Marsha Blackburn has voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act which in essence makes any ordinary American citizen a terrorist.

Patriot Act Reauthorization.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the so-called Patriot Act, which gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies vast new powers to combat terrorism. The act expanded the list of crimes deemed terrorist acts; increased the ability of law enforcement to secretly search homes and business records; expanded the FBI’s wiretapping and surveillance authority; and provided for nationwide jurisdiction for search
warrants and electronic surveillance devices, including the legal extension of those devices to e-mail and the Internet. The bill included a “sunset” provision under which the new surveillance powers “shall cease to have effect on December 31, 2005.” The Patriot Act reauthorization bill (H.R. 3199) considered by the current Congress would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions set to expire at the end of this year and extend for 10 years the remaining two provisions. The House passed the reauthorization on July 21, 2005 by a vote of 257-171 (Roll Call 414).

Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR this bill.
109-2 (Source: The New American, December 12, 2005)

Patriot Act Reauthorization.

This is the final version (conference report) of the Patriot Act reauthorization (H.R. 3199). In the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress quickly passed the so-called Patriot Act, which gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies vast new powers to combat terrorism. The act increased the ability of law enforcement to secretly search home and business records, expanded the FBI’s wiretapping and surveillance authority, and expanded the list of crimes deemed terrorist acts. When passed in 2001 the bill included a “sunset” provision under which the new surveillance powers “shall cease to have effect on December 21, 2005.” The Patriot Act reauthorization bill (H.R. 3199) considered by Congress last year would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions included in the bill, and extend for four years the two remaining provisions. The House passed the final version of the bill to reauthorize the Patriot Act on December 14, 2005 by a vote of 251-174 (Roll Call 627).

Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR this bill.
109-3 (Source: The New American, July 10, 2006)


Patriot Act Without Reforms, Passes House.

An extension of the Patriot Act with no reforms of its abusive powers of unreasonable search and seizure against American citizens has passed the House of Representatives. The vote was 315 in favor of extending the Patriot Act without reform, 97 against, and 20 not voting.

Search for information about the roll call of this vote online tonight, and you’ll just find this nameless tally of numbers. You won’t find the names. Why?

The reason is that the House Democratic leadership voted on the renewal of the Patriot Act in such a way as to hide the vote from the American people. Go to the web site of the Clerk of the House, and you’ll see no vote from today about the Patriot Act at all. What you will see is Roll Call 67, “On Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments” for H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act.

That’s the vote on whether to extend the Patriot Act without any reforms of its abusive spying programs. It doesn’t look like it, of course, but the Patriot Act extension is what’s referred to by “Senate Amendments”. The Senate Democrats sneaked the Patriot Act extension into a Medicare reform bill, and then voted by voice vote to approve the amendment so that no politician would have to have their name attached to this shameless abandonment of liberty. The House Democrats benefited from the maneuver as well, being able to vote on unnamed amendments related to Medicare reform, rather than having it on the record for everyone to see that they voted to renew the worst abuses of the Patriot Act without any effort to protect Americans from their spying powers at all.

Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR this bill.
(Source "Irregular Times" )

Military Tribunals.

This bill (H.R. 6166) would authorize a new system of military tribunals to try persons designated “unlawful enemy combatants” by the president. The bill defines an unlawful enemy combatant to include a person who “has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its cobelligerents.” Once designated an unlawful enemy combatant, a defendant’s rights would be curtailed: he would be denied the right of habeas corpus; he could be detained indefinitely; and evidence obtained through coercion could be used against him — so long as the coercion falls outside the administration’s definition of torture. Critics of the tribunals bill are planning to file suit in order to test the constitutionality of the legislation. This legislation was in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling on the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which declared that the administration’s current system for trying military detainees was unconstitutional. The House passed the military tribunals bill on September 27, 2006 by a
vote of 253-168 (Roll Call 491). This bill would curtail defendant rights. The Senate passed this legislation the following day.

Marsha Blackburn voted FOR this bill.
(Source: The New American - October 30, 2006)