“That time is now. And I will not let the PATRIOT Act — the most unpatriotic of acts — go unchallenged.”
So began Senator Rand Paul early this afternoon as he began his filibuster against renewal of the Patriot Act. He has now been speaking on the Senate floor for over eight hours. The Senate has until this Friday to extend Section 215 of the Patriot Act, or pass the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk surveillance as it now stands, but leaves the door open for it to continue in some newly devised form. Without passing either of these options, Section 215 will expire at the end of the month and government mass surveillance programs must end. This last option is what Rand Paul is pushing. He is not alone tonight. Senator Wyden (D-Oregon) has already spoken as part of Paul’s filibuster. Senators Cris Coons (D-Delaware), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are on the Senate floor in support of Senator Paul. There are others. They are all patriots.
I strongly support Senator Paul in this effort. The unwarranted mass surveillance of the American people is unconstitutional, illegal, largely useless, a waste of scarce intelligence resources and a dangerous distraction from the performance of needed intelligence collection. End it now.
You can watch and listen to Senator Rand Paul as he speaks on the Senate floor at the first link below. You may be watching history as it is being made. I could well imagine our founding fathers would be proud of him. - TTG
http://floor.senate.gov/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&event_id=320
My memory may play tricks on me but were the founding fathers, however feuding they were while they were founding, also civil liberties extremists? No unreasonable searches and seizures and all that?
Sniffing out all your telecommunications without even suspicion spits in the face of that. Christie is an idiot.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 22 May 2015 at 02:55 AM
I am not suggesting anything.
I read of this family in a Persian language news paper and the father stated what I related here.
He said that.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 22 May 2015 at 09:32 AM
Unfortunately the "new" FEMA no longer assists the Natural Hazards Center in any way including funding. Now headed for most of a decade by Dr. Kathleen Tierney, PhD, you might find her articles and book on DISASTER AS WAR of some interest.
He edited book on PREPARING FOR THE UNEXPECTED might also be of interest.
I have long predicted that a NUDET in any US city might well result in the de facto fall of the US Government. Hoping I am wrong!
You might find my contributions to the Free Friday Forum of the HLSWatch.com blog of some interest.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 22 May 2015 at 12:38 PM
Thanks Adam for this explanation! Very helpful.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 22 May 2015 at 12:39 PM
IMO to the extent possible, both meta-data collection and surveillance started by the US government in the 1950's!
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 22 May 2015 at 12:40 PM
YUP! But Flight 93 was headed to the Capitol IMO!
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 22 May 2015 at 12:42 PM
How about movie SNEAKERS? NOVA most recent show on encryption and Quantum Physics.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 22 May 2015 at 12:44 PM
William R. Cumming,
You are, as far as I know, correct on this. And while that would explain the original rush to passage of a bill largely created out of failed legislation from 1995-1996 in the wake of the Murrah Federal Building bombing, the first WTC bombing, and the incidents, for lack of a better term, at Ruby Ridge and Waco, it really doesn't make sense 14 years later. Perhaps its just me and I'm not wired for existential terror and dread, but fourteen years on I have a higher expectation of our elected officials in developing appropriate legislation to provide adequate security with as minimal infringements as possible on our civil rights and liberties. I'm also expecting a pony, cupcakes, a piñata filled with my favorite chocolate sweeties, and a puppy - followed by treatment for an insulin overdose.
Posted by: Adam L Silverman | 22 May 2015 at 11:27 PM
The Senate just voted to block both the USA Freedom Act and a two month extension of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. McConnell tried to call a vote to extend it to 8 Jun. Paul objected McConnell countered with 6 Jun. Paul objected again and asked for a simple majority vote on 2 amendments. McConnell came back with a 3 Jun extension. Martin Heinrich from New Mexico objected to that. There's a lot of haggling about on the Senate floor right now. I'm surprised I'm this enraptured by something on Cspan. I think I'll watch a while longer.
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 23 May 2015 at 01:17 AM
Richard,
You've hit on the other front in the war on the surveillance state. Robust end to end encryption has to become ubiquitous. It certainly is not now. PGP implementations in email clients are too complicated for most people. There are solutions out there. The open source community is working to develop implementations that are easy to use for the masses or, even better, work in the background. If the commercial industry does the same, we could have something here.
I like TOR. I used it professionally for years. It gets better and better all the time through the work of open source developers. It still takes knowledge and care to use it effectively. The NSA and the rest of the IC are working feverishly to defeat it. I don't wish them success. If my old colleagues want to go after whatever flavor of bad guys are currently in vogue in cyberspace, they need to jack in, speak the local language, know the technology and conduct clandestine HUMINT using every old trick in the book. And uphold the Constitution.
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 23 May 2015 at 01:38 AM
TTG, Colonel,
The dragnet surveillance that is the Patriot
Act, is all about social control, it is not about the safety and general welfare of the public. It is when those who control fear those they can't control, and fear those they can control even more having nightmares that they will give them the big finger and go about their own ways of life and liberty, and their hunger to control will become the obsolete man (old Twilight Zone episode).
On a different note, it appears that a 'compensation' has been given to Israel's Netanyoohoo over the Iran deal. Why do we 'compensate' Netanyoohoo and his bunch of ingrates? Makes no horse sense.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/obama-gives-19-billion-weapons-welcome-gift-israels-racist-government?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=1f2cc0fc9d-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-1f2cc0fc9d-290660781
Posted by: J | 23 May 2015 at 01:47 AM
The Senate has adjourned for the week. McConnell was left crying like a rat eating onions calling for reconvening on Sunday, 31May, for a last ditch effort to save Section 215. Harry Reid said his colleagues from the West can't get there before 5 in the afternoon.
After all this, Mikulski from Maryland stood and gave an impassioned defense of the much put upon NSA and warned that our enemies overseas are now laughing at us for dropping our defenses. I guess she doesn't realize the NSA will continue to use its skills and talents against our enemies overseas. Section 215 has noting to do with overseas collection.
Stat tuned next week for another exciting episode of "Let's kick big brother right in his little brother."
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 23 May 2015 at 01:48 AM