US Senate’s Patriot Act Betrayal

Politics / US Politics Jun 02, 2015 - 12:12 PM GMT

Watching the DC establishment respond to Senator Rand Paul’s efforts to sunset important aspects of the Patriot Act is like peeling back the skin of a decaying onion to expose the rot. Members of the Senate all take an oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. Well those “public servants” who are doing their perfected “Potomac Two Step” would have the public believe that next week’s vote on some version of the House passed USA Freedom Act will halt the NSA from their systematic violation of 4th Amendment protections.

As expected the disinformation from the corporatist media, USA Today misleads as expected.

“The Senate voted 77-17 to advance a bill that would end the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of the phone data of millions of Americans not suspected of any terrorist activity.”

As any sincere and knowledgeable spectator to the national tragedy and transition into a police state understands that bucking the establishment carries a very heavy price.

Sentiments expressed by Rand Paul that 'I’m not going to take it anymore', should be a cry and rally point for any American who has an ounce of courage and guts to confront and challenge the Federal monster, bent upon controlling each and every honest citizen.

“This is a debate over the Bill of Rights,” he said. “This is a debate over the Fourth Amendment. This is a debate over your right to be left alone.”

Retaliation against opposition to the totalitarian authoritarianism regime that is being constructed is par for the course. Conceding the outcome from this dust up, Rand Paul says Freedom Act will ‘Ultimately Pass’.

“It’s hard for me to have trust in the people who we are giving great power to,” Paul said, adding he plans to offer some amendments.

No matter the final resolution, the fight to make a national issue out of the universal violation of individual communications is both necessary and desirable.

When Senator Ted Cruz states: “The USA Freedom Act is the right policy approach. It protects the civil liberties of every American. It ends the federal government’s bulk collection of phone metadata from law abiding citizens and at the same time ensures that we maintain the tools that are needed to target violent terrorists and prevents acts of terrorists”, he demonstrates his significant departure from that of Senator Paul.

The lack of merits in a transition from The Patriot Act is now USA Freedom Act was recently discussed in an Inherent Autonomy essay. Supporting GOP office holders who are ignorant of the true nature of constitutional protections and civil liberties has been a hallmark of why Republicans will never right this ship of state.

RINO’s, NeoCons and country club Republicans are not reliable patriots. Phony and expedient Democrats, who purport to be defenders of liberty, mostly are opportunists. The governance political class will never allow a Rand Paul, individual liberty proponent to gain real power.

An example on how the toxic sausage is ground out, cited in the National Journal illustrates how dissent is not tolerated by the power brokers.

“Paul encountered procedural resistance as he rose to speak on the Senate floor earlier Sunday, as a disagreement broke out between him and Sen. John McCain, Sen. Dan Coats, and presiding Sen. Chuck Grassley over whether time for debate had ended. During a brief break to figure out the disagreement, a clearly frustrated Paul could be overheard telling a floor aide the time-keeping was incorrect: "That's a lie ... it was not 23 minutes ... that is inaccurate."

Paul, finally allowed to speak, began raising his voice to passionately make his case that the Patriot Act allows unconstitutional surveillance on law-abiding Americans.

"Get warrants on people we have suspicion on!" Paul yelled. "Quit wasting time on innocent American people."

Essentially, federal elected representatives, only stand for defending government dominance; and treat constituents as irritants and obstacles.

Review the actual voting list from the U.S. Senate on Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Upon Reconsideration Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 2048 )

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---77

Alexander (R-TN)

Ayotte (R-NH)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Bennet (D-CO)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Booker (D-NJ)

Boozman (R-AR)

Boxer (D-CA)

Brown (D-OH)

Burr (R-NC)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Cochran (R-MS)

Coons (D-DE)

Corker (R-TN)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cruz (R-TX)

Daines (R-MT)

Donnelly (D-IN)

Durbin (D-IL)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Flake (R-AZ)

Franken (D-MN)

Gardner (R-CO)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Hatch (R-UT)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Heitkamp (D-ND)

Heller (R-NV)

Hirono (D-HI)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Isakson (R-GA)

Johnson (R-WI)

Kaine (D-VA)

King (I-ME)

Kirk (R-IL)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Lankford (R-OK)

Leahy (D-VT)

Lee (R-UT)

Manchin (D-WV)

