Patriot Act Extension

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

This should be interesting to see where the parties fall out on it. The Obama administration wants to see it extended with few changes. Others want more control and to tighten the restrictions on surveillence. In the midst of the fight for Healthcare reform I wonder if it will slip under the wire un-noticed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/us...j/YF+MDnfe+O1w

Given that Obama voted for the last Patriot Act extension as well as the FISA amendments, as did a significant minority of Democrats in both the House and Senate, I dont expect that there will be much modification to the current law.

There will be proposed amendments by the Feingold/Kucinich wing, but there is no widespread mandate for change here.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

Given that Obama voted for the last Patriot Act extension as well as the FISA amendments, as did a significant minority of Democrats in both the House and Senate, I dont expect that there will be much modification to the current law.

There will be proposed amendments by the Feingold/Kucinich wing, but there is no widespread mandate for change here.

did you mean majority?

Originally Posted by classicman

did you mean majority?

In the House, only a significant minority of Democrats voted for the 06 extension : 66 - for and 124 -against

In the Senate, enough Democrats voted for it to ensure that those Democratis opposed could not fillibuster at the time.

It will get more Democratic votes now because most of the new Democrats elected in 06 and 08 are moderates from Republlican-leaning distrricts and in the Senate, there are easily more than enought Democrats, along with all the Repubilcans to push it through.

I dont see an issue here. It is almost a sure thing to be extended as is, after Feingold on the Senate side and Kuchinich on the Huose side attempt to tinker with it, with little success.