WAR: Congress Votes For Patriot Act Extension.

Last night the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly, by 257 - 171, to extent the Patriot Act. The act gives officials greater access to educational, financial and medical records. The legislation will now come before the Senate. Welcoming the result of the vote, President George W Bush said, "The Patriot Act is a key part of our efforts to combat terrorism and protect the American people, and the Congress needs to send me a bill soon that renews the act without weakening our ability to fight terror."



It seems that the new "explosions" in London gave fresh impetus to those wishing to extend the Patriot Act.

Voting was generally along party lines.

[edit on 22-7-2005 by asala]

I think this is sad for Americans everywhere. Hopefully they will ban PA II like they did PA I in some cities.. but we will see.

I am going to put what I added in another post about this.. It seems to make sense.

I am starting to think thats why London was attacked on 7/7.

Problem = Bombing of London. (Since we had 9/11 this will bring up bad memories.)
(((As it was stated that they were watching the london bombings on TV while this vote was going on.)))

Reaction = Scaring people into what they want. (Remember after 9/11 they did the same exact thing to pass PA I.)

Solution = This was how they get PA II Signed over real easy. ( Cause and attack to get this passed thru.)

We all know that this was turned down before and suppost to be revised. I am wondering if it has yet been revised cause of alot of civil liberties being violated.... But I guess since this went down we will see what happens..

I was wondering why this wasnt ATSNN a while ago.. good job of putting it up whoever.



[edit on 7/22/2005 by ThichHeaded]

I was wondering yesterday while I was watching London what exacty was our attention being diverted from. You know, what Our government was doing while we weren't looking. Now I see. I knew that the PA was being brought back up again just didn't know when.

The bill makes permanent 14 of 16 provisions in the act set to expire next year and extends two others for another 10 years.

Permanent. WTF.

This extension will not, I think, have serious opposition in the Senate. The bills fate was problematic until the London bombings, but that attack, as amateurish as it may have been, was all the impetus it needed.

I find the timing of this PA extension and the London attacks VERY suspicious. We are certainly not in Kansas anymore.

what's real sick is, even with all the partisan posturing, Democrats and Republicans both voted this in in the beginning and political wordings aside, many on both sides of the aisle support it now. So-called "liberal" and "conservative" judges on the Supreme Court allow it to go through. There's lots of shouting and finger pointing and maneuvering on the face of things but no action is taken to prevent it, on the contrary, actions are taken to move it on. Most of the infighting seems only to be which districts get the monies, benefits, perks, and whatever riders strapped on.

The laws in place, the checks and balances of decades past is perfectly effective when pursued diligently and with the spirit of the law in mind. Without the ridiculous recent overstepping of bounds un-elected, privately-appointed policymaking special interests like the ACLU stepping in to protect big money shadowy clients or big profile political motives. They need to remember the spirit of the law as well.

Then, there are no excuses to even attempt a "patriot act" or create another bureacracy like DHS.

This is worrying. The UK government is also trying to take advantage of the attacks with their new database of 'trouble makers'.