Merry Christmas............ or whatever applies.
Posted on 12/21/2005 6:13:04 PM PST by tsmith130
Fox news reporting the Senate has agreed to extend the Patriot Act for six month.
Thanks for the Jonah Goldberg note.....
It's not like they were a regular occurrence prior to then. We went eight years (1993-2001) without a terrorist attack on these shores. Add to that the fact that after 9/11, intelligence agencies became much more vigilant just by virtue of the heightened sense of emergency. Our security organs were drawing connections and making arrests within weeks of the attack, before the Patriot Act was passed. So to conclude that the Patriot Act was responsible for this, just on the basis of the fact that it coincides with a four-year lack of terrorist attacks, is making a leap.
Happend to catch an overnight repeat (I missed it initially) of his 10-minute remarks and man, he was torqued. I've never seen someone so torqued on the Senate floor before. There was even a point where some Democrat wanted him to yield time, and he said he had ten minutes and wasn't about to yield his time.
It passed by unanimous consent on a voice vote, no roll call.
Because the Dems were prepared to bring him up on ethic charges (Rule 28) because of the ANWR part
Thanks for the ping! A very good read too.
Unless they overlook this unintrusive part (that WAS supposed to expire).
From CATO:
"What are the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act? One of the most serious threats to liberty comes from Section 215. According to the Department of Justice, that section allows investigators to obtain ‘‘business records’’ for terrorism investigations pursuant to a federal ‘‘court order.’’ In fact, the provision is not limited to business records. Federal agents can use that section of the Patriot Act to seize any tangible item (correspondence, film, personal belongings) directly from a person’s home. The ‘‘court order’’ is nothing but a fac¸ade because the Patriot Act says the judge ‘‘shall’’ issue such orders whenever the executive branch claims it is conducting a terrorism investigation.
Most shocking of all, Section 215 makes it a crime for anyone to speak out about its use. Any person who speaks to a relative, a neighbor, or a reporter about the government’s demand can be jailed. Defenders of the Patriot Act demand specific examples of ‘‘abuses’’ of the law, but they fail to mention that the Section 215 gag provision keeps anyone affected from coming forward. That will obviously make it very difficult for Congress to assess how the orders are actually being used."
I sat there thinking the whole Senate body would be guilty of violating Senate Rule 28. Nothing the Democrats say or do makes any sense.
Harry Reid had the gall to say Republicans were violating Senate rules earlier this year with the threatened use of the nuke option. The Democrats were the ones threatening to break the Senate Rules. The nuke option was going to set the Senate back in it's rightful place as defined by the Constitution. (Rush refers to the nuke option as its proper term "the Constitutional option") Because no time in the Senate's history, has the Senate ever filibustered Judicial nominees.
The dems are a bunch of hypocrites
They went over the line with the personal attacks on Senator Stevens
FOX NEWS just reported 5 minutes ago the House has just voted to RENEW the Patriot Act and now goes to the Senate.
"U.S. Representative Bob Barr of Georgia exposed a plan by the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain massive new enforcement powers (www.house.gov/barr/p_doj.html) without any hearings or debate.
Among the powers sought by the Department of Justice in 1998 were:
an expansion of the definition of terrorism to include domestic crimes having no relationship to terrorism;
the power to seize commercial transportation assets;
expanded wiretap authority to allow greater use of roving wiretaps and wiretaps without any court authority;
enlarged asset forfeiture (confiscation) in both criminal and civil matters;
the establishment of a permanent FBI police force;
allowing more military involvement in domestic law enforcement;
authority to force telephone and internet companies to divulge information on their customers.
Barr stated that these proposals "represent a sneak attack on the most cherished principles of our democracy. If they become a part of our law, freedom and privacy in America will be permanently and severely diminished."
You're quite welcome. That is a very funny article. I liked how he began it among other parts:
I recently went to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I hung out with folks who know how to fix their own cars and have totally legitimate reasons to carry knives on their belts. I also got to see what Joe Lieberman called "one of the most beautiful, pristine places that the good Lord has created on Earth" and "one of God's most awesome creations."
LOL!
The whole article is one of Jonah's best and a very persuasive one to anyone with an open mind.
Here's another of good quality:
****
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121401933.html
Our Fake Drilling Debate --- 12/15/05 --- George Will
(Snip)
Opponents worry that the caribou will be disconsolate about, and their reproduction disrupted by, this intrusion by man. The same was said 30 years ago by opponents of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which brings heated oil south from Prudhoe Bay. Since the oil began flowing, the caribou have increased from 5,000 to 31,000. Perhaps the pipeline's heat makes them amorous.
Ice roads and helicopter pads, which will melt each spring, will minimize man's footprint, which will be on a 2,000-acre plot about one-fifth the size of Dulles Airport. Nevertheless, opponents say the environmental cost is too high for what the ineffable John Kerry calls "a few drops of oil." Some drops. The estimated 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil -- such estimates frequently underestimate actual yields -- could supply all the oil needs of Kerry's Massachusetts for 75 years.
Flowing at 1 million barrels a day -- equal to 20 percent of today's domestic oil production -- ANWR oil would almost equal America's daily imports from Saudi Arabia.
******
Merry Christmas............ or whatever applies.
;-)
Wish they'd make up their minds.....Now they say 6 weeks.
Merry Christmas............ or whatever applies.
Have you forgotten about the first World Trade bombing in NYC in 1993?
It was disgusting, and for heaven's sake, the man is 82 years old.
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