Yes, I know I’ve been going on about this nonstop, but humor me, it’s rare enough that I manage to genuinely care about something Congress is doing, and once my soul is crushed on this one, it’ll probably be a while before you have to put up with such a spectacle again. So for those just joining us at intermission, here’s what I’ve been up to:
- Fox News reports on the PATRIOT renewal struggle, and botches the basic facts in just about every possible way.
- Over at Reason, I zoom in on the one sunsetting PATRIOT section that ought to simply be allowed to expire, the so-called Lone Wolf provision.
- At The American Prospect I look at some of the important reforms Russ Feingold has proposed…
- …and at Cato, a look at the current state of play, and why things are looking grim so far.
Of course, plenty of other folks are on the case. Check out:
- Glenn Greenwald’s interview with Mike German of the ACLU.
- Speaking of ACLU, here’s their latest press release, a blog post from the inimitable Mandy Simon, and their full PATRIOT site with an excellent report surveying the issues.
- Kevin Bankston at EFF points out the white hats and black hats in the Senate on this. See also Kevin’s exchange from late last month with Greg Nojeim of CDT at the American Constitution Society blog.
- An op-ed in the St. Petersburg Times gets it.
- So does The Baltimore Sun.
- Can social media activists on this issue learn from Skittles?
- Irregular Times highlights Dick Durbin’s remarks on the hidden “real reason” for attempting to kill reform. I think they may be overreading slightly, but given the long record of both historical abuses and more recent misuse of powers, it’s distressing how many in the Senate seem willing to defer to intel assertions about what powers are needed for some secret program.
- The Economist‘s anonymous but doubtless roguishly handsome blogger at Democracy in America weighs in.
- Daily Kos puts out the call to action.
- As always, Get FISA Right is the go-to site for people who want to get involved, with more links and an activism agenda for the week.
Got more relevant links? Throw ’em in the comments, I’ll add ’em to the post.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Jim // Oct 5, 2009 at 11:18 am
The meager press attention to last Thursday’s Judiciary Committee meeting is odd considering the meaty coming out of remarks there.
Here’s a bit of meat. A transcript of Dick Durbin’s Thursday remarks:
http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2009/10/05/transcript-senator-dick-durbin-on-surveillance-terrorism-and-the-constitution/
Senator Durbin reveals the existence of some classified “real reason” for the surveillance program — a “real reason” for the 90% of warrantless surveillance that has nothing to do with terrorism:
“I’m especially concerned that the substitute removes one of the most important reforms from the Leahy bill: requirement that the government show some connection to terrorism when issuing a Section 215 order. Now, there are many reasons given for taking out this constitutional protection. But the real reason for resisting this obvious, common sense modification of Section 215 is unfortunately cloaked in secrecy. Some day that cloak will be lifted, and future generations will whether ask our actions today meet the test of a democratic society: transparency, accountability, and fidelity to the rule of law and our constitution.”
That’s an explosive allegation, one that may have something to do with Marcy Wheeler’s Total Information Awareness article yesterday:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/10/02/difis-invitation-to-a-fishing-expedition/
Some help in spreading the news of Durbin’s allegation would, I think, provide a dramatic hook to bring back some attention to the last week’s and this week’s proceedings.
2 Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff) 's status on Monday, 05-Oct-09 23:41:31 UTC - Identi.ca // Oct 5, 2009 at 7:41 pm
[…] http://www.juliansanchez.com/2009/10/05/monday-patriot-roundup/ a few seconds ago from api […]
3 Random Precision // Oct 5, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Prepare for your soul to be crushed. Whatever gets passed by Congress will have a loophole that will permit the Government to do whatever it wants. And, it wants unlimited surveillance.
4 The PATRIOT Act: Last Refuge of Scoundrels | Larry Downes // Oct 7, 2009 at 3:31 pm
[…] up for renewal, the Bush Administration lobbied hard for and won an unmodified PATRIOT Act. As the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez points out, the Obama Administration and key members of Congress including leading Democrats are now the ones […]
5 Round-Up of Reactions to Yesterday’s PATRIOT Vote | Left to chance // Oct 9, 2009 at 4:21 pm
[…] That sentiment echoed Feingold’s words during the PATRIOT meeting itself: “We’re not the Prosecutors’ Committee, we’re the Judiciary Committee!” A video excerpt of Feingold’s stand for civil liberties is here, while video of the entire meeting is here; see also Emptywheel’s live-blogging of the hearing and Julian Sanchez’s frustrated live-tweeting. Sanchez, like Emptywheel, has been consistently churning out excellent material on the PATRIOT debate. […]
6 Drasties - Dutch on the World - World on the Dutch // Feb 2, 2010 at 8:22 pm
[…] cutting off funds for civilian trials. Democratic members of Congress joined with the GOP to prevent even modest reforms of the Patriot Act and other surveillance abuses. City officials compete with […]
7 Now we demand the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism policies!? « Fox Enterprises Limited Weblog // Feb 4, 2010 at 1:12 pm
[…] cutting off funds for civilian trials. Democratic members of Congress joined with the GOP to prevent even modest reforms of the Patriot Act and other surveillance abuses. City officials compete with […]
8 What exactly did Bush and Cheney do wrong? | TheWorldPolitics // Feb 6, 2010 at 2:03 pm
[…] off funds for civilian trials. Democratic members of Congress joined with the GOP to prevent even modest reforms of the Patriot Act and other surveillance abuses. City officials compete […]