The vote was 227-183.
As the Washington Post reports:
Privacy and civil liberties advocates, and many Democratic lawmakers, complained that the Bush administration's revisions of the law could breach constitutional protections against government intrusion. But the administration, aided by Republican congressional leaders, suggested that a failure to approve the legislation sought by intelligence officials could expose the country to a greater risk of terrorist attacks.
Democrats facing reelection next year in conservative districts helped propel the bill to a quick approval. Adding to the pressures they felt were recent intelligence reports about threatening new al-Qaeda activities in Pakistan and the disclosure by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) of a secret court ruling earlier this year that complicated the wiretapping of purely foreign communications that happen to pass through communications nodes on U.S. soil.
The bill would give the National Security Agency the right to collect such communications in the future without a warrant. But it goes further than that: It also would allow the monitoring, under certain conditions, of electronic communications between people on U.S. soil, including U.S. citizens, and people "reasonably believed to be outside the United States," without a court's order or oversight.
5 comments:
U.S. Constitution - R.I.P.
Protect America Act. How Orwellian can we get in the next 18 months? Wait and see.
Yet another reason this conservative has broken from the Republican party. This is nothing short of infringement on the rights of Americans and I think conservatives need to wake up NOW and realize what is going on here.
Even if you want to categorize this and say it's "only for terrorists" and that "a real American would have nothing to hide" you need to realize this bill gives the intelligence community the right to monitor everything. If you disagree with social issues that Hillary, Obama or others propose...do you want your conversations recorded by the CIA? This bill would allow that to happen.
Think beyond the "war on terror" box on this one guys. Conservatives and Republicans are supposed to be for smaller government. LESS intrusion by the government. This bill is FAR from that notion.
Oh, my God. You guys on the left, you scream bloody murder over this type of legislation, yet you stand up and cheer on advocates of The Fairness Doctrine.
Which parts of the Constitution do you like?
Please no Joe Daues and wife---they think they are some kind of stars.
Lets keep the new lady at KSPR and Steve Grant---all the others need to go so we can start a new!
And yes why can you flip all three channels and same exact news---who is really calling the shots on what is News? The News-Leader Editors?
Or does one person sign off on what is news and the top News Directors say OK?
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