The House of Representatives voted 277-148 to not extend three provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Looking at the numbers, you will see quite a few Republicans joining near unanimous Democrat lack of support for the measure. Nice to see some bipartisanship for a change. This vote also comes on a day when Janet Napolitano tried to convince the audience at a security conference in Europe that the terror threat is also "greater than the time of 9/11."
She also alluded to internal threats telling the audience that al-Quaeda sympathizers are now in the US. That sounds like an admission that Homeland Security is not doing its job. Time to get rid of that along with the "Patriot" Act.
The three provisions in question are are are authority for court approved roving wiretaps (multiple wiretaps), the "library provision" where the FBI can looking into what people have checked out of the library, and finally the "lone wolf" provision added on in 2004 where the FBI can engage in secret intelligence on those not affiliated with terrorist groups.
Yes, you read that correctly. NOT affiliated with terrorist groups. If the person in question is such a threat, it should not be hard to get a warrant. Sorry, but the FBI has been caught in some compromising positions with this and may be wandered into some legally unstable territory with this bill.
The best way to fight terrorism is to reform immigration, not turn your country into a police-state. It looks like some people are starting to see this logic. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership cannot be included in this category.
But the rank and file can!
Same can be applied to the Democrats.
Get ready for the upheaval!
No go probe the TSA....
The story is here for your consideration, courtesy of AP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/us_patriot_act
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment