On Thursday Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Harry Reid announced that after a secretive backroom meeting they had agreed on a plan to renew the PATRIOT Act for four more years — to ram it through the Senate and then the House with little or no debate before anyone can really organize any opposition. The Senate is expected to vote on Monday and the House by Wednesday.
Why did they take this route? It seems obvious. They are more aware than we realized how strongly opposed the grassroots of both parties are to any further extension of the remaining provisions of the act. They know we're fed up. They saw the anger when they tried to force a long-term renewal back in February, and they .don't want to take any chances this time. By this action they are clearly declaring that their personal loyalties are not to their parties and not to their constituents, but to the bipartisan ruling elite who control Congress and the federal bureaucracy.
The three sections of the PATRIOT Act which are up for renewal override longstanding privacy protections in common law and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Historically it has been necessary to go to a judge and show evidence to justify a warrant before searching a location or carrying out surveillance. The sections of the PATRIOT Act they are trying to renew take away that fundamental protection. They allow roving wiretaps of phone and data transmission without even identifying the target being investigated, the seizure of private and professional records without due process, secret surveillance orders against any individual without evidence of a crime and blanket search warrants called National Security Letters.
These provisions are contrary to the most basic principles of individual rights on which our country was founded and are blatantly unconstitutional. They violate the privacy of millions in the hopes of catching a few terrorist associates who could have been caught by more traditional means, as has been the case with almost every terrorist arrest since 9/11.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Tommy Mack
The American Civil Liberties Union understandably opposes S. 1038, that will extend the provisions until June 1, 2015. The ACLU also has a site to help oppose the extension of the Patriot Act.
Tommy
2 - Dillon Mawler
This is an outrageous move in the direction of secret government, and Dave is 100% right to be pissed.
Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention, and as Tommy says the ACLU is opposed and offers a place to protest.
3 - Glenn Contrarian
Dave -
I just listened to your interview with Thom Hartmann (whom I agree with a little over half the time)...and you made some good and interesting points. I had to stop the car and park so I could listen to you.
You know, when you stay away from making statements like "the real problems are civil rights" (which make you seem extremist) and stick to talking about actual problems like the Patriot Act which many on both the left and the right can agree on, you do make a good deal of sense. I hope you take that as the constructive criticism as it's meant to be.
4 - Irene Athena
When the ACLU and the Republican Liberty Caucus agree that something is an outrageous abrogation of rights, you can bet that it is.
I'm glad to see bipartisan opposition rising up against "the bipartisan ruling elite who control Congress and the federal bureaucracy."
5 - Glenn Contrarian
Irene -
When the ACLU and the Republican Liberty Caucus agree that something is an outrageous abrogation of rights, you can bet that it is.
Quoted for truth.
Actually, that's one of my longstanding principles - when two strongly opposing sides agree on the benefit or the danger of something, they're probably right.
6 - Irene Athena
Strongly opposing sides have their place, yes, Glenn. I hope more people look beyond "the sides" to get "the big picture."
If the renewing of the Patriot Act happens on President Obama's watch, there is a sector of "the Left" (or those who are cowed by it) who will claim that opposition to it is racially tinged Obama-bashing.
Neoconservatives on "the Right" are unlikely to provide opposition to the renewing of the Patriot Act, since they were all about it the first time it went through. To oppose the renewal of the Patriot Act will be considered "unpatriotic."
The illusion of a fundamental, even MORAL, difference between die-hard Democrats and dyed-in-the-wool Republicans keeps WE THE PEOPLE bitch-slapping one another instead of uniting with real power to oppose these who want all of us under their heel.
Those who are too indolent to care about the direction the country is going with the Patriot Act renewal, should get out of the way and stop throwing around terms like "delusional and paranoid."
7 - Glenn Contrarian
Irene -
That said, why then does Obama now apparently support the Patriot Act (as Bush did) even though he originally opposed it?
8 - Irene Athena
The answer might mean more coming from you, Glenn. Go for it.
9 - handyguy
As always with this president [and most of the time with any president], the reasons are likely political. His newly burnished tough image on national security should actually give him cover to suggest judicial reforms of the Act [he has never actually called for its full repeal], reforms he supported as a senator and a candidate.
But if McConnell, Boehner and Reid are all in favor of extension, I think the answer is that everyone wants to avoid haggling over the details. It's not clear that there is a majority in Congress right now to repeal or reform the act.
Boehner doesn't want another fight with the Tea Party, especially a long one; and the GOP would not be likely to go along with reforms if they originated with Obama.
So who is going to vote for a reformed act? And who is going to let it expire? If they think there is a political price to pay, no one.
I definitely object to the act in principle, but somewhat less so in practice. If it really is restricted to suspected terrorism cases, then have innocent citizens been harmed? I'd be interested to hear of concrete examples.
10 - Irene Athena
Eric McDavid was entrapped and branded an "eco-terrorist," and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
I don't know why this link to Will Potter's blog "Green is the New Red" won't post. but you can google it easily.
11 - Irene Athena
Russ Feingold (Dem.) said there were abuses related to the section 215 of the Patriot Act in a "sensitive collection program." The then Senator Feingold was on the intelligence committee, and he opposed the reauthorization of the Patriot Act in 2009.
