Author Of Patriot Act Now Seeks To Limit Government Surveillance

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

“I have a big problem because the business records part of the Patriot Act, which is what was used to justify this, was designed for specific investigations,” Sensenbrenner told Fox News on Friday. “We’re seeing big government in action, just like George Orwell predicted but maybe a few years later,” he added.

................................

Sensenbrenner indicated that he will draft legislation to “change that part of the business records part of the Patriot Act before it expires in 2015″ to more narrowly tailor it and will question FBI Director Robert Muller about the program when he appears before Congress next week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also plans to offer a bill designed to close the “business records” provision.

“This is a dragnet. It is an overreach and we’ve got to find out this is justified, simply because the NSA wants to do some data mining,” Sensenbrenner said. On Thursday, he wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder complaining that, “I do not believe the released FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act.”

The congressman initially dismissed critics who warned of government abuse of the Patriot Act in 2005 and 2006, but first admitted that the FBI may be abusing the law in 2007.


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/06/07/2119351/author-of-patriot-act-says-he-will-try-to-narrow-provisions-to-prevent-government-surveillance/

[Berlum]

1. "D'oh" - SenselessBrainer (R - Prince O'Pork)

[Hubert Flottz]

5. The Kotex KKKid.

Rides the gravy train again.

[Drale]

2. He never thought that it could be used against him and

his friends in the corporate world. It was supposed to be used against protesters and other malcontents who are "destroying" the republican dream of a corporate oligarchy

[Shadowflash]

26. Bingo!

[The Magistrate]

3. This Doofus Needs A Serious Attitude Adjustment, Ma'am

He does not get to posture as a savior of civil liberties, or to pretend he did not know this is exactly what the law was meant to do.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. NonSensenbrenner whines like a little girl when...

his own monster returns to bite him on his own flabby ass.

There never was anything patriotic about the KGBish "Patriot Act." Or the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy like mr. Non Sensenbrenner.

[BlueToTheBone]

12. Don't you mean like a small whiny child?

To disparage "little girls" is still sexist....and I'm sure you're not.

[leftyohiolib]

22. that would make him an age-ist

[Hubert Flottz]

33. I might be an "age-ist"

Because I think getting old sucks!(painful)

[Hubert Flottz]

32. Not me, I love ladies of every age.

I guess I was in Bob Dillon Mode again.

[Nay]

6. Duuuuuuhhhhh.

"This spy shit was meant to keep all the little people in line! We didn't mean for BUSINESSES to get spied on! Or the 1%! Just those damn little people!"

Get this asshole out of our faces.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Well well well

All the snakes come out of their holes. The intransigents who keep renewing the Patriot Act, have been outed. Which, IMHO, was the point of this whole exercise by the administration, ala the Lincoln quote -

“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.”

I.e., Congress needs to spend its time repealing the entire Patriot Act instead of fruitlessly trying to repeal ACA. The DU exhortations to "not enforce it" is bullshit because the law would still remain on the books. The courts, most of which were packed by Raygun and Shrub, refuse to throw it out. So the only way to get rid of it is to demonstrate just how bad it really is or can be when "enforced strictly" - and let the outrage of the people push their representatives to get rid of it, once and for all.

[cheapdate]

41. Excellent point.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. It's fine if they target Liberals, but BUSINESS???

[marble falls]

9. Corporations actually need to be monitored even heavier.

[kpete]

10. How many times is Jim Sensenbrenner going to feign ignorance?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Poor, poor sensenbrenner

But my friend, corporations are people too!!!

[OnyxCollie]

13. "Tex" didn't really author the PATRIOT Act,

Viet Dinh did.

Viet D. Dinh
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/dinh-viet-d.cfm#

During his time at the Department of Justice, Dinh played a key role in developing legal policy initiatives to combat terrorism—namely, the USA Patriot Act.

Dinh is on the Board of Directors for News Corp:

Board of Directors
http://www.newscorp.com/corp_gov/bod.html

Guess who's leading News Corp's own investigation of phone-hacking?

News Corp. Director Leading Phone-Hack Probe Has Personal Ties to Murdoch
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-06/dinh-s-ties-to-murdoch-under-fire-as-point-man-in-hacking-probe.html

News Corp. (NWSA)’s independent directors, obligated to assess Rupert Murdoch and other top executives’ handling of the company’s phone-hacking scandal, are relying for guidance on Viet Dinh, a board member with personal ties to the Murdoch family.

Dinh, 43, is point man between the independent board members and a panel that New York-based News Corp. (NWS) created to cooperate with authorities probing phone hacking by the defunct News of the World tabloid and to evaluate company standards.

A Washington attorney and Georgetown University Law Center professor, Dinh has been a friend of Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch’s oldest son Lachlan since 2003 and is godfather to Lachlan’s second child. In 1992, a decade before they met, the South China Morning Post, then owned by Murdoch, helped Dinh free his sister from a Hong Kong refugee camp.

