Patriot Act Renewed

[Adivina]

I know its just a copy and pasted article, but I figured people would be interested in the outcome.



WASHINGTON - The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's power to root out terrorists.



The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush's troubled second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act, Bush and congressional Republicans said, was key to preventing more terror attacks in the United States.

Bush applauded the Senate for overcoming "partisan attempts to block its passage." The House was expected to approve the two-bill package next week and send it to the president, who would sign it before 16 provisions expire March 10.

"This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of the American people," Bush said in a statement from India.

Critics held their ground. A December filibuster led by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and joined by several libertarian-leaning Republicans, forced the Bush administration to agree to modest new curbs on the government's power to probe library, bank and other records.

Feingold insisted those new protections are cosmetic.

"Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character of this country to survive and prosper," he said. "They want both security and liberty, and unless we give them both — and we can if we try — we have failed."

Some lawmakers who voted for the package acknowledged deep reservations about the power it would grant to any president.

"Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president," said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to pass the bill package. "What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is have a better bill. It has been improved."

Not enough even for the bill's chief sponsor in the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa. After prolonged negotiations produced a House-Senate compromise, Specter urged his colleagues to pass it even as he promised to introduce a new measure and hold hearings on how to fix it.

For now, Bush and his Republican allies savored a significant victory. For months, their tough-on-terror image has been tarnished by the revelation that the president authorized a secret domestic wiretapping program. The report in December gave Democrats ammunition for their charge that the Bush administration had run amok in its zeal to root out terrorists.

With the help of some Republicans, they blocked a vote on whether to renew the law before 16 provisions expired on Dec. 31.

GOP leaders were unable to break the gridlock, so Congress opted instead to extend the deadline twice while negotiations continued. In the end, the White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by crafting a second measure that would curb some powers of law enforcement officials seeking information. Both will be sent as a package to Bush.

This second bill — in effect an amendment to the measure renewing the 16 provisions — would add new protections to the 2001 antiterror law in three areas. It would:

• Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

• Eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators.

• Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists.

Passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the original Patriot Act expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.

The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions permanent and set four-year expirations on the others.

The renewal includes several measures not directly related to terrorism. One would make it harder for illicit labs to obtain ingredients for methamphetamine by requiring pharmacies to sell nonprescription cold medicines only from behind the counter.

Another focuses on port security, imposing new criminal sanctions and a death sentence in certain circumstances for placing a device or substance in U.S. waters that could damage vessels or cargo.

Feingold's chief ally, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., said the package was not enough to check what he described as a presidential tendency through history of "always grabbing more power."

"The erosion of freedom rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault," warned Byrd, the dean of the Senate. "Rather, it is a gradual, noxious creeping cloaked in secrecy and glossed over by reassurances of greater security."

The "no" votes came from Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Feingold, Byrd and seven other Senate Democrats: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record), D-Hawaii, did not vote.

___

The bill is HR3199.

[Diekan]

Funny thing is both Clinton and Bush Jr. had their chances to take our bin Laden BEFORE the conception of the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act, Imminate Domain, continued increase in taxation - our freedoms and privacy are being taken, one by one. Problem is, most Americans are to lazy and stupid to do anything about it, or even care. I've been saying it all along and I'll say it again. The US will not be a "free" democracy 100 years from now.

[Arlos]

You act as if it's a free democracy now, for the average schlub citizen. (ie, anyone who can't donate 5k a plate at fundraiser dinners, or who isn't part of the Big Business corporate machine)

Eisenhower warned us of the military-industrial complex in the 50s. Too bad no one has done anything about it for the last 25 years.

-Arlos

[Eldred]

Hell George Washington warned us of the dangers of Political Parties. To bad no one listened.

[kaharthemad]

They also warned of the dangers of a democracy as well. Main reason the formed this as a Constitutional Republic.

[Thon]

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

by that definition i'd say it's safe to assume we don't live in a Democracy

[Sorina S]

Yeah, too bad we live in a Federal Republic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

The Pat Act is two steps forward and one step back...all in all I'd rather have em tell us what freedoms we're losing than have them do what they will like in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

My feeling is, if you're not building bombs, no reason to get your panties in a bunch. If you're doing something you shouldn't be doing, well, stop it. Otherwise carry on...