
House rejects extension of 'Patriot Act' powers - zoowar
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12400834
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cyrus_
The situation here is a bit more complicated than this headline implies. The
House Judiciary Committee plans on looking at these provisions. This bill was
introduced to temporarily extend them to December of this year to give them
time to do so.

Today's vote was an attempt to pass this extension by supermajority, a tactic
that can be used to avoid debate. A majority was reached but a supermajority
was not, by a few votes. It will be passed shortly by a simple majority after
minimal debate, the Tea Partiers had their say.

The White House wants to extend these provisions until 2013 no matter what the
Judiciary Committee decides. They are concerned that abruptly curtailing the
use of these powers will not give law enforcement adequate time to prepare
alternatives and workarounds.

It is basically all a smokescreen. For the foreseeable future, law enforcement
has pretty much carte blanche with respect to surveillance, and is limited
only by a secret and completely unaccountable court and a few aggregate
numbers they have to report.

~~~
wnoise
> the Tea Partiers had their say.

That's a bit misleading: of the 111 "tea party endorsed", 96 voted for the
extension, 12 voted against, and 3 didn't vote. This is essentially
indistinguishable from the other Republicans, at 114/14/2.

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corin_

      The bill was opposed by most Democrats and some Republicans
    

65% of Democrats voted against it. While that's a majority (of Democrats),
"most" would imply, to me at least, more like 85-90%.

~~~
KaeseEs
While I'm glad the extension of these provisions of the act didn't pass, I'm
skeptical that compromise legislation that's as bad for privacy and civil
liberties generally but more politically palatable won't pass shortly.

