House, Senate Agree to Extend Patriot Act

In spite of the usual crying and moaning from the Deaniac-D.U.mmie-MoveOn (dominant) wing of the Donks The Patriot Act has cleared both houses, and the differences have been resolved in conference. Even most of the Donks realize they had best NOT engage in unilateral legal disarmament in the face of the Islamofascist terror threat.

Sanity prevailed, as always, with a notably cheesy exception:

House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government’s premier anti-terrorism law, before it expires at the end of the month. But a Democratic senator threatened a filibuster to block the compromise.

The exception? Sen. Sen. Russ Feingold, (Donk-WI), who wants to push for a filibuster. Good luck Russ. You’ll need it!

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced that the negotiating committee had reached an agreement that would extend for four years two of the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions _ authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those provisions would expire in four years unless Congress acted on them again. “All factors considered it’s reasonably good, not perfect, but it’s acceptable,” Specter said of the agreement.

Just like the old saw: “Politics is the art of the possible.”

Also to be extended for four years are standards for monitoring “lone wolf” terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power. While not part of the Patriot Act, officials considered that along with the Patriot Act provisions. The Republican-controlled House had been pushing for those provisions to stay in effect as long as a decade, but negotiators decided to go with the GOP-controlled Senate’s suggestion. Most of the Patriot Act would become permanent under the reauthorization.

One MIGHT hope that this will squelch some of the more strident left typos, but based on past history, this will probably not be something to hold your breath waiting for, since anoxia is supposed to be a very unpleasant way to die.