeting Nature in areas determined by the decree provided for in Article 2. ref google granslate

So law enforcement is incompetent?

[Anonymous Coward]

And when Congress gave law enforcement the tools to keep Americans safe from international terror, only one senator voted no: Russ Feingold.

So what did law enforcement do with the tools to keep Americans safe from international terror they were given in 2001? The confirmed number of thwarted terrorist-related activities due to intelligence gathering is 1, a guy sending a few thousand dollars to an Islamistic organization akin to al-Qaeda.

One confirmed arrest for the complete abandonment of communication privacy world-wide over a decade, at a cost of several dozens of billions of dollars. All the other "terrorist plots" could not be confirmed or were initiated by the FBI in the first place, entrapping some fools not otherwise able to perform or justify such activities.