A Holiday Present From The Senate

The Patriot Act is extended for 1 month as opposed to the originally stated 6 months.

Just when you thought that the powers that be in Washington were beginning to comprehend that President Bush was less than honest they allow the farce to continue.

To my dismay, I had just learned that the Senate on Wednesday passed a six-month extension of the supposed, terror-fighting, USA Patriot Act. This has now been extended to only one month and the debate will continue when the senate reconvenes in January.

Democrats and a small group of GOP and senators did manage to block Bush and his cronies attempt to make the Patriot Act permanent.

Approval of the six-month extension came on a voice vote, and cleared the way for a final vote in the House possibly as early as Thursday. Sixteen provisions in the current law expire Dec. 31 unless the Congress and White House acts.

The six-month "extension ensures that the tools provided to law enforcement in terrorist investigations in the Patriot Act remain in
effect while Congress works out the few differences that remain," said
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of a small group of Republicans who crossed over party lines to block the Patriot Act legislation.

Despite insisting earlier that a short-term extension of the Patriot Act would not be acceptable, Bush seemed to indicate in a late-night
statement that he would sign it.

"The work of Congress on the Patriot Act is not finished," Bush said. "The act will expire next summer, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he had no choice but to accept a six-month extension in the face of a successful
filibuster and the Patriot Act's Dec. 31 expiration date. "I'm not going to let the Patriot Act die," Frist said.

Why do they let this person who has no regard for the law or the rights of others continue to get a 6 month extension on a law that violates the civil rights of others? Considering the recent disclosure of Bush's illegal spying on American citizens without obtaining permission from the court he should not be given in to.

The bill's critics gained momentum Wednesday when they released a letter crafted by Sununu and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., showing that they had 52 senators agreeing to support a three-month extension."This is the right thing to do for the country," Schumer said after the deal had been announced. "To let the Patriot Act lapse would have been a dereliction of duty."

President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republican congressional leaders have lobbied fiercely to get the House-Senate compromise passed, and issued dire warnings of what would happen if the Patriot Act expires.Congress fails to renew 16 expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act by Dec. 31, America will be less safe, Gonzales and Secretary Michael Chertoff warned Wednesday. Chertoff said every morning he reviews threat information against the United States and lies awake at night worrying about "what's coming next.""The threat is still very much alive," Chertoff said, referring to terror groups that want to strike the United States.

President George W Bush has admitted that he personally authorized a secret spying program on American soil and vowed to go on approving such operations.

The existence of the monitoring scheme by the National Security Agency was first revealed in news reports on Friday and triggered a storm of criticism over whether it violated civil rights.

Previously, domestic surveillance by the agency has only involved foreign embassies or needed the permission of a special court. But the new scheme, put in place after the attacks of 11 September, 2001, allowed the NSA to track the phone calls and emails of people in America without going to court.

The President defended the secret operations and said the agency's powers were reviewed every 45 days. Bush stated that the spying was vital in fighting terrorism and he would continue to authorize such operations.

“The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws to protect them and our civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do.” Bush said.

Bush made a live speech on television in which he appeared angry at times as he attacked the news media for running stories on the classified spying operations.

'Our enemies have learnt information they should not have,' he said.

Democrats said that authorizing the spying without going to the courts could be illegal and it was a dire threat to civil liberties. 'This is Big Brother run amok,' said Senator Edward Kennedy.

The revelation has even antagonized parts of Bush's Republican party. One powerful senior Republican, Senator Arlen Specter, has said there is “no doubt” the operations are "inappropriate".

This shows that the renewal of the Patriot Act, which has already denied civil rights under the guise of fighting terrorism should not have been approved. This “Patriot Act” allows Government agencies to gain secret access to people's library, medical records and other personal information.

On December 20, 2005 Rep. Slaughter wrote the following letter, demanding Bush spy hearings in the house. Sign the petition and urge for hearings for this domestic spying. This is not something we can let go unchallenged.

Last week, we learned from the New York Times that President George W. Bush signed a presidential order in 2002 allowing the National Security Agency to spy on US citizens without
court-approved warrants.

Our law forbids warrantless surveillance of American citizens, and
it provides the Government with a set of procedures to follow in emergency situations, when federal agents do not have enough time to
get a warrant. So, if the Times report is correct, the Bush government may have acted illegally by not following these procedures.

