signed revisions to the Patriot Act in 2005

News out of Washington today suggests that President Obama is ready to support several aspects of the Patriot Act scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

You’ve heard of it and may have even received a notice from your employer about it, but do you know what the Patriot Act is?  Officially known as the USA PATRIOT Act, it is an extremely clumsy acronym for:

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism¹

It’s a mouthful, but basically, it is a law signed off by President Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks which granted the government and law enforcement agencies a little more access to records (telephone, email, medical, financial, etc.) that were previously considered private and likely required an additional warrant before receiving access.  In short, it was decided that sacrificing a little of the public’s privacy for the ability to more quickly access documents that could help thwart a public danger was a fair trade-off.  That statement alone is a great dinner topic that could keep the conversation heated at the table for hours.

Like most bills that pass through Congress, the Patriot Act is hardly a two sentence statement on a single page.  Filled with many sections involving everything from border security to money laundering to the rights of individuals, the Patriot Act was a robust bill filled with controversy and revisions.  Now, Obama is poised to continue ahead with the law, but not before a thorough investigation into each section with some potential added revisions.  The President is trying to give some individual rights back to the people while still supporting a law that grants many of those rights to non-individuals.  Sounds like a dinner conversation to me…

Read on:

Yahoo! News – Obama supports extending Patriot Act provisions

epic.org – USA Patriot Act

Wikipedia – USA PATRIOT Act

The surge was George Bush’s controversial attempt in early 2007 to deploy 30,000 ADDITIONAL U.S. troops to Iraq when many of his peers and much of the public was hoping for a withdrawal of some kind.  Hoping to add some stability in and around Baghdad, the surge appears to be viewed in hindsight as a moderate success, but with plenty of caveats.

As with any military action, “success” is very subjective, so I’ll leave it to you weigh the cost of lives and resources for additional freedoms in other countries, potential increased safety in the future, etc.  As always, things are always more complicated than what one paragraph can surmise, so google “the surge” or read more about this topic in the links below.

Read on:

Time

Heritage.org

Prospect.org