Rhode Island’s Future - Sheldon Submits; Trusts Obama Not to Abuse Bush's Patriot Act?

Wednesday September 8, 2010

Sheldon Submits; Trusts Obama Not to Abuse Bush's Patriot Act?

Posted by: Bruce Reilly in Civil Liberties on February 27, 2010

With only two outspoken opponents to Patriot Act re-authorization, the House voted on Thursday to continue roving wiretaps, mandating the release of private data, and monitoring of foreigners who are neither connected to terrorist groups nor foreign governments. Sheldon Whitehouse had a few choice comments:

“I think there's probably a stronger sense that the civil liberties concerns are less likely to be triggered by Obama administration activities than the Bush administration activities... that really damaged its credibility as any kind of guardian of American civil liberties,” Whitehouse said. “Maybe that's the reason they let this thing go without too much of a fight.”

Abuse has been well documented under the Bush regime, while Obama and Holder have shown a clear disinterest in prosecuting any form of torture or misuse of the wiretap provisions.

Whitehouse, Leahy (VT), and others had worked on legislation to improve the Patriot Act, but this never made it to the vote. The "Blank Check" version passed 100-0 in the Senate.

As Dennis Kucinich (OH) states:

Despite years of documentation evidencing abuse of these provisions during the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice has failed to hold Bush Administration officials accountable for illegal domestic spying by barring any lawsuits to be brought against those officials. Months into this Administration, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had “intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits,” and that the practice was “significant and systematic.” Passage of this legislation today continues to make Congress complicit in these violations of our basic constitutional rights.

Those of us who believe in protections from Big Government (of all ideological stripes) need to support Senator Whitehouse to draw the line in the sand and no longer submit to pressures from the Executive. True reforms often begin with the noble stand of but a few committed individuals. Our civil rights have been abdicated for a decade.

At least when Frank Church convened a committee to investigate the abuses of COINTELPRO, the government was overtly ordered to cease and desist. Four decades later, and COINTELPRO operations receive support, begrudgingly or not, from 100 Senators and 315 Representatives.

Tagged in: Sheldon Whitehouse , Patriot Act , George Bush , Eric Holder , Dennis Kucinich , Barack Obama

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A Terrible, Inescapable Conclusion
written by Arthur Beatini, February 27, 2010

To paraphrase Robert Kennedy speaking in the wake of his brother's death, we're not living in the world we think we know.

Shame on Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed.

missing the point here
written by forsanri, February 28, 2010

missing the point here.

Obama campaigns against executive overreach from the Bush administration excesses and then turns around and STRENGTHENS the Bush policies once he's in office. And you want to blame Sheldon for weak oversight or "going along?" Ok fine...but the fault is really with Obama.

Indeed most of our failures in this country are a result of Obama's refusal to take action. I too would love for Sheldon to identify all of Obama's failures: Healthcare, Cap and Trade, Defense Policy, Jobs, Economic Recovery, Financial Regulatory Reform, EFCA, immigration, prison reform, transportation.....but really, at some point, don't you just stipulate that Obama is just failing and move on?

Im not missing the point
written by Bruce Reilly, March 01, 2010

Forsanri, the point is that much misplaced blame goes to Obama. Considering there are 535 elected legislators, 100 of whom are elected to longer terms than Obama, and most will ultimately serve more years than Obama.

The legislators all have jobs, some of whom have senior level jobs around divisive issues like war and "security." Ted Kennedy, for example, had a lot more to do with us becoming the Incarceration Nation than Obama ever could. Obama's ICE, DEA, FBI, and CIA now enforce the laws the legislators give him.

The "Bully Pulpit" is legitimate, but we don't elect legislators to either do whatever the president wants, or block everything the president wants. We elect them to have positions we support, and fight for those positions regardless of Majorities, presidencies, or sway of the media. And if they don't represent our positions, we have a responsibility to force them to look for a new job.

I would expect Whitehouse to fight an invasive Patriot Act whether McCain or Obama got in there. Thats the point. The cynics who blame Obama and go back to watching American Idol are not helping create real change, and they need to be re-inspired about how our government is supposed to work via Separation of Powers.

I never defended Obama, and am not likely to start (based on a year in office), but political involvement isn't an every-four-year thing, and NO President will ever be our savior.