‘Patriot’ Act may get partially declawed - by Thomas C Greene
The US House of Representatives passed a measure curtailing the federal government’s access to library and book shop records by a 238-187 vote on Wednesday.US Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) sponsored an amendment to the House Justice Subcommittee appropriations bill. The amendment prevents the US Department of Justice (DoJ) from using appropriated funds to obtain library patrons’ and book shoppers’ records without a search warrant, a practice previously allowed under Section 215 of the so-called “Patriot” Act.
“No question; this is a real shot in the arm for those of us who want to make changes to the USA Patriot Act,” Sanders noted. He added that the vote would “rein in an Administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation.”
8 Comments
But the Patriot act has worked according to Bush,
“why would something expire if it still [worked]…”.
It was a designed to be temporary. It was scheduled to expire and could be extended if needed.
They have included what is called a sunset provision terminating some ammendments for electronic surveillance on December 31,2005.
Built in so that an evaluation could be done to see how well it ( Pat. Act ) worked and if it was used responsibily. This is a paraphrase from an insurance article.
I believe it is an act of congress and not at the ” will or desire ” of the bush administration.
I say ” I believe ” cause it’s late and I dont want to look it up for being exact.
No, the Bush administration is pushing for it not only to not expire, but for it to be expanded.
They can push all they want but congress votes on it.
I like how you hate the media slant but you are willing to look something up.
How do you get your facts straight?
The LA Times doesn’t cover every story.
Oh come on, Bernie Sanders has no friggin’ clue what he’s talking about in regards to the Patriot Act. He himself has been caught several times while talking with his constiguents about civil liberties and admitted that the Government should be more involved in people’s lives.
Hmm. Contradictory?
The past actions of Sanders don’t have any bearing on what a piece of crap the Patriot Act is. I don’t know much about Bernie Sanders, but anyone can read enough of the Patriot Act to know that it’s pretty bad in a lot of ways; this article is an example of that.
I’m just glad that congress is waking up to this reality. The deceptive WMD propaganda has worn off a bit and some of them are thinking more clearly now, regretting the decisions they agreed to while intoxicated with fear.