Posted on 11/19/2014 4:59:29 AM PST by TurboZamboni
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a sweeping overhaul of the once-secret National Security Agency program that collects records of Americans' phone calls in bulk.
Democrats and a handful of Republicans who supported the measure failed to secure the 60 votes they needed to take up the legislation. The vote was 58-42 for consideration.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, worked hard to defeat the bill, which had the support of the Obama administration and a coalition of technology companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
"This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs," McConnell said before the vote, expressing the concerns of those who argue that the program is a vital tool in the fight against terrorism.
But Tuesday's vote only put off a fractious debate over security and personal liberties until next year. While a Republican-controlled Senate is less likely to go along with the kinds of reforms that were in the bill, which sponsors had named the USA Freedom Act, the debate could further expose rifts between the party's interventionist and more libertarian-leaning wings.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Mr Big Gubmint wants even Bigger Big Brother. Stay snoopy my friends.
At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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Scumbags, the founding fathers are rolling in there graves that a government entity modeled after stasi is allowed free reign in usa
The answer to this is very simple. In two months, they can craft a better bill. That goes for almost everything that was originally crafted to swing a few soft Dem votes.
You are aware that for the most case people voted against this bill becuse they felt it didn't give the NSA enoungh authority to collect phone information, aren't you? What kind of better bill are you looking for>
Dream on, the bulk of republicans are just a much fascist as the dems are. They love to the idea of snoping on Americans and using the government to control us.
This is bad news.
You may be right. Regardless of what was in the bill, though, the Republicans will want their own version. These things tend to be hundreds of pages long with all sorts of little carve outs, etc. I don’t know if the GOP will make it worse in terms of snoopy-ness. I do know that the Dems like to control the mechanism of the laws execution, and some of that might be cleaned up.
This is one of the few areas in which Rand Paul might be useful when the real bill comes up next session.
HAHAHA!!!! Hilarious.
This gets ridiculously frustrating
Flame on, but I believe he's already done such on more than one occasion when a bill or reaches of power hasn't gone his way.
so... 0bama and crew have been using the NSA to spy on everyone... powers that the newly minted republicans will have come january.
then, two weeks after losing the elections, they move to get rid of those powers?
yea. the dems know it’s bad... but its ok when they control it.
Why?
“The issue is never the issue. The issue is the revolution.”
—David Horowitz, quoting unnamed SDS leader.
This bill did not propose to expand the NSA. It would have restricted the NSA's ability to collect data. The GOP, for whatever reason, did not want to restrict the data collection. Terrible, terrible move on the part of the Senate GOP.
Why would the Republicans have these powers come January? The NSA is in the executive branch.
Exactly. EVERY TIME a piece of legislation in the Senate fails to get the needed 60 votes, the media headlines always reads “republicans block”
Because the program is overly broad and violates our constitutional rights. While we need to be ever vigilant against our enemies, we need to do so in the way that maximizes respect for civil liberties.
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