“Usually it’s required that an investigation like this is undertaken by a committee of independent directors,” said Jay Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor who has served on the boards of four publicly traded companies. “It’s very hard to be objective if you’re involved in any way -- financially or emotionally -- with the family of the chief executive you are supposed to be supervising.”

Michael Mukasey's law firm is advising Dinh.

News Corp. Independent Directors Hire Debevoise Law Firm
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/news-corp-independent-directors-hire-debevoise-firm-s-white-mukasey.html

News Corp. (NWSA)’s independent directors hired the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, according to Mary Jo White, a partner at the firm and the former U.S. attorney in New York.

Michael Mukasey, who served as U.S. attorney general under George W. Bush, will join White in representing directors, Suzanne Elio, a spokeswoman for the firm, said today.

“Debevoise & Plimpton has been retained to advise Viet Dinh in his supervision of the Management and Standards Committee on behalf of the independent members of the board,” Elio said in an e-mail. She declined to comment further.

Dinh, who runs a small law firm in Washington that specializes in damage control, and venture capital executive Tom Perkins are leading the efforts of independent directors, who hold nine of 16 board seats. Dinh, also a professor at Georgetown University and the chief architect of the USA Patriot Act, represented Perkins, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) director, during a scandal at that company.

What happened at HP?

Hewlett-Packard spying scandal sheds new light on US corporate “ethics”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/10/hepa-o02.html

The spying campaign, launched by H-P board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn in response to leaks to the press of internal corporate discussions, included surreptitiously obtaining the phone records of H-P board members and employees, surveillance of board members and journalists, and the emailing of spyware to journalists in an effort to learn the identity of their sources within the company.

Private telephone records on hundreds of cell and home telephones were obtained by a method called “pretexting,” in which investigators made repeated calls to telephone companies, pretending to be the individuals targeted, until they were able to convince a phone company employee to release the information.

~snip~

Perhaps the most elaborate plan was a sting operation involving the creation of a dummy employee, codenamed “Jacob,” who was to become a source for CNET reporter Dawn Kawamoto, the journalist under the most intense surveillance. “Jacob” was to become an email tipster to CNET, and actually supplied Kawamoto with some valid inside information to establish his credibility.
Then the phony informant was to be used for a blatantly illegal purpose: he was to send Kawamoto an email with attached spyware that would install itself on the journalist’s computer and track every subsequent keystroke, thus giving H-P investigators a full view of everything she did.

[Berlum]

16. Wow - Republican Family Values - Skankster-Style (as usual)

Ptoooey

[Hubert Flottz]

34. So many neocon snakes

and so many rocks to look under. Viet Dinh is a real piece of shit.

[Dustlawyer]

14. Notice that they talk of "Amending" the Act, not doing away with it! They want to be able to head

off any protests that they consider a threat to their power! Imagine if we all demanded COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR) so they could not LEGALLY BRIBE our politicians. Then you would see the mother of all Patriot Act responses from the true powers that be!

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Little late now.

[Solly Mack]

17. Damn. Sure, now there's a problem?

Fucking lying hypocrites.

Either it was always a problem or it's not one now.

The Patriot Act was always a problem. (and all the other "acts" that helped to bolster it)

[awoke_in_2003]

19. +1000. nt

[LanternWaste]

18. Sensenbrenner published a 2005 op-ed in USA Today dismissing critics who warned of abuses

More from the article...



Sensenbrenner penned an editorial defending the Patriot Act, writing:
"Zero. That's the number of substantiated USA Patriot Act civil liberties violations. Extensive congressional oversight found no violations. Six reports by the Justice Department's independent inspector general, who is required to solicit and investigate any allegations of abuse, found no violations...

...congressional negotiators added more than 30 civil liberty safeguards not included in current law to ensure that the Patriot Act's authorities would not be abused in the future. Remarkably, that's still not enough for some."

"The Patriot Act has kept us safer and has not violated anyone's civil rights. It deserves to be renewed."



His "moral compass" is quite relative indeed.

[SlimJimmy]

21. Famous last words.

"The Patriot Act has kept us safer and has not violated anyone's civil rights. It deserves to be renewed."

[L0oniX]

20. His shit stain will never come off. It's his permanent tattoo.

[iandhr]

23. This is a perfect example...

... of the pot calling the kettle black.

[Sunlei]

24. Presidents on live right now made Rs look silly again :)

what will it be next week Rs? and who among you is the 'leaker', only the great kabala knows../plays spookie music

[Kelvin Mace]

25. Too late now, tooth paste out of the tube

Once you lose a right it never comes back.

[postulater]

27. I'm glad I got gerrymandered out of his district.

Now I have Gwen Moore as my rep.

