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“With Obama currently in France, the White House said the president would use an autopen machine that holds a pen and signs his actual signature. It is only used with proper authorization of the president. Minutes before the midnight deadline, the White House said Obama had signed the bill,” AP writes.
Roll Call: “Senate to Take Weeklong Break Without Adjourning.” From the story: “Senate Budget ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) threatened this week to block any unanimous consent request to adjourn because Senate Democrats had not offered a budget resolution for a floor vote.”
Why? The Hill writes, “Some Republicans feared that Obama would use the recess to appoint Elizabeth Warren to head the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will have broad powers over Wall Street.”
“War-weary Republicans and Democrats yesterday sent the strongest message yet to President Obama to end the war in Afghanistan as the commander in chief decides how many US troops to withdraw this summer,” the AP writes. “A measure requiring an accelerated timetable for pulling out the 100,000 troops from Afghanistan and an exit strategy for the nearly 10-year-old conflict secured 204 votes in the House, falling just short of passage but boosting the hopes of its surprised proponents.”
“The House of Representatives yesterday overwhelmingly voted to prohibit ground troops from being sent to Libya, showing the limits of congressional support for US involvement in military action,” the New York Post writes. “The House voted, 416-5, to add the ban to a defense-authorization bill.”
“The US House of Representatives risked a potential veto by President Obama yesterday when it approved a $690 billion defense bill that throws a lifeline to a disputed jet fighter engine with parts that would be built at a General Electric plant in Lynn, [MA],” The Boston Globe reports.
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As a Progressive, I'm not happy with this act. Also, Mr. President, please get us out of Afghanistan.
What is up with this 'autopen' crap?
For something THIS important, I want a real Presidential signature on the bill, not a PROXY!!
I guess this could be an argument that since the bill was NOT signed by the President (proxies do not count), then the Patriot Act is NOT in force. If nothing else, one of those Congressional Staffers could have gotten their little behinds on a flight to where the President was and obtained a REAL signature.
I dunno - I am not one that likes the Patriot Act in the first place (and President Bush foolishly enacted and nurtured this boondoggle), and I do not like the fact that President Obama is continuing with this Act, but THIS action sets a DANGEROUS legislative precedent.
Who is to say that some lobbyist COULD pay to have have someone 'sign' bills into law using the name of the President? There is a REASON why the founding fathers required a physical signature on a Bill making int a LAW.
This is NOT GOOD, people, not good at all.
Pietro,
I must say, I agree with you. My question would be, how many pens are there and who has control of it?
Job1, Pietro, 3wolves, I add my voice to your collective disgust. As Eric Cartman would say, "Lame."
This is one of those times when we must all remember that the differences between the 2 parties can be minimal. Bipartisan shredding of the Constitution is nothing to be proud of.
Security and liberty can work together; the Patriot Act sacrifices our Constitutional freedoms in the name of security. I never thought it would come to this, but it has, and it continues now for another 4 years.
A sad day...
bilweeler, so true.
So now Obama has lied TWICE to me about the Patriot act that he said he would get rid of, add this to our involvement in a new war without congressional approval and it is starting to look like this president has no respect for our constitution. He ran his campaign on promises of peace and has increased war and military actions. (does anyone still beleive the lie that Libya is about "protecting civilians"?) He said he would get lobbyists out of government then appointed the most crooked in the business. Appointed CEO of GE as "job czar" in a huge and treasonous conflict of interest. Sorry I am done with this back stabbing liar.
All Politicians run on Promises of this & that, but upon being Elected, they run into Forces beyond their control.
He ran on Getting Osama Bin Laden:
Mission Accomplished !
Not You, Me, or any other American can foresee the Future, but Personally, i'll cut'em slack & give'm a little more time to cleanup the Kitchen Leftover's from the previous Fools.
The Stink was just too strong for Lysol & Scubbing Bubbles!
