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Obama, in Europe, signs Patriot Act extension

By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press May 27, 2011 at 3:37 AM

Politics | Obama, in Europe, signs Patriot Act extension | Seattle Times Newspaper

WASHINGTON (AP) � Minutes before a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama signed into law a four-year extension of post-Sept. 11 powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.

(ap) - For 8 years I heard Liberals scream and cry and whine about this... Including Barry Obama... Now at midnight of the deadline, from Europe he illustrates his and the Left's hypocrisy... It's OK when DemocRATS "take away our Freedoms and Liberties"... I predicted this when everyone was claiming he was the end to all that was bad about Boooooosh!... Those of you on that train... Suck it! And have a great weekend! - tha malcontent)

Obama's Stand Against Patriot Act Cheered (AP) | NowPublic News Coverage

"It's an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat," Obama said Friday after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

(Hypocrite, Liar and a Snake Oil Salesman!... - tha malcontent)

With Obama in France, the White House said the president used an autopen machine that holds a pen and signs his actual signature. It is only used with proper authorization of the president.

Because he can't be bothered with being at his Desk right now... He's on Vacation, damn it! - tha malcontent)

Congress sent the bill to the president with only hours to go on Thursday before the provisions expired at midnight. Votes taken in rapid succession in the Senate and House came after lawmakers rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties are not abused.

(So the President had not Choice, correct?... Is that going to be the Narrative?... Assuming the AP ever puts this on the Wire. It wasn't there this morning when I looked. - tha malcontent)

The Senate voted 72-23 for the legislation to renew three terrorism-fighting authorities. The House passed the measure 250-153 on an evening vote.

A short-term expiration would not have interrupted ongoing operations but would have barred the government from seeking warrants for new investigations.

Congress bumped up against the deadline mainly because of the stubborn resistance from a single senator, Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights. Paul held up the final vote for several days while he demanded a chance to change the bill to diminish the government's ability to monitor individual actions.

(MeThinks when the Left was Complaining, including Barry, that the AP didn't view them as "Stubborn"... Oh yeah, BOOOOOOSH was President then... Carry on! - tha malcontent)

The measure would add four years to the legal life of roving wiretaps, authorized for a person rather than a communications line or device; court-ordered searches of business records; and surveillance of non-American "lone wolf" suspects without confirmed ties to terrorist groups.

The roving wiretaps and access to business records are small parts of the USA Patriot Act enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But unlike most of the act, which is permanent law, those provisions must be renewed periodically because of concerns that they could be used to violate privacy rights. The same applies to the "lone wolf" provision, which was part of a 2004 intelligence law.

(Goodness, don't the Liberals @ the AP sound so Understanding about this now?... - tha malcontent)

Paul argued that in the rush to meet the terrorist threat in 2001 Congress enacted a Patriot Act that tramples on individual liberties. He had some backing from liberal Democrats and civil liberties groups who have long contended the law gives the government authority to spy on innocent citizens.

(The Liberals at the AP are NOT going to Headline and beat Obama with this for a week or two to dump his Polls even further... Predictable. - tha malcontent)

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he voted for the act in 2001 "while ground zero was still burning." But "I soon realized it gave too much power to government without enough judicial and congressional oversight."

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the provision on collecting business records can expose law-abiding citizens to government scrutiny. "If we cannot limit investigations to terrorism or other nefarious activities, where do they end?" he asked.

"The Patriot Act has been used improperly again and again by law enforcement to invade Americans' privacy and violate their constitutional rights," said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington legislative office.

(^They are probably fairly Frustrated that they don't have the Echo Chamber they used to when Complaining about these very things when Bush was President... Apparently the AP will OK anything their Candidate does now, even if it's EXACTLY the same and Worse than what they went after Bush for regularly. - tha malcontent)

Still, coming just a month after intelligence and military forces tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden, there was little appetite for tampering with the terrorism-fighting tools. These tools, said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, "have kept us safe for nearly a decade and Americans today should be relieved and reassured to know that these programs will continue."

