Anti-terror Patriot Act Renewal Blocked in Senate

Reuters is reporting that Senate Republicans fell 8 votes short of ending the filibuster on the Patriot Act.

"We have a clear choice before us today: Do we advance against terrorism to make America safer or do we retreat," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said shortly before the vote.
Senate Democratic and Republican foes of the proposed renewal said the law could be swiftly reauthorized if lawmakers agreed to better balance national security with civil liberties. "None of us wants it to expire, and those who threaten to let it expire rather than fix it are playing a dangerous game," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.

Sen. Leahy, Sit down and shut up. You're so full of BS it's pitiful. You haven't proven any instances of abuse that I've seen. Until you can, I suggest that you get your cantankerous self out of the way and let those responsible for inmplementing national security measures do what they need to do.

As I said earlier, these pompous windbags care only about perceived civil rights abuses, even though they can't document actual abuses of the system. They don't care a bit about giving law enforcement the tools it already uses against organized crime.

UPDATE: Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani has written an op-ed in today's NY Times on renewing the Patriot Act. Here are some of Rudy's noteworthy quotes:

Yesterday the Senate failed to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, as a Democratic-led filibuster prevented a vote. This action, which leaves the act, key elements of which are due to expire on Dec. 31, in limbo, represents a grave potential threat to the nation's security. I support the extension of the Patriot Act for one simple reason: Americans must use every legal and constitutional tool in their arsenal to fight terrorism and protect their lives and liberties.

And:

The act's provisions helped make possible the investigations in Lackawanna, NY, and Portland, OR, in which 12 people were ultimately convicted for attempts to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

And again:

It is simply false to claim, as some of its critics do, that this bill does not respond to concerns about civil liberties. The four-year extension of the Patriot Act, as passed by the House, would not only reauthorize the expiring provisions, allowing our Joint Terrorism Task Force, National Counterterrorism Center and Terrorist Screening Center to continue their work uninterrupted, it would also make a number of common-sense clarifications and add dozens of additional civil liberties safeguards.

I'm with Rudy on this. It's totally unconscienable for them to not reauthorize this vital national security tool on the grounds that someone's rights might theoretically be violated.

If you can't prove that peoples' civil rights have been violated, then I MIGHT listen. If someone's rights have been violated, though, I'm far more likely to fire the person who violated the person's rights than give up the tools the Patriot Act gives U.S. law enforcement.

Patriot Act, ACLU, Leahy, Giuliani