Senate kills NSA metadata bill

[KevinNYC]

The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk collection of Americans' phone records by the National Security Agency, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to rein in domestic surveillance.

The 58-42 vote was two short of the 60 needed to proceed (http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/11/18/senate-blocks-bill-that-would-end-nsa-bulk-collection-phone-records/glnIAUmeAGQ74yqoWAiyaJ/story.html)with debate under Senate procedural rules. Voting was largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it. The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its own NSA bill.

The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18 months.


[QUOTE]Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a sweeping overhaul of the once-secret National Security Agency program that collects records of Americans

[KevinNYC]

I wish they would stop this stupidity in bill naming. They were calling this the USA Freedom Act

[KevinNYC]

Rand Paul voted against it. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/18/rand-paul-beats-ted-cruz-saves-nsa-from-reform.html)

[KevinNYC]

Also the Senate killed the Keystone XL pipeline bill by a single vote. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline.html?_r=0)

Senate Democrats, by a single vote, stopped legislation that would have approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, one of the most fractious and expensive battles of the Obama presidency.

The vote represented a victory for the environmental movement, but the fight had taken on larger dimensions as a proxy war between Republicans, who argued that the project was vital for job creation, and President Obama, who had delayed a decision on building it.

Republicans plan to bring back up to a vote in January once their new majority is sworn in.

[kNIOKAS]

Well, this is bad. On the other hand, would have been two easy, wouldn't it? I wonder if this is going to diminish the push against the NSA or light it up and energise... Or, nobody cares anymore anyway.

[CeltsGarlic]

Lol like this shit even matters :lol

[KevinNYC]

Is it just me or is rand Paul kind of a dingus?
Way more than kind of. And now he's turning away from his previously-held dingus beliefs because he want's to be president. He voted the Republican line to kill this bill (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/18/rand-paul-beats-ted-cruz-saves-nsa-from-reform.html) and did it with the weasly-ness that's becoming the trademark of his campaign. But if his libertarians fans question him, he going to try to say that the NSA bill wasn't good enough. When does he think he's going to get a better bill? In January, once Mitch McConnell who led the opposition to this bill gets a majority?

[QUOTE]The fight to rein in NSA surveillance stalled in the Senate Tuesday evening -- meaning the lasting impact of the months-long reform effort will be less about the agency and more about the presidential aspirations of Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Ironically, it was Paul, the libertarian icon, who helped sink the bill to curb America

[falc39]

This is the bill that was watered down from the get go in the house. From what I've read, if they wanted Rand Paul's support, they shouldn't have included renewing parts of the Patriot Act. What do you expect given Paul's voting record? They were stupid to do that.

Real NSA reform is happening right now, in the private sector, and it's far more effective than what these nuts in Washington are coming up with. With the most recent one... Google and Apple encrypting their newer phone models/OS making it impossible to submit to government requests. A devastating blow to some government agencies like the NSA and FBI. http://online.wsj.com/articles/apple-and-others-encrypt-phones-fueling-government-standoff-1416367801

You don't have to wait for congress to get its act together. You can take steps now to better secure your privacy.