(Breaking! – promoted by ek hornbeck)
The Patriot act Extension has FAILED to pass in the House!
House rejects measure that would extend key Patriot Act provisions through December
A measure to extend key provisions of the Patriot Act counterterrorism surveillance law through December failed the House Tuesday night, with more than two-dozen Republicans bucking their party to oppose the measure.
The House measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and required a two-thirds majority for passage, failed on a 277-to-148 vote. Twenty-six Republicans voted with 122 Democrats to oppose the measure, while 67 Democrats voted with 210 Republicans to back it. Ten members did not vote.
The measure would have extended three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire on Monday, Feb. 28, unless Congress moves to reauthorize them. One of the provisions authorizes the FBI to continue using roving wiretaps on surveillance targets; the second allows the government to access “any tangible items,” such as library records, in the course of surveillance; and the third is a “lone wolf” provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act that allows for the surveillance of targets who are not connected to an identified terrorist group.
The vote came as several tea party-aligned members of the new freshman class had been expressing doubts about the measure.
Primary those Democrats that voted for “Yes”. This is the second issue that I have to agree with Sen. Rand Paul and the Tea Party Republicans. The second issue: cutting defense spending not Social Security or Medicare. Paul has said that he would vote against extension next month when the bill comes before the Senate.
Up Date: This is the statement from Rep. Dennis Kucinich:
“The defeat of the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, under the suspension of the rules, signals the potential for a new coalition. Twenty-six Republicans joined one hundred and twenty-two Democrats to block passage, forcing a new debate on these critical questions of privacy and civil liberties. It was thought that reauthorization would be non-controversial, which is why it was placed under a suspension of the rules, but the fact that it failed to get the two-thirds vote required indicates that it is controversial. This is a surprising development and it will lead to more debate about the PATRIOT Act. I credit Conservative Republicans, Libertarians and members of the Tea Party for standing by their beliefs and thank my fellow Democrats for providing one of the first major challenges to the PATRIOT Act.
“It is expected that the bill will be brought up again, but the opposition has now surfaced. I look forward to working with this new coalition to continue to rally support to defeat the PATRIOT Act,”
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had vote “No” the vote would have been 215 nays to 143 yays. Hey, Obama, you said you were going to fix this travesty of unconstitutionality and it took the Tea Party crew to bring it to at least a temporarily.
Honest right meets honest left. Tea Party Progressives. Maybe we’ll even see some Truth come out.
and also wanted to add this gem:
Awaiting The Spin elsewhere. I knowI should not be gob-smacked by the Administration’s “preference”, after everything else that has happened in the past two years, but I am.
Other than that-Great News! Yay Dennis!
habeaus corpus back? Strange bedfellows, the Randain tea baggers and the ‘Hard’ left anarchists. lol Will be interesting to watch the moderates scramble to get back our own homegrown permanent state of emergency laws. How will the Democrat’s including Leahy who has promised for years to fight for our rights with sternly worded letters or any of these traitors fight against the death of the odiouos Patriot Act. Strange days indeed.
Until they get hammered by a bipartisan coalition next week on this one, I’m with them.
For there to be any true progress against the police state we live in, the left and the right must reconcile and form common cause. I applaud this unforeseen development of a civil rights coalition in the House, even if the cooperation is only temporary.
The back side of the circle is coming together. When the most radical members of both sides of the aisle agree that some parts of the onerous patriot act need to go away, I would say that there is daylight coming.
through 2013….
it will pass soon with out the need for the 2/3 vote……
Rep. Kucinich here – Obama really damaged (read kneed) him with that plane ride.