What a nice change.

[MoreGOPoop]

28. LOL

Wrong-Wingers love their Fascism until they are caught in their own trap.
Kind of like their obstruction in closing Gitmo. Poetic justice would be for
some real war criminals to be imprisoned there.

[freshwest]

29. Passed by Congress. They can stop this any time they want. Put up or shut up. Just DO IT.

[Initech]

30. So it's OK when George Bush does it, not OK when Barack Obama does it.

Really, morons, pick a side and stick with it.

[JDPriestly]

31. The entire Patriot Act needs to be rewritten.

It's a mess. Much too vague and broad.

We do need laws to stop terrorists, but this law reaches almost everyone who might possibly buy a loaf of bread or a charm bracelet from some kook who then goes out and puts a bomb somewhere. You give some change to a beggar on the street or walk down the street or take some insane person in as a boarder who then does something crazy and the law is so poorly written that you could conceivably be suspected as a co-conspirator. It's so poorly written.

It was probably well meant, but I remember in 2001 sitting at a table talking about the law with people who should have known. I was the only one who pointed out the problem. Where are the people who are supposed to be guarding our legal system and our freedoms. They talk big, but they don't read well and they never speak up. It's shameful.

[Hubert Flottz]

37. The "Patriot Act" reminds me so much of the Enabling Act of 1933.

The "Patriot Act" played a critical role in the rise of "The Decider," just like the Enabling Act(Ermächtigungsgesetz) played a critical role in the rise of "The Führer." The Reichstag Fire triggered the lawmakers into a stampede to abandon anything remotely democratic, just like the attack on 9/11 stampeded congress into abandoning democracy here in America. The Citizen's United Decision helped the GOP finish off our American democracy. We are now governed by the wealthy for the wealthy. Our civil rights and human rights are at the brink of extinction. It looks more like every day that voting is not a viable answer any longer. Bye Bye to a government, "By The People and For the people." Hello KGB style America forever.

I wrote Bobby Byrd a letter when the "Patriot Act" passed and I reminded him how this "Patriot Act" was so much like the kneejerk "Enabling Act." He wrote me back and thanked me for giving him something to study.

Bush' like Hitler was not elected by the people but by a small group of his own party sympathizers. Bush was all about grabbing all the power he could lay his hands on anyway he could get it. Bush's Poland was Iraq.

[JDPriestly]

38. The Democratic Party is also run by a very small number of

people. They may be well meaning but unless we all get involved and volunteer our services, we are all to blame for the fact that so few, a bumbling or conniving elite have too much say in who our candidates are.

Join your local Democratic Club. Go to meetings. Become active. Take responsibility and share your voice. That is the only way we can change things.

I don't just complain. I work to make things better. I mostly just complain on DU. But when I work, I work positively with my friends who are also trying to change things in a positive way. Get active. Overcome whatever it is that prevents you from attending meetings.

I am not specifically and only directing this to you, Hubert Flotz. You may be more active than I am. But I think you will understand what I am writing about. Let's get out there and work to have our voices heard. Too many of my friends are unwilling to attend Democratic Club meetings. They dismiss them as irrelevant and too conservative. But really, I think my friends are just lazy. You will probably meet great people in your local club.

[John2]

42. You need

a Tea Party Movement of your own, to move the Democratic Party farther Left. It was moved farther Right, beginning with the Clinton Admininistration and his Triangulation strategy. That was after the country had move farther to the Right after not two but three Republican Administrations under the Reagan Era. During that Era, Liberals were attacked in this country and it became a Dirty word. They even took an all out assault on the Press for being too Liberal.

Instead of President Obama talking about famous or popular Democratic Presidents, he keeps referring to Republicans. He seems to have no sense of what America was like before Reagan. President Obama is more of a centrist, and Blue Dog Democrat. Hillary Clinton will be the same and so will Biden. What the DEmocrats need is a new liberal candidate to challenge them in Democratic primaries. That shouldn't be a problem with all these Liberal organizations to find or recruit a candidate to challenge them. It is not impossible to do in the primaries, because Obama himself challenged the establishment favorite on basically liberal positions, such as the anti-War position against Hillary Clinton and Universal Healthcare. Either they move it back towards the Left, or face a challenge by someone new.

A third party is not the way to go or a Ralph Nader. By Nader going outside the Party, all he did was damage the Democratic Party and enabled republicans, because they were more solidified. If Nader really thought his positions were in the majority, then why was he such a coward to run as a candidate, within the Democratic Party?

[JoePhilly]

35. Dunce. nt

[librechik]

36. fuck that fat old whore!

Like he would recognize democracy if he saw it in his own hearing room! As IF

[muntrv]

39. Chickens coming home to roost. You created this, Sensenbrenner.

[blkmusclmachine]

40. Toothpaste is out of the tube.

No going back.