WOW!!! FEINGOLD TO FILIBUSTER PATRIOT ACT!!!

kpete

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Thu Dec-08-05 12:33 PM
Original message

WOW!!! FEINGOLD TO FILIBUSTER PATRIOT ACT!!!

Edited on Thu Dec-08-05 01:32 PM by kpete

Feingold to Filibuster

This should be interesting:

Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold

On the Patriot Act Conference Report

“I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms. The version of the Patriot Act that was signed today is a major disappointment. I appreciate that it includes four-year sunsets on three controversial provisions, but merely sunsetting bad law is not adequate. We need to make substantive changes to the law, and without those changes I am confident there will be strong, bipartisan opposition here in the Senate.

This isn't about stopping Patriot Act reauthorization. The President could sign Patriot Act reauthorization legislation into law tomorrow if the House would just take up and pass the compromise Senate bill that was approved unanimously in the Senate earlier this year – a bill that includes important and reasonable privacy protections. The conference committee had the opportunity to fix many of the provisions of the Patriot Act to which Americans across the political spectrum have voiced their opposition over the last four years. Unfortunately, they decided not to listen. This battle is not over.
http://atrios.blogspot.com/
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Feingold_says_hell_filibuster_Patriot_Act_1208.html

AND....!!!!
THREE GOP SENATORS BALK AT PATRIOT ACT; GOP SENATOR COULD JOIN FILIBUSTER: DEVELOPING...
http://www.rawstory.com/

UPDATE:
Bipartisan group of senators to oppose Patriot Act revision
RAW STORY
A bipartisan group of senators -- including three Republicans -- have said they will not support a deal between House and Senate negotiators on extension of the Patriot Act, RAW STORY has learned.

The agreement will keep in place controversial provisions such as the ability of U.S. officials to pry into Americans' library records and to authorize "roving wiretaps." The Senate version of the bill had been less aggressive.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) says he will filibuster the new agreement. The six senators opposing the conference report are: Sen. Larry Craig (R-MT), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) and Sen. John Sununu (R-NH).

The statement from the group of six senators follows.

“We are gravely disappointed that the conference committee made so few changes to the Patriot Act reauthorization package that was circulated before the Thanksgiving recess. As we said then, we cannot support a conference report that does not contain modest but critical improvements, similar to those in the Senate-passed bill, to the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. We indicated before Thanksgiving that we would oppose a conference report like the one filed in the House today, and we believe many of our colleagues will join us.

Back in July, we supported a bipartisan compromise reauthorization bill that passed the Senate by unanimous consent. While that bill did not contain everything we would have wanted, it took important steps to protect the freedoms of innocent Americans. By insisting that modest protections for civil liberties be excluded from the conference report, the conferees bear responsibility for any possibility that some provisions of the Patriot Act could expire this year.

The sunsets this year provide our best opportunity to make the meaningful changes to the Patriot Act that the American public has demanded. We believe that this conference report will not be able to get through the Senate, while the Senate bill would easily pass the House if its leadership would bring it to a vote. We call on our House colleagues to reject this conference report, and to take up and pass the Senate compromise bill. We still can — and must — make sure that our laws give law enforcement agents the tools they need while providing safeguards to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Bipartisan_group_of_senators_to_oppose_1208.html