Thursday, December 22, 2005

Patriot Act to be extended

Despite the fact that the vast majority of people in this country agree that the Patriot Act is a very important part of keeping America safe, the Dems are trying to kill it with fillibuster. Well, thankfully, it looks as if it will survive for at least 6 months more.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators on Wednesday agreed to extend the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act for six months to allow the bill's critics to continue to seek additional civil liberty safeguards in the anti-terrorism law.

The deal, if passed by the GOP-controlled Senate, would still need to get the approval of the Republican-controlled House and President Bush, but it would keep the Patriot Act provisions from expiring on Dec. 31.


If it were up to the left we'd all just commit suicide, so no wonder they hate this legislation.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good news, indeed, MZ!

If you are Right minded and have legitimate concerns about the USAPA, study it. I believe you will realize how vital it is, and appreciate how it came about.

nanc said...

hmmm - doesn't rightminded usually have his name closed? i smell a rat!

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, our own "palestinians" show what hypocritical racist filth they really are: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200512\SPE20051222a.html

Anonymous said...

here's an excerpt from rightminded's link "There were a number of methods that criminals and terrorists were using to evade communication surveillance by authorized agencies. For example, cellular telephone and cellular telephone lines have become relatively inexpensive, such that it is functional for criminals and terrorists simply to use a cell phone for a very limited period - 24 hours, 12 hours and the like - and constantly to throw away those phones and switch into other phones in order to evade detection. A wiretap that is authorized by a court, previous to the USA Patriot Act, can only attach to a device - that is, a particular phone. And by switching phones and throwing them away, they forced the investigators to constantly go back to court in order to get a new authorization for a new phone. And that is a significant lapse in our ability to intercept communications. The USA Patriot fixed that by giving authorities the ability to do roving wiretaps, that is wiretapping authorized by a court to target a specific individual and any communication device that he would be likely to use. I think that is a critical, critical part of the improvement.

Another example is that we saw terrorist cells actually setting up Internet service providers in order to evade lawfully authorized communications intercepts. And the USA Patriot Act, by making advances in the legal authorities to intercept, fluidly, communications in the Internet world, was able to close down these kinds of loopholes. That's why it is so critical to understand the authorities Congress gave in the USA Patriot Act not as an increase in the size of the intercept or communications surveillance net, but rather, simply to patch the holes in the net that were - that were pre-existing. It doesn't matter how big the net is. If there are holes in the net, then the fish will get away. What Congress did was to patch those holes, thereby making only incremental changes in the law, but changes that have an exponential effect in our ability to collect information related to terrorist and criminal plans."

nanc said...

i'm glad that's you r.m. - now lay off that spell check or at least give us the code word! whatever that is, i've not been told...