“With no agreement in the Senate over how to reauthorize the Patriot Act, lawmakers on Thursday began to consider extending the current law for only a few weeks,” Kristina Peterson reports for The Washington Post.
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) on Thursday took procedural steps to set up Saturday votes on two competing bills extending the Patriot Act, a 2001 law that expanded the government’s authority to search for terror suspects. But Senate Republicans said Thursday it wasn’t clear that either bill would secure the 60 votes needed to clear procedural hurdles,” Peterson reports. “Rather than let the Patriot Act lapse at midnight on May 31, the Senate could potentially pass a very short-term patch to buy more time for negotiations.”
“The Senate is expected to vote first on a bill already approved by the House that would alter the law’s most contentious provision allowing the National Security Agency to collect millions of Americans’ phone records. The House bill, which sponsors call the USA Freedom Act, would bar the NSA from collecting bulk phone information and create a new system requiring the NSA to obtain court approval to request phone records from phone companies on a case-by-case basis,” Peterson reports. “Reauthorizing the NSA’s phone data collection program… faces serious opposition in the Senate from both sides of the aisle. On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) spent more than 10 hours on the Senate floor criticizing the program and saying it violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just let the G.D. thing die already!
Adhere to the U.S. Constitution.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. — United States Constitution, Amendment IV
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1961
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
Related articles:
Rand Paul commandeers U.S. Senate to protest so-called Patriot Act, government intrusion on Americans’ privacy – May 20, 2015
Apple, others urge Obama to reject any proposal for smartphone backdoors – May 19, 2015
U.S. appeals court rules NSA bulk collection of phone data illegal – May 7, 2015
In open letter to Obama, Apple, Google, others urge Patriot Act not be renewed – March 26, 2015
Apple, Google, others call for government surveillance reform – December 9, 2013
Apple’s iOS encryption has ‘petrified’ the U.S. administration, governments around the world – March 19, 2015
Obama criticizes China’s demands for U.S. tech firms to hand over encryption keys, install backdoors – March 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook advocates privacy, says terrorists should be ‘eliminated’ – February 27, 2015
Apple’s Tim Cook warns of ‘dire consequences’ of sacrificing privacy for security – February 13, 2015
DOJ warns Apple: iPhone encryption will lead to a child dying – November 19, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Let the extension be titled “Interim Authorization of the So-called Patriot Act”. At least everyone would be clear on what it is.
There shouldn’t even be a question on what needs to be done right now with that Patriot Act.
MDN: “Adhere to the U.S. Constitution.”
Couldn’t be simpler.
Let it die on May 31. It’s a supreme embarrassment for both parties now: the Republicans for allowing the Project for the New American Century (Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.) to push it through, and the Democrats for reneging on their promise to correct that kind of egregious overstep.
I see the site has now given up all pretence at being an AAPL site and has now become a political blog. Please, there are better sites for this stuff. Let’s stick to AAPL.
This article is related to technology, privacy, and cell phone usage. All 3 of those aspects make it related to Apple, which by the way has come out publicly on this issue.
AAPL has become a political company.
The problem is fearing what happens when after it sunsets. Seem the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Just providing an explanation, not justification.
The devil I knew was freedom from government in my communications and enjoyment of flying.
The devil I don’t know is how much they actually use info to control people and why our airports are not secure from terrorist…just from normal Americans.
Scared?
https://youtu.be/F2Mgum60VGg
Wow.
And that’s from the party that is so scared of women the prefer men?
Today I worked 340′ above ground re-lamping a tower.
What did you do…?
Huh? That doesn’t even make sense! What party is scared of heterosexuals??? That’s crazy paranoid talk, proving RealityCheck’s point. Like conservatives, most liberals are heterosexual. Some aren’t. Did the anti-slavery abolitionists hate white people? Of course not. But of course the bigots claimed they did, just like the paranoid conservative bigots today (like you, Tower) are skeered stiff that the liberals are gonna take their automatic weapons away and not let them protect themselves cowering in military vehicles. Bunch of p*ssies. Fact.
So that video makes more sense to you than my statement?
Apparently you weren’t able to see the trap.
BOTH are ridiculous, yet you were too blind to see but one.
Now, do you have a fear of reality? Because Abolitionist were mainly religious and voted Republican. Nice try, but facts are a bitch.
And (I hope this doesn’t scare you) what do you think I’m paranoid about? I quit smoking weed a decade ago, so you are going to have to dig a little deeper in that muck of a noggin you have to find a clue.
Good luck.
Reality Check was calling Gollum scared, not you, TowerTone. Knowing when someone’s “attacking” you is an important part of defending yourself well.
Did you watch the video?
It was aimed at Conservatives.
Knowing what a conversation is about is an important part of being able to contribute.
Let it die and all Senate and Congress give your letter of resignation to the people of the United States for your failure!
You mean to the people who elect, reelect, and reelect them again and again? And to the state legislators who construct districts to make sure they’re reelected time and again?
Citizens of the free and civilized world, I know you may share the concern voiced by the article: “Nobody wants us to go dark on our ability to detect terrorist activity so I imagine there will be some very urgent discussions and I imagine we’ll work something out,”
Rest assured, many terrorists and wannabe terrorists have a innate desire to be seen as they invade other sovereign nations, conduct cyber terrorist activities, and behead and torture people at their water boarding resorts. It’s the megalomaniac superego and their incredible insecurity that steers them headlong towards disaster.
Keep enjoying the popcorn, they sure put on a show thinking that passing a law will cover up their total lack of morality and ethics.
Good people deserve privacy, but things are also getting a bit out of hand. It’s tough to say what’s right. There are all these easily manipulated religious idiots in the U.S. that terror groups are recruiting. Like that scumbag that bombed the Boston Marathon. How would you justify tracking that guy? And if this patriot act is really that great, why could they not have detected him and prevented him from doing that? It seems really useless to me since it’s ineffective against any real world threat. The bullshtt seems to far outweigh any benefit whatsoever.
“UNCONSTITUTIONAL Surveillance Act” should be the real name.
#MyStupidGovernment at work. ‘1984’ made manifest.