Senate Avoids Debate, Moves Patriot Act Into ‘Small Business Bill’
Sen. Paul's Call for Debate Narrowly Averted
Senator Rand Paul (R- KY) stunned everyone yesterday when he announced that he intended to filibuster the planned four year extension of the Patriot Act if the Congress did not agree to debate possible amendments.
The suggestion that the extension should be debated fueled considerable opposition, particularly from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), who insisted it would be a “huge mistake” to debate the bill and might threaten national security.
Fortunately for Sen. Feinstein, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – NV) sprang into action, and found a way to prevent any such debate from taking place. Instead of passing the Patriot Act the Senate has now slipped the entire extension into a “small business bill” which cannot be filibustered.
The Patriot Act provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of the week, but are expected to be rubber stamped by Congress, barring any unforseen inconveniences, like a public debate of the controversial provisions.
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JLS
May 24th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Contemptable, cowards, sell outs, I don't know, there's just not a term that is strong enough to express how I feel about our legislative branch.
MoT
May 25th, 2011 at 1:48 am
Cowards! So when I ask will the American people finally overthrow the oligarchs?
curmudgeonvt
May 25th, 2011 at 5:02 am
You're talking about the type of people who continually vote Michelle Bachmann into office…The American people have been neutered – long ago – and the elected know that. They will do as they please and will not allow dissent – or obviously, discussion.
@Cfountain72
May 25th, 2011 at 10:39 am
God Bless Rand Paul. I was skeptical of parts of his campaign, but he is easily the best Senator we have, and is doing his best Mr. Smith Goes to Washington impersonation regarding the Patriot Act RIGHT NOW on CSPAN.
http://www.cspan.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/
Peace be with you.
@Chris_Titus_IT
May 25th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Patriot Act Extention?!? looks like it can simply be done without a single discussion taking place…
paul Foley
May 25th, 2011 at 11:06 am
Feinstein belongs in the toilet along with LIEberman, McCain & Kerry..!!
JLS
May 25th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
How?
MoT
May 29th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
My sad interpretation of how things will progress is as such: either everyone caves with a whimper and become bigger slaves than they already are or economic collapse followed by violence. The kind of shot heard round the world that our deaf leaders need to repeatedly hear until they either disabuse themselves of the notion that they are "gods" or acquire room temperature.
Gary Pighetti
June 12th, 2011 at 8:41 am
"a free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin."Paul favors community and neighborhood pressure to persuade private businesses, rather than federal laws that he argued might violate the constitution. —Wikipedia
Yep, our greatest Senator. Just like Jimmy Stewart, this 'Mr Smith' went to white Washington…..