THE PATRIOT ACT AND OTHER GREAT DEMOCRAT PRACTICAL JOKES

[defrog]

ITEM: The Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill renewing expiring provisions of the Patriot Act that, you may recall, greatly expanded the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security, including:

1. Allowing broad warrants to be issued by the secretive FISA court for any type of record, from financial to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation. (A proposal that would put limits on such requests was defeated.)
2. “Roving wiretaps” that allowing the FBI to obtain wiretaps from the FISA court, without identifying the target or what method of communication is to be tapped.
3. A “lone wolf” measure that allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason — even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist.

Nine Democrats voted in favor of it – including, incidentally, Senator Al “The 4th Amendment, Let Me Read You It” Franken.

Better yet, five of the seven Republicans on the committee voted against it – although that was only because they opposed a couple of new Demo measures that make the PA slightly less Draconian: (1) compulsory public audits on how it uses the PA (it’s currently voluntary), and (2) warrants for library searches issued by FISA must actually have something remotely to do with a terror investigation.

Progress!

I can’t add to what I’ve said before. I just thought you’d like to know how much of a difference the Democratic supermajority is making.

Ha ha.

Same as it ever was,

This is dF