Patriot Act Author Introduces Bill To Limit Use of Patriot Act 189
wjcofkc writes "In an ironic but welcome twist, the author of the Patriot Act, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is introducing the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill specifically aimed at countering the portions of the Patriot Act that were interpreted to let the NSA collect telephone metadata in bulk. The congressman has been a vocal opponent of the NSA's interpretation and misuse of the Patriot Act since Edward Snowden first leaked evidence of the program in June. On Wednesday, he wrote (PDF) to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that the 'collection of a wide array of data on innocent Americans has led to serious questions about how government will use — or misuse — such information.'"
Pandora's Box (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Can't be done (Score:2, Interesting)
Considering how much Obama railed against the Patriot act when he was in Congress, you would think he would have made that a priority in his first two years as President. With a solid Democrat majority, he could have amended or done away with it. Yet, he and Democrats did nothing. Which should be the first clue that both Democrats and Republicans are beholden to the very large and very powerful bureaucracy. It is nearly impossible to reduce the size and spending of government.
The system is going to have to crash before things change. Unfortunately that is the history of the world as we know it. Change only happens violently.
Re:Can't be done (Score:1, Interesting)
Maybe you should push to get more Democrats elected instead.
Better yet, don't vote for Republicans or Democrats, and look at the amount of people who voted for the Patriot Act the first time around; almost everyone in congress voted for it, which shows their true colors.
Re:Can't be done (Score:3, Interesting)
Going by the votes on the Act over the past few years if you want to work to elect candidates who might do your will then supporting the Democratic Party is probably your best choice.
Both parties have shown that they hate freedom, so voting for either Republicans or Democrats is simply inadvisable.
Re:shoulda got it right the first time (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm one of those "Security isn't worth it if it causes us to lose some of our individual liberties."
That was what was ironic to me. George W Bush said "They hate our freedom." so what do we do? We turned right around and reduced our freedom with things like the PATRIOT Act. Maybe they don't hate us quite as much now.