Markey (D-MA)

McCain (R-AZ)

McCaskill (D-MO)

McConnell (R-KY)

Merkley (D-OR)

Mikulski (D-MD)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Nelson (D-FL)

Perdue (R-GA)

Peters (D-MI)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Reid (D-NV)

Rounds (R-SD)

Sanders (I-VT)

Schumer (D-NY)

Scott (R-SC)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Tester (D-MT)

Tillis (R-NC)

Toomey (R-PA)

Udall (D-NM)

Vitter (R-LA)

Warner (D-VA)

Warren (D-MA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---17

Barrasso (R-WY)

Blunt (R-MO)

Coats (R-IN)

Collins (R-ME)

Cotton (R-AR)

Crapo (R-ID)

Ernst (R-IA)

Fischer (R-NE)

Grassley (R-IA)

Moran (R-KS)

Paul (R-KY)

Risch (R-ID)

Roberts (R-KS)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sessions (R-AL)

Shelby (R-AL)

Thune (R-SD)

Not Voting – 6

Enzi (R-WY)

Graham (R-SC)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Murray (D-WA)

Sasse (R-NE)

Schatz (D-HI)

Where are the supposed Democrat civil libertarians? Evidence of earnest concern for the Bill of Rights is lacking on both sides of the aisle, but is glaringly apparent that Senator Paul’s arguments are not heard by the loyal opposition. This kind of a voting record indicates that bipartisan solutions to defend the Constitution are merely an academic exercise and have very few actual supporters in the august debating society.

Yet, this reality does not prevent the media from spinning that The Patriot Act Just Made Rand Paul GOP Enemy No. 1.

“I don’t stand with Rand,” Republican Sen. Mark Kirk told The Daily Beast, flipping Paul’s campaign slogan. “I disagree with him. I think we should not allow the program to be interrupted.”

Compare this attitude with the sentiment that Paul registers that crystallizes the issue,

“We should not be debating modifying an illegal program,” Paul wrote in an Op-Ed for TIME on Saturday. “We should simply end this illegal program.”

Those Republican hawks that place their allegiance in a dying international empire over a living and hallowed Bill of Right principles are the true betrayers of the Republic.

The political class refuses to face the harm and folly that the bogus War of Terror has fashioned since the premeditated, deliberated and orchestrated false flag culture of a fictitious homeland security society has instituted.

This is the real and comprehensive national debate that needs to be conducted.

The Fourth Amendment, NSA and Metadata essay cites examples where the surveillance agency has altered their proper foreign sleuthing mission with a substitute domestic emphasis that is not only against common law but also diminishes their effectiveness in enhancing legitimate national security.

With all the whining and fear mongering in curtailing the NSA collection system, it becomes obvious that the military-industrial-security-complex has reason to frighten the public with claims of imminent terrorist attacks on domestic soil.

Living in an open border culture hardly induces or advances actual security.

A country that places faith in the likes of a dubious CIA Director over the 4th Amendment is a country doomed to succumb to tyranny of our own bureaucratic scoundrels. The WSJ reports:

“CIA Director John Brennan, in an interview aired Sunday morning on CBS, said the expiration of government-surveillance programs could make the country less safe from a terrorist attack, and he blamed “political grandstanding” in the Senate for the current legislative standoff.

Mr. Brennan said the programs “really have helped stop attacks,” although he didn’t cite specific incidents. “The tools that the government has used over the last dozen years to keep this country safe are integral to making sure that we’re able to stop terrorists in their tracks.”

If the record was so laudable, the chaos in the Middle East might have been avoided and those infamous weapons of mass destruction might have been found in the possession of legions of American occupying troops conducting a military campaign for the New World Order.

This is reason enough to monitor, record and store Meta data, so American citizens that advocate the freedoms and liberty can be intimated and dissuaded from opposing the political order.

Rand Paul may not be perfect, but he has demonstrated that one person can make a difference. Raising awareness and forcing the Senate to take an unpleasant vote might be the extent of what is possible in a legislative body that has little accountability.

When some devious arrangement with the House on some version of the USA Freedom Act is reached, the end result is that the NSA will still have access to electronic communications. Only a full repeal of the Patriot Act can restore the provisions of the 4th Amendment.

Source: http://www.batr.org/totalitariancollectivism/060215.html

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