The stench of the Bush years is hard to wash out. Especially when the new man, the one you’d hoped might at least provide a pause in the destruction of civil liberties, isn’t precisely getting out the detergent to help you.
Granted, this latest bit of nefariousness is the product of the new Republican majority in the House. Still stinks of the disingenuous rattle of the Bushies, which just won’t go away. The worst-named bill in the history of the United States government, the PATRIOT Act, is up for a rammed-through renewal without changes or debate. All its abuses could remain intact if the Democrats don’t stand up for making changes. (Why do I even say that? It’s more likely that the thing will spontaneously revise itself.)
The fine folks of the Electronic Frontier Foundation have the full and gory rundown here. From that:
…the new Republican leadership in the House is trying to duck Congress’ promise to consider PATRIOT reform, and is instead pushing your Representative to rubber-stamp another PATRIOT renewal. The House leaders have just announced that they’ll be “suspending the rules” so that a bill introduced by Rep. Sensenbrenner to extend the expiring provisions until December 8, 2011 will go to the House floor for a vote on Tuesday, without any debate and without any opportunity for anyone to offer amendments to improve the bill.
The gory bits:
In particular, the bill would renew the following dangerously unchecked PATRIOT powers:
* The government’s power under PATRIOT Section 215 to obtain secret court orders for Internet, phone and business records of people who are not suspected of terrorism or spying;
* The government’s “lone wolf wiretapping” power, allowing it to get court orders authorizing secret foreign intelligence wiretaps against individuals who have no connection to any foreign power or terrorist group; and
* The government’s power to obtain blank-check “roving” wiretap orders that can be used to tap any phone number, email account or other communications facility that the government believes is being used by its target.
In the Roald Dahl news file: A Sicilian couple carries out a murder through buttery suffocation, hoping the damning evidence will melt away. The autopsy, however, caught them out.
