Can’t take your eye off Washington for a minute:
The Senate voted unanimously on Friday to make permanent virtually all the main provisions of the law known as the USA Patriot Act, after Republican leaders agreed to include additional civil rights safeguards and to forestall any expansion of the government’s counterterrorism powers.
The House passed a bill of its own last week that would also extend the law’s surveillance and law enforcement powers, which the Bush administration considers critical to combating terrorism. While the House and Senate bills are not identical, the differences are modest enough that Congressional officials said they were confident that they could work out a compromise.
The Patriot Act has become a target of criticism since it was passed in the weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with more than 300 communities voicing formal concerns about what they see as its chilling effect on civil liberties. But many opponents of the law, as well as many supporters, said the Senate bill was an acceptable compromise after months of heated debate over the scope of the government’s authority to track and eavesdrop on terror suspects…
The Bush administration had pressed for the expanded subpoena powers as well. But Congressional officials said that after several days of private discussions among Senate leaders, Senator Roberts agreed not to pursue the administrative subpoenas or other measures endorsed by the Intelligence Committee in order to ensure quick reauthorization of the Patriot Act in some form.
Why it was necessary to make these changes permanent is beyond me- these should be revisited every 5-10 years, if for no other reason than to examine their efficacy. Instead, the authoritarian impulses of the right wing won out, and the expanded power for the state is here to stay. And nary a peep from the opposition party. Bolton- well, he is real important. Better filibuster him. But the Patriot Act? We’ll just bitch about that.
Via TalkLeft, we see the ACLU is declaring a victory of sorts:
“This good faith effort made by Senators, while imperfect, is a good starting point, and is vastly better than its counterpart passed by the House. Although the ACLU was unable to endorse the final bill, it contains some provisions mindful of the Bill of Rights, and does not include such broad and unnecessary powers like administrative subpoenas.
We’ll see what the final bill looks like soon enough.
SomeCallMeTim
Let me just thank the Republican Party for this snippet: “it contains some provisions mindful of the Bill of Rights.” If the fundamentalist Christian cosmology is right, you people are so going to hell.
ppGaz
Priceless.
The Republican Government in general seems occasionally “mindful” of the Constitution. Not enough to really get in their way, though.
demimondian
Remember that no one believes in God more than the Devil himself.
KC
Shit.
Kimmitt
Don’t remind me. I mean, I know that it’s electoral death to oppose any anti-terror bill, but geez.
dlnevins
Sheesh! Why don’t we just pass a Constitutional Amendment repealing the Bill of Rights “in the interest of combating terrorism” and get it over with?
(The cynical part of me says who cares? If we Americans are so easily cowed into undercutting the institutional safeguards that keep this a free nation, then maybe we deserve to live in a police state.)
Syl
I feel like being sarcastic, but I’ll try to refrain. It’s almost as if you folks didn’t know what the law was BEFORE the PA. Sneak and peek? Already there. Library records? Already there. Roving wiretaps? Already there. Blame technology for the changes.
When the ACLU argues against the PA, it’s not arguing to keep the old set of statutes as they already existed, it’s arguing for a utopian ideal which we never had in the first place.
There’s review and accountability every step of the way and that has even been strengthened in the new version as I understand it.
Sojourner
Why bother when they can simply be ignored.
Jimmy Jazz
And nothing says “review and accountability” like the modern Republican party.
Sinequanon
I wasn’t sleeping. I have been following the Patriot Act, Patriot II, FISA, Immigration Law and Executive orders since the original Act was adopted in Oct. 2001. I have been fighting this heinious bill for all that time. I have actually read the entirety of each and every one of these acts. I prepared an analysis which took me almost six months. I found that most people when surveyed, didn’t even understand what the Act allowed now, so they thought it was all right. There is no reason for any of it, none at all. The promises of a temporary solution and a sunset on these laws was just denied to us all. And, the tools within the Act have been abused more than properly used by the Feds/CIA/State & Local govts. etc. Local governments and police use these laws as well, so they can tap your phone with out any notice too. You know for example, that the Act was used incorrectly when Ashcroft used it to gain access to the medical records of women who had recieved legal abortions in some New Jersey Hospitals, along with the names of the Doctors that performed the abortions. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, that is just Wrong!
What I want to know, and what, ultimately scares me, is: Where is the leading? Where does it end?
Sojourner
It’s not at all clear. I am amazed at how many smart and successful people are willing to give up their rights for the promise of greater security. And when that promise is not kept, they give up still more rights.
tanja
Yes! And nothing says “review and accountability” like the modern Republican party.
tanja
Let me just thank the Republican Party for this snippet: “it contains some provisions mindful of the Bill of Rights.” If the fundamentalist Christian cosmology is right, you people are so going to hell.