Patriot Act Extension By Autopen Raises Questions for Congressman 247
Okian Warrior writes "Congress passed the [Patriot act extension] bill Thursday night, shortly before certain provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire. However, Mr. Obama could not sign the bill right away in person, since he was in Europe for the G8 Summit. In order to sign the bill before the measures expired, he authorized the use of the autopen machine, which holds a pen and signs his actual signature. Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia sent President Obama a letter today questioning the constitutionality."
Bravo Rand Paul. (Score:5, Interesting)
"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. The bill passed the Senate 72-23."
- from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/26/politics/main20066686.shtml [cbsnews.com]
Re:The comments are full of hilarity (Score:3, Interesting)
And the President is not a Democrat? The President could have vetoed the law yes? He could have let it sit around and not extend the PATRIOT act correct? What did our Democratic President do -- he went to great lengths to make sure it was signed.
If you think it makes a difference whether we have Democrats or Republicans in WA DC, you are deluded. Together they form a monoparty hell bent on shredding every word in the Constitution as we hurtle toward an Imperial Presidency.
Bush, Obama -- no difference except that even Bush didn't publicly suggest he could execute American citizens on his say so alone without even a show trial. Obama owns that.
The only "people" who have any power are the mega-corps. For example, the Supreme Court has consistently screwed humans with the State Secrets Doctrine, but when Boeing is on the chopping block, the Supreme Court tells the Feds to back off:
OK to invoke when torturing people (Obama's stated preference to the court): http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/California/News/2011/05_-_May/U_S__Supreme_Court_allows_Boeing_CIA_torture_suit_dismissal/ [thomsonreuters.com]
but the Feds can't get any money out of Boeing if the feds are going to invoke State Secrets with respect to one of Boeing's defenses:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/2011/05/23/boeing-says-its-happy-with-suprem-courts-a-12-ruling/ [seattlepi.com]
Re:What? (Score:2, Interesting)
Yup, cause all libertarians love infinite war and the government having final say over women's bodies.
When did the fascists in the country start calling themselves libertarians?
FYI, a real libertarian is someone like Rand Paul, whose voting record is markedly different.