The President did say he thought some of his powers should be curtailed

[Raine1967]

29. Ironically, one of the authors of the Patriot act is calling to limit the patriot act:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who helped draft the PATRIOT Act, is exploring options to narrow a provision of the law that allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to obtain telephonic metadata on nearly all Americans. The comments are the first indication that Congress may act to restrict the government’s ongoing data collection since the Guardian published a secret court order compelling Verizon to turn over its records on a “on an ongoing daily basis” and the Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T and Sprint are also sending their records to the government.

“I have a big problem because the business records part of the Patriot Act, which is what was used to justify this, was designed for specific investigations,” Sensenbrenner told Fox News on Friday. “We’re seeing big government in action, just like George Orwell predicted but maybe a few years later,” he added.

From Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/06/07/2119351/author-of-patriot-act-says-he-will-try-to-narrow-provisions-to-prevent-government-surveillance/

Y'all remember Jim Sensenbrenner, right? Here is his UTTER hypocrisy


Am I the only one who is seeing this? They were FINE when bush did this -- but now that a President who is not an R has this power they have a problem with it?


If I need to make it clear: I am not saying this is fine, good or acceptable. I am saying what I said years and years ago: If anyone thinks ANY president given powers isn't going to use them -- they are fooling themselves. This was why I was so disappointed when they gave the executive office this power.

For the GOP -- ALL OF THEM -- to feign outrage about this is utterly laughable. We knew then -- we know now. I never ever pretended that President Obama wouldn't use the powers given to the executive branch.