If he was actually cleaning up instead of carrying on with bad policies especially our failed foreign policy, I would agree with you, but so far he has just picked up the Bush torch and is still running with it, appointing corrupt lobbyists, spreading and continuation of war, continuing to give unstable foreign countries TRILLIONS and cutting things like education here at home.. Right now we have an annual comittment of 1.5 TRILLION to foreign governments and spend TWICE that on our never-ending wars while americans are out of work and basics like education are being attacked. This is not a cleanup but a continuation of corruption.
96 even if he vetoed it, Congress would likely overrule that veto. Not that I am saying he should not. He should do it so that he can distance himself from our stupid ass congress.
The Patriot act has gone the way of Gitmo. No end of wars in sight and not a decent politician on the horizon in either party. Focus on the deficit so you will take your eyes off of tax cuts for the rich and a lack of jobs. Smoke and mirrors have always worked well and this next election should not be any different. A choice between black and blacker and I don't mean race.
A sign of the times...
Much like the populaces opinion that our spending and debt needs to be reduced, but don't touch my favorite programs. The patriot act attempts to forestall terrorist acts against the US by circumventing/minimizing some time honored methods of establishing guilt or innocence..
Our current legal system (sans patriot act) requires that all the t's are crossed and the i's dotted. Unfortunately for us, such gathering of verifiable info with regards to 'probable cause' can lead to missed opportunities. On one hand we wish to be protected from acts of terror by governmental actions, but if such terrorist acts succeed we ask the government why they didn't do more to prevent them.
Seems that the premise of the patriot act is to expedite the fact finding so a course of prevention can be done. As long as government actions are based on the deterrence of terrorist acts against the US populace I see little choice in not extending the act or to weaken today's interpretation of probable cause within the context of terrorism.
The operational premise here lies in "preventing terrorists acts" rather than stomping out the rights of the average US citizen.. Granted that there is a fine line of interpretation here, but isn't that where the judicial system comes in?
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin
America, there is no fine line; it is as wide as the Atlantic ocean. The Patriot Act is and always will be a treasonous bill written into law by scared little men afraid of the shadows of 9/11. There is nothing patriotic about terrorizing your own citizenry, arresting Americans without due process with no evidence required, and subjugating anyone to wiretapping and other invasions of privacy without their consent where evidence does not indicate they are in fact terrorists or where no evidence exists period.
However the National Defense Authorization Act makes the Patriot Act look like a harmless bill. It actually suspends due process for anyone with even a modicum of suspicion levied against them and allows the Us military to operate within the country. We are heading fast toward martial law and a dictatorship and MSNBC is not even covering the story; neither are any of the news networks by the way.
As our President campaigns in 2012 I'll bet he will claim "I never signed it" and be cheered on by his lemming followers. Maybe he will go further and say it was "The Ghost of George Bush that did it". This man has no integrity.
ABO.
Anybody But Obama in 2012.
I know we don't know all the in and outs of the patriot act, but I am not for giving up our freedoms for a security we don't and probably will never be allowed to understand.
what are these constitutionalist thinking? what about my rights?
Fom the right:" LMAO!
Am curious where are the FR locals and this? 96ws6 your comment #3, was spot on. Thanks for your input.
You won't hear from them...busy praying for the soul of their false messiah amd wondering how they bought into him in the first place.
Yeah, you know- the one taht the AMERICAN PEOPLE are going to elect AGAIN.
...well, at least by the ones that can't spell anyhow....
Now we pass an extension to the Patriot Act with an auto-pen signature. Our President does not have the honor or basic courtesy to explain to us why it is still needed. Call us Syria-lite.
We have no leadership.
Please, Hillary, anyone, contest our "man who would be King" in the 2012 Democratic primary.
The GOP/RNC love to rip on the President for anything he does or does not do. The President is given vital information that is not shown to just anyone for a very good reason. This President does nothing just on because of poll numbers or what people think of him. President Obama must have been given sensitive information recently that caused him to extend the Patriot Act. The revenge for the death of Bin Laden by his freaky followers is very real. The President did give the order to Kill Bin Laden after all, and the President has shown not to be a fool. Before assuming why the President extended the Patriot Act. We should be asking why the President did not end the Patriot Act? Never start with statements America. Always lead with questions, and demand answers from all our representatives. Not just the President!