Patriot Act Renewal

[Phlegm]

Looks like the Patriot Act will be renew by the House of Representatives despite all the protests. From Reuters:


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives, ignoring protests from civil liberties groups and some conservatives, moved on Thursday to renew the USA Patriot Act giving the government unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists.

Sixteen provisions of the 2001 law, hastily enacted in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, are due to expire at the end of this year unless renewed by Congress. President Bush has repeatedly called on lawmakers to make the entire law permanent.

The House was poised to reauthorize the act with some minor changes designed to increase judicial and political oversight of some of its most controversial provisions. Republicans said the latest explosions in London showed how urgent and important it was to renew the law.

The act allowed expanded surveillance of terror suspects and gave the government the ability to go to a secret court to seize the personal records of suspects from bookstores, libraries, businesses, hospitals and other organizations -- the so-called "library clause."

House Republicans agreed last week that this clause and another allowing so-called roving wiretaps, which permits the government to eavesdrop on suspects as they switch from phone to phone, would be renewed for only 10 years instead of being made permanent.

The Senate judiciary committee was working on its own version of the act on Thursday, which included only four-year renewals of these two clauses.

"Since its enactment, there have been zero, and I repeat zero verified instances of civil liberty abuses," said Georgia Republican Phil Gingrey, opening debate in the House.

'MANY ABUSES'

But New York Democrat Louise Slaughter said many provisions of the act had resulted in many abuses, although she gave no examples. She and other Democrats complained that the Republican leadership refused to allow debate on several of their key amendments and seemed determined to ram the law through on a party-line vote.

"This is an abuse of power by the Republican majority which has deliberately and purposely chosen to stifle a full debate," said Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer.

A coalition of liberal and conservative civil liberties groups, formed to oppose reauthorization of the law in its current form, this week called on lawmakers not to rush to reauthorize the bill without further debate.

"Certain sections of the law extend far beyond the mission of protecting Americans from terrorism and violate ordinary citizens' constitutional rights, especially the right to privacy," said former Republican Rep. Bob Barr.

Leading opposition from the left, the American Civil Liberties Union said the bill gave the FBI extraordinary power to obtain personal records, search individuals' homes or offices without their knowledge and to use a secret court to obtain personal date on ordinary Americans.

[Lueyen]

"Since its enactment, there have been zero, and I repeat zero verified instances of civil liberty abuses," said Georgia Republican Phil Gingrey, opening debate in the House.

'MANY ABUSES'

But New York Democrat Louise Slaughter said many provisions of the act had resulted in many abuses, although she gave no examples.

Anyone seen any information on actuall abuses? Although it looks to be pretty cut and dry that someone isn't telling the truth here, it's probably a difference in semantics and perspective. The main difference I can see is between "verified" abuses and "resulting" abuses. I'm curious about what resulting abuses are being refered to.

[Captain Insano]

Do they have an anal probe clause? That would scare the bejesus out of me.

[veeneedefeesh]

only for azn fan bois

[Captain Insano]

I think DDR's come with anal probes.

[Rust]

I saw an animated GIF of the spastic kid Ralf used to have throwing a fit on a couch, with DDR arrows flashing by at the same time on screen.

--R.

[Captain Insano]

Link it prease.

[Harrison]

"prease"

[Captain Insano]

thats my asian imitation. One of my old ho's used to tell me that I made her "soooo jeawous" when other girls were around. It was rather comical and FOB of her, but she had big tits so I let it slide.

[Foutty]

Does FOB mean "Fresh Off the Boat"?

I dated an indonesian girl who hated asians that she considered "fresh off the boat"

[Captain Insano]

yah... Its a a cute term asians use for each other kinda like SPIC or WETBACK or porch monkey.