Paul Gets a Vote On His Amendments, Senate Enters Final Stretch of PATRIOT Act Renewal

According to his spokesperson, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will debate his two amendments (the gun amendment and the banking records amendment) for the next hour. After that, the Senate will vote on the amendments. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as we told you this morning, has been enlisting Republicans to vote against Paul's amendments. Because he is getting an hour of debate and a vote, Paul will yield the remainder of his 30 hours, and the bill will most likely be re-authorized well before midnight. 

Then it'll head to the House for the fastest rubber-stamping in the history of Congress.

Watch it live on C-Span. 

Comments

[Cyto]

Ahhhh, damn.

[Jim]

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Time for a revolution.

I propose naming the new capital "Snake Mountain".

[Warty]

I propose naming the new capital "Snake Mountain".

Prolapsopolis.

Shit

[Fluffy]

Well, when you tell the Senate Majority Leader, "Give me time to debate these amendments and a vote on them or I will hold up your bill past expiration!" if he actually caves and gives you your time and your votes, you kind of have to accept his surrender.

[Fist of Etiquette]

How does that feel, terrorists? Stings, don't it?

[Cyto]

Dick Durbin:

"I cannot vote for an extension of the PATRIOT ACT without additional protections for the rights of citizens."

"I will not be supporting the Paul amendments."

"I don't believe it is our nation's best interest to exempt gun records from NSL requests. (paul amendment)"

He's opposed to un-named roving wiretaps and sneak and peak searches. He's vaguely against NSL (national security letter) 'subpoenas'.

But he's going to participate in making sure that the USA PATRIOT Act gets re-upped as is, without even minimal amendment by Paul or others. (oh, he does say he's gonna vote against it. Cake and eat it too, doncha know)

"I don't believe it is our nation's best interest to exempt gun records from NSL requests."

[Achtung Coma Baby]

Fuck you in the neck, Durbin!

[Warty]

That was fun. I look forward to more hatred between Reid and Randy.

[Gibby]

Is anyone else uncomfortable seeing the words "Reid" and "Randy" in the same sentence?

[Achtung Coma Baby]

Saxby Chambliss, fuck you in the neck!

[NoVAHockey]

seriously. "nobody's ever complained about any abuses"

[Achtung Coma Baby]

FUCK YOU SENATE>>>IN THE NECK!

[Cyto]

Saxby Chambliss:

SARS tips are important because the government isn't watching all financial transactions. They get important tips from SARS reports that catch terrorists (and criminals).

Paul's amendment would require the government to have reason to suspect a transaction before requesting the records. How are they going to know to be suspicious unless they receive an anonymous tip.

I'm on the intelligence committee and we provide oversight of these requirements. "There has never been a complaint or abuse related to this provision".

On gun laws: Hassan (marine who shot up people at the military base) would not have raised suspicion to get a warrant without USA PATRIOT ACT / FISA. with these powers they could subpoena his records.... (notwithstanding that these powers were fully in force for years at the time his shooting rampage happened) Saxby, you are a genius.

Besides, you shouldn't worry about any of this because they have to be approved by high level FBI officials and the FBI has to report the number of requests to congress. So don't worry, citizen.

The NRA says that the Paul amendment that bans the FISA warrants on gun ownership would encourage law enforcement to use the tools it has under existing law to subpoena records. So the NRA takes no position on this amendment.

[Cyto]

Christoper Coons:

Asks unanimous consent to table debate and vote on a 1 month extension. He's pissed that he's been denied.

His committee has it's own revisions that the floor is not going to consider.

"The USA PATRIOT act did not amount to a permanent choice of security over liberty."

---Yeah.... the heck it didn't. Dumbass. He's gonna engage the mechanisms to ensure that it passes for 4 years extension, but he's gonna vote against it. idiot.

[Achtung Coma Baby]

Senator Carl Levin hates drug traffickers.

[Cyto]

Carl Levin:

I oppose Paul's amendments on SARS because they are used against drug dealers, bank fraud and organized crime. They are important for that.

Terrorists? Nah, not so much.

This is huge, Levin is the chair of the Armed Services Committee. He just told us on the floor of the Senate that the SARS are critical not for terrorism, but to act as a monitoring system for drug crimes, organized crime and financial crimes. He doesn't really rest on terrorism at all, which was the only justification for this violation of basic privacy rights.

He says it is an effective law enforcement tool that hasn't been found unconstitutional by 3 different courts that have reviewed it.

[Cyto]

Now voting to table the Paul amendments. Nice move so they don't even have to vote against it. Roll call vote happening with about 12 people in the chamber. Not sure what the point of this is. None of them are registering their votes either. Obviously this is standard procedure, but you got me as to what the point is.

[Cyto]

Apparently the agreement is that they'll get 41 Senators to vote to table his amendment and that's the end of it. Strange hoops they are jumping through. Equally strange to watch all the democrats lining up to make sure the USA PATRIOT act isn't changed one jot or tittle.

Too bad. This could have been a moment. Instead it wasn't really even a tempest in a teapot.

[LibertyMark]

All of the supporters of the act basically said this:

"We need the information, and you can trust us. If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear."

Fuck them all.

[P Brooks]

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will debate his two amendments (the gun amendment and the banking records amendment) for the next hour.

And everybody else will go to lunch.

[johnl]

What was the SAR amendment McConnell was against? It's hard to see how anyone could, in goof faith, oppose a good faith standard.