Moreover,this report raises serious constitutional questions as to whether the
President's order violated the Fourth Amendment and the requirement that the President "shall take Care that Laws be faithfully executed."
(Article II, sec. 3)

Congress has the responsibility to call out the Administration, dig up more facts from this story, and determine whether the Bush Administration did in fact take actions which violated the
constitutional and legal parameters for the Executive Branch. My colleagues in the House of Representatives must do their part in
holding this Administration accountable if in fact it acted with total disregard of our laws. So, please join me today, and urge Congressman James Sensenbrenner Jr., Chairman of the House
Judiciary Comittee, and Congressman Peter Hoekstra, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to hold hearings demanding answers on
Bush's domestic spying.

This is not a partisan issue. Already, my congressional colleague Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, has expressed his concern about this eavesdropping program as being "inappropriate." Senator Specter has already indicated that
there will be hearings in the Senate early next year and that they will have "a very, very high priority." The House must take the same actions
and conducts its own investigations. So, please sign my petition
and urge Reps. Sensenbrenner and Hoekstra to hold a hearing on these
allegations as soon as Congress reconvenes early next year.

The constitutional and legal questions by this secret domestic spying strike at the very heart of the foundation of our democratic ideals. These stories of undisclosed domestic spying and wiretaps - approved by the White House and carried out by our top law enforcement agencies without Congressional knowledge or judicial review - force
citizens here and abroad to question our nation's commitment to its own ideals. Unfortunately, we are all too numb to an Administration --
which has already sullied our reputation abroad as the torch bearer of democracy, and a free, open, and tolerant nation -- by authorizing secret prisons, planting propaganda, and fighting attempts to ban torture. However, this doesn't mean we stay quiet.

We must act today and use our collective outrage to demand answers. I want to collect thousands of your signatures and deliver them
personally to Chairmen Sensenbrenner and Hoekstra after the New Year. So, please sign my petition sign my petition today.

Thank you again for all you do to restore faith in our democracy.

In Solidarity,

Congresswoman

Louise M. Slaughter

Write letters, protest, do what you can to make sure that President Bush and his cronies don't continue to disregard the law and the rights of all people to be protected from the McCarthyism that is rampant in his presidency.

UPDATE******************
WASHINGTON - Congress on Thursday approved a one-month extension of the Patriot Act and sent it to President Bush in a pre-Christmas scramble to prevent many of its anti-terrorism provisions from expiring Dec. 31.

The Senate, with only Sen. John Warner, R-Va., present approved the Feb. 3 expiration date four hours after an almost empty House chamber agreed to Rep. James Sensenbrenner's refusal to agree to a six-month extension.

Congress can pass legislation with only a few lawmakers present as long as no member of the House or Senate objects. The Senate session lasted four minutes.

Sensenbrenner, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, said the shorter extension would force swifter Senate action and had the support of the White House and Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. The Senate reconvenes Jan. 18 and the House Jan. 26.

"A six-month extension, in my opinion, would have simply allowed the Senate to duck the issue until the last week in June," the Wisconson Republican told reporters.

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans united against a House-Senate compromise that would have renewed several expiring provisions permanently while extending some other for another four years.

"The amount of time is less important than the good-faith effort that will be needed in improving the Patriot Act to strike the right balance in respecting Americans liberty and privacy, while protecting their security," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

"We're happy to agree to a shorter-term extension of the Patriot Act," said Rebecca Kirszner, an aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The important thing is to strike the right balance between liberty and security."

If the Congress had not acted several provisions enacted in the days following the 2001 terror attacks would have expired. Bush has repeatedly urged Congress not to let that happen.

The Senate had previously voted on Wednesday to extend the provisions by six months, previously GOP leaders had stated that they would only accept a permanent renewal of the law. The House approved the measure earlier this month, but a Democratic-led filibuster blocked passage in the Senate. Critics argued that the bill would limit the civil liberties of innocent Americans.

"No one should make the mistake of thinking that a shorter extension will make it possible to jam the unacceptable conference report through the Congress," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who led the Senate filibuster. "That bill is dead and cannot be revived."

"It appears to me that Congress understands we've got to keep the Patriot Act in place, that we're still under threat," Bush said before boarding a helicopter for a trip to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

Most of the Patriot Act,expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists was made permanent when Congress passed it after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington.

Making permanent the rest of the Patriot Act would allow investigators to tap any telephone or computer that they think a terrorist might use.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he had no choice but to accept a six-month extension in the face of a successful filibuster and the Patriot Act's Dec. 31 expiration date. "I'm not going to let the Patriot Act die," Frist said.

Bush indicated that he would sign the extension. "The work of Congress on the Patriot Act is not finished," Bush said. "The act will expire next summer, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act."

Some Republicans shared Sensenbrenner's dislike for the six-month extension.

"We'll be right back where we are right now," said a clearly frustrated Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.