Overall, I am comfortable with this. In a world with an Administration and subordinate agencies truly operating solely for the protection of this country I’d agree with the concept of surveillance that sometimes skirts the protections afforded by the Constitution.
However, given the record of this President and the statements before press and Congress by some of his agency head with regard to the level of surveillance, I am not in favor of that carte blanche FISA rubber stamp under the guise of national security from terrorism when the President himself won’t even acknowledge Islam as a systemic terrorism problem. In the words of Johnny Cochran, “...the glove just don’t fit!”
Frankly though, even if the act isn’t renewed, I suspect it won’t make a difference in actual practice. Obama and his agencies have already shown their allegiance is not to established law and the Constitution. They, especially the NSA, are designed for secrecy; they’ll just keep doing it, law or no law.
Wonder if the Senate has spoken to the experts and the experts have informed the Senate the ‘backdoors’ are too numerous to need extensions?
Of course Mitch McConnell loves the NSA law, he can use it against conservatives.
What a sleazy worthless creep who deserves to suffocate on his boyfriend.
Great, so the fear mongering of cultural Marxists like Rand Paul won the day, and we’re on our way back to a pre-9/11 world.
With what we have learned from Edward Snowden and what we have observed of our lying government ‘leaders’ (choke), does anyone seriously believe that this intrusive mass-surveillance is going to stop, regardless of what we will be told?
Since the FBI’s own report says that the Patriot Act has not lead to a single terrorist apprehension, it needs to go away and American Freedoms to be restored.
I hope it dies in Congress. A bad law is worse than no law and any law giving that Satanic bastard in the White House more power is a bad law.
The Senate trying to make up for the treasonous vote on the trade bill?
Governments do not need legal sanction to engage in surveillance and espionage. They’re going to to it anyways. I prefer that they not have the cloak of legal sanction to do so.
This was a bad law under Bush and a worse law under dear leader. Its best that it go away. Unfortunately it will probably survive. The uniparty isn’t happy operating in the shadows: they prefer to screw us in the day
Ight and in public.
Wow in Maine collins and king parted ways, collins voted her usual, what ever the fabian society wants the fabian society gets, while King, for once, voted for freedom.
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Yea
King (I-ME), Nay
“TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS”
Anything else is beyond the scope of the limited specified purpose for American government.
“Primarily due to objections from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) the Senate couldn’t agree to pass even a 24-hour extension of the Patriot Act, the 2001 law that expanded the government’s authority to search for terror suspects.”
I’m not typically a Paul fan, but today I am!
If they are not going to fight and defeat the terrorist overseas then surrendering our rights to fight a defensive war at home is a never ending and inevitably losing cause.
Besides a terrorist with a brain is not going to uses an unencripted phone call which a wiretap will detect. A terrorist without a brain is likely to be killed or caught by some other foolish mestake.
Why National-Security Republicans Lost the Patriot Act Debate
Andrew C. McCarthy
May 23, 2015
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418807/why-national-security-republicans-lost-patriot-act-debate-andrew-c-mccarthy
The NSA doesn’t even know your name.
But you probably don’t know that. It is amazing how little the public has learned from the debate the national-security Right has lost — not is losing but has lost — over the National Security Agency’s “metadata” program.
The information the NSA has collected in bulk from telecommunication-service providers does not include the names of telephone subscribers. They don’t know who you are. It does not include addresses. They don’t know where you are.
(Snip)
It’s not the intrusion; we need the capability to get any information, anywhere, by any means necessary. It is doing so without a warrant and without the information that led to the warrant being available for review and eventually released in the event of abuse.
No warrant, no spying on American citizens, period.
They already have their spy systems in place, thus dudden matter that it expires. The plants are in place, the data collection systems are in place, and they will continue to gather all the intel they want to get regardless the bill expires. The government has always and will continue to break the law to do what it wants to do. Every administration all do it. Both parties do it. The gathering of personal info began way back before all this. Remember all the files that J. Edgar Hoover used to gather over citizens, when he had no rights to do so. The FBI, CIA and all those other alphabet government agencies do it. I remember way way way back in the Army an Army intel officer telling me about all the info gathering that the government did. he was a good guy and did not like the stuff the government collected on citizens. This was in the 1970, early 80s. So it is there, and always has been around.
Given Obama’s abuse of this power...naming his political enemies, “terrorists”, I hope this police state mess is taken out.
The abuse that comes to mind that is most egregious is arming government employees in all agencies with hollow tip bullets and arms, molesting people at the airports, running unannounced fake “terrorist” raid on little children while they are at school and scaring them half to death... They have dragged the DOD into their nightmare “homeland security.” Spying on all Americans and especially our elected leaders.
It’s time for them to go.
The question I had when Bush wanted it was this. Do you trust Hillary Clinton with that power? Obama proved my point.
Here’s the roll calls on the two votes.
A bill to reform the authorities of the Federal Government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms of information gathering for foreign intelligence, counterterrorism, and criminal purposes, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 57
NAYs 42
Not Voting 1
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs -—57
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Flake (R-AZ)
Franken (D-MN)
Gardner (R-CO)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hirono (D-HI)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kaine (D-VA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Lankford (R-OK)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Scott (R-SC)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs -—42
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting - 1
Enzi (R-WY)
A bill to extend authority relating to roving surveillance, access to business records, and individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 until July 31, 2015, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 45
NAYs 54
Not Voting 1
YEAs -—45
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kirk (R-IL)
Lankford (R-OK)
McCain (R-AZ)
Nelson (D-FL)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs -—54
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gardner (R-CO)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Paul (R-KY)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting - 1
Enzi (R-WY)
Excellent news.
Now put in a provision punishable by jail for anyone who knowingly spies on Americans. (The original intent of the freaking thing)