(Barry uses the VERY Tools that he Criticized Bush for Daring to ask for to catch bin Laden... Now it's OK... Could some Credit be given to Bush here AP?... Maybe a "we were Wrong, after all... Funny that"?... - tha malcontent)

Intelligence officials have denied improper use of surveillance tools, and this week both FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent letters to congressional leaders warning of serious national security consequences if the provisions were allowed to lapse.

The Obama administration says that without the three authorities the FBI might not be able to obtain information on terrorist plotting inside the U.S. and that a terrorist who communicates using different cell phones and email accounts could escape timely surveillance.

"When the clock strikes midnight tomorrow, we would be giving terrorists the opportunity to plot attacks against our country, undetected," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Wednesday. In unusually personal criticism of a fellow senator, he warned that Paul, by blocking swift passage of the bill, "is threatening to take away the best tools we have for stopping them."

(Paul would have been a Patriot to the Left if (43) was still President... Bet. - tha malcontent)

The nation itself is divided over the Patriot Act, as reflected in a Pew Research Center poll last February, before the killing of bin Laden, that found that 34 percent felt the law "goes too far and poses a threat to civil liberties. Some 42 percent considered it "a necessary tool that helps the government find terrorists." That was a slight turnaround from 2004 when 39 percent thought it went too far and 33 percent said it was necessary.

(The average Jackass that was Polled couldn't tell you one Specific thing that was in the Patriot Act... Talk about a waste of Energy and Resources... Congrats, Pew! - tha malcontent)

Paul, after complaining that Reid's remarks were "personally insulting," asked whether the nation "should have some rules that say before they come into your house, before they go into your banking records, that a judge should be asked for permission, that there should be judicial review? Do we want a lawless land?"

("Judicial Review"... The DemocRATS used to Demand this... What happened? - tha malcontent)

Paul agreed to let the bill go forward after he was given a vote on two amendments to rein in government surveillance powers. Both were soundly defeated. The more controversial, an amendment that would have restricted powers to obtain gun records in terrorist investigations, was defeated 85-10 after lawmakers received a letter from the National Rifle Association stating that it was not taking a position on the measure.

(If you let the Government know about your Guns, then they will know about your Guns... - tha malcontent)

According to a senior Justice Department national security official testifying to Congress last March, the government has sought roving wiretap authority in about 20 cases a year between 2001 and 2010 and has sought warrants for business records less than 40 times a year, on average. The government has yet to use the lone wolf authority.

(When (43) was President, he was going to use it to come after Liberals... He was!... But Barry can be Trusted though... He's on their Side after all... See how this works? - tha malcontent)

But the ACLU also points out that court approvals for business record access jumped from 21 in 2009 to 96 last year, and the organization contends the Patriot Act has blurred the line between investigations of actual terrorists and those not suspected of doing anything wrong.

(Poor ACLU... They are under the Bus now with Barry's Pastor/Mentor and his Grandma... Darn. - tha malcontent)

Two Democratic critics of the Patriot Act, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Udall of Colorado, on Thursday extracted a promise from Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that she would hold hearings with intelligence and law enforcement officials on how the law is being carried out.

(I almost Cried I Laughed so hard at that... What a couple of Fags... No disrespect to the Homosexual Community, but Mark Udall's a Fag... It's True. - tha malcontent)

Wyden says that while there are numerous interpretations of how the Patriot Act works, the official government interpretation of the law remains classified. "A significant gap has developed now between what the public thinks the law says and what the government secretly claims it says," Wyden said.

("Secretly"?... If it's a Secret, then how does Wyden know?... Again, you'd be lucky to find 2% of the Population that could come close to telling you what's in the Patriot Act... Hell, the shitheels in DC who Voted on it can't, nor can Barry. - tha malcontent)

---

Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman and Pete Yost contributed to this report

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