Republicans bitch about Government Overreach;
Democrats actually try to DO SOMETHING about it.
From Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
[...]
Leahy’s USA Freedom Act 2014 would halt bulk data collection authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, a law enacted during George W. Bush’s presidency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, by requiring the government to narrowly limit the scope of its search.
Broad searches -- either through a particular service provider or by a broad geographic region or zip code -- would be stopped, Leahy said in an outline of the bill. The government wouldn’t be able to collect all information relating to a particular service provider or broad geographic region.
The measure requires the government to report on the number of individuals whose information has been collected, provide a count of how many of those individuals are American, and give the number of searches run on Americans in certain databases.
[...]
Senate bill would overhaul NSA surveillance
williamgdouglas, miamiherald.com -- 07.29.14
Isn't it time we let go of this GWB 'security blanket' -- a gift that just keeps on giving taking?
Tech companies are tired of the black-eyes that Section 215 authorization keeps giving them;
They are ready to sign onto the Democratic overhaul of the NSA Overreach -- overreach courtesy of the last Republican Administration:
[...]
The new bill is widely heralded as a compromise, as Leahy sought input from the Obama administration in drafting the bill. Privacy groups, such as the ACLU and The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), as well as tech companies that pulled support from the House version when it became too watered down, praised the bill.
A coalition representing AOL (which owns us), Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo expressed support for the bill. That group, called Reform Government Surveillance (RGS), previously pulled support for the House version of the USA FREEDOM Act after its gutting.
“[The Senate] bill will help