Patriot Act: Expiring Slowly

So the Patriot Act as it is known, was adopted after 9/11 to allow the government broad infringement on citizen's rights in the name of fighting terrorism at home and abroad. On Tuesday the House decided to allow three parts of the act to expire instead of extending them.

The three provisions that were up for extension were:

• The provision that allows "roving wiretaps", allowing the FBI to get wiretap orders from a secret court (FISA). The court does not require disclosing what form of communication will be tapped.
• A provision called the "lone wolf" measure allows FISA to issue court warrants for electronic monitoring of a person for any reason. It means they do not need to prove the person's affiliation with terrorist groups.
• the provision on business records allows the government to access any records of a business based on any supposed affiliation with terrorist acts.

All three of these provisions have no expired with the House voting 277-148 to let them lapse. They will expire at the end of February. Full story at Wired.

I couldn't be more happy that the Patriot Act is going away. talk about bullshit. 9/11 created the fear that allowed the government to just trample our right to unreasonable search and seizure and shit. Now finally they are letting these knee-jerk laws lapse. It's about fucking time.