Friday - December 16, 2005

Patriot Act Shot Down

Well, there goes the ballgame, boys and girls. The Senate in it’s infinite wisdom has voted to block renewal of the Patriot Act. As usual, the Dummycraps stuck together to oppose anything President Bush proposes. This time though, several Republicans caved in and voted against renewal. Now we’re practically back to square one - September 10, 2001. In case no one noticed, we still haven’t managed to find Osama Bin Laden, Al Zarqawhri is still on the loose and radical Muslim terrorists are rampaging across the globe from Singapore to Australia to London to France.

Our law enforcement agencies are back to having to guess to stay ahead of the terrorists and we’re back to the rules of a civilized nation where warrants and all the necessary paperwork to protect the rights of those who would kill us are impeccably protected. That’s the good news. The bad news is the terrorists read the newspapers too and I would hazard a guess that word of this is already spreading through their networks. Just remember ... your Congressman and Senators are really looking out for you. Or so they say ...

Senate Rejects Extension of Patriot Act
WASHINGTON (AP)

The Senate on Friday refused to reauthorize major portions of the USA Patriot Act after critics complained they infringed too much on Americans’ privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders. In a crucial vote early Friday, the bill’s Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47.

President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent. They also supported new safeguards and expiration dates to the act’s two most controversial parts: authorization for roving wiretaps, which allow investigators to monitor multiple devices to keep a target from evading detection by switching phones or computers; and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

Feingold, Craig and other critics said those efforts weren’t enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards. But Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they won’t accept a short-term extension of the law.

If a compromise is not reached, the 16 Patriot Act provisions expire on Dec. 31, but the expirations have enormous exceptions. Investigators will still be able to use those powers to complete any investigation that began before the expiration date and to initiate new investigations of any alleged crime that began before Dec. 31, according to a provision in the original law. There are ongoing investigations of every known terrorist group, including al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad and the Zarqawi group in Iraq, and all the Patriot Act tools could continue to be used in those investigations.

- Read more on this breaking story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/16/2005 at 02:42 PM   
Filed Under: • Homeland-Security • Politics •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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