12 - Irene Athena
...I'm culling the sources that you might consider too conservative handyguy...
13 - zingzing
"If the renewing of the Patriot Act happens on President Obama's watch, there is a sector of "the Left" (or those who are cowed by it) who will claim that opposition to it is racially tinged Obama-bashing."
ahhhh, the preemptive race card race card. well played, senorita. let's just see how many leftist attacks of rightist attacks on continuing the patriot act play the race card, knowing that the preemptive race card race card has already been shown. at that point, the ridiculousness of american politics will be all the more ridiculous.
i can't fathom the reasons why obama would continue the patriot act. but he has before. maybe it's pure politics. maybe trying to shut it down would be political poison, or maybe it would be a giant waste of time. maybe it is profoundly useful in "the war on terror," but i don't really like that nebulous thing, so i don't care if it is or not. maybe it saves american lives and isn't a threat to our rights. but fuck if it's not one step away from that. it may be a line of defense, but it's also a potential weapon, and there's no way i can abide that, but maybe the guy with the power can (hopefully in the service of protecting his constituents, but trust only goes so far).
i'd hope that obama will give a detailed explanation of any continuance of the act, but that would probably undercut its usefulness. at any rate, it sucks not being president sometimes. i'd like to know what he knows.
14 - Irene Athena
Rachel Maddow 2009. Entertaining!
15 - Irene Athena
Rachel Maddow 2011, not so much. What happened to Rachel, I wonder, between 2009 and 2011?
What's happened to you, handyguy, and you, ZingZing?
16 - Jordan Richardson
I think if you compared the 2009 Irene to the 2011 Irene you'd have similar questions.
So what happened to you, Irene Athena?
17 - Irene Athena
Specific to the Patriot Act? Nothing. I was against it when Bush was president and I'm against it now. So the ball is now in your court again. Don't be evasive.
18 - zingzing
to be fair, obama was saying that there needed to be strict (albeit nebulous in the speech,) reasoning for detentions. maddow, as she does, went off. i hope obama was arguing for limitations, not the opposite, but such is the nature of politics. if you want to take the 24-hour news cycle as the truth, this will be the first time. not that you or i won't again. but are you really believing the "lame stream media" this time? if so, why now? i like maddow as much as i like anyone, but she's a firecracker. she's generally stable, but she's a member of media, selling. it's hard to make the loot agreeing with everything. she took a stance, then she stood off it.
if it's possible for you to change your mind, never do it. because you criticisms will only haunt you. or maybe they won't. i dunno. probably not. meh.
19 - Irene Athena
Of course I change my mind. Not about this though. Why did you change your mind about this. "Because never changing your mind is bad" is no kind of an answer.
20 - Irene Athena
Why was it OK for the liberal elite to speak out against the government in 2007, but in 2011, only EXTREMISTS do that sort of thing? Extremists who deserve to have their phone lines tapped, and their library records turned over for review, their privacy invaded with or without search warrants, the latter served with SWAT if the records show they own guns with which they might defend themselves.
21 - zingzing
really, history will tell what obama meant by that, and the history so far is not quite in keeping with maddow's doomsaying. yes, gitmo is still open, much to (hopefully, by now,) everyone's chagrin, but what trials have been held were held in civil courts, and there is a significant lack of large amounts of civilians being incarcerated and tried on anti-gov't charges. the nwo hasn't begun because of obama's speech two years ago. if it was going to happen, it should have happened by---OH SHIT, OBAMA IS COMING TO TAKE ME AW---
22 - zingzing
"Extremists who deserve to have their phone lines tapped, and their library records turned over for review, their privacy invaded with or without search warrants, the latter served with SWAT if the records show they own guns with which they might defend themselves."
but do they, irene? do you hear clicks on your phone? no, you do not? why is that?
23 - zingzing
"Why did you change your mind about this."
i didn't. gitmo and patriot are things i can't understand. they shouldn't exist. i don't know why they ever did, and i don't know why they do.
do you understand them?
if not, are you willing to let them stand?
if not, what the fuck are you going to do?
i can't imagine taking up arms against something i don't know how to defeat, much less something i don't understand on any real level.
i'm not admitting defeat so much as i am ignorance. you seem to think you know it all. i'll not wait too long, but i hope to be in a position of knowledge and understanding before i try to take on this kind of thing. (we are talking about the patriot act here. shouldn't fuck around with that.)
it has to go. but it will have to make a really bad move first. once some politician fucks up and plays the patriot act's hand a little to hard, it'll crumble. right now, the controversy over it is at a low simmer. let it boil up again.
24 - Clavos
America:
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Or, en Anglais:
SSDD
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos -
I remember a meal on board that was called 'SSDD'...and we washed it down with bug juice - red bug juice, orange bug juice, purple or green...but of course the color had nothing to do with the actual flavor, which was why we called it by its color and not by 'strawberry' or 'lime' or whatever.
And when we wanted to clean the rust off deck plates down in the engine room, what did we use? Bug juice - great for removing rust and quenching your thirst!