Maybe this will get some traction:
Sen. Patrick Leahy, the powerful chairman of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday strongly endorsed a series of sweeping restrictions on U.S. surveillance programs — from ending the bulk collection of Americans’ phone call logs to creating new oversight mechanisms to keep the National Security Agency in check.
In a speech at Georgetown University Law Center, the Vermont Democrat said the government “has not made its case” that the ability to collect Americans’ phone records en masse under the PATRIOT Act is “an effective counterterrorism tool, especially in light of the intrusion on Americans’ privacy rights.”
As the senator criticized the program, authorized under Section 215, he also pledged to explore “possible structural changes” to the secret court that reviews government surveillance requests. And Leahy said he planned to work with his Republican colleagues in the House to rein in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs the NSA’s ability to tap Internet communications as it scours for foreign terror suspects.
Leahy’s speech Tuesday marks his committee’s return to the thorny, complex surveillance debate, sparked by contractor Edward Snowden. Even as Snowden’s leaks continued to make headlines, lawmakers disengaged as they turned their attention to Syria and the debt ceiling.
Leahy’s concern about the NSA and its violation of our constitutional rights is touching. But he should shift his focus to Chicago. The residents of that city are about to be living under martial law. Thanks to Democrat Rahm Emanuel’s incompetence. Or by his design. Either way Emanuel should be removed from office ASAP. Then there’s Democratic mayor Michael Nutter. At least he calls himself a Democrat? Perhaps the NSA could help us out by revealing some data that will enlighten us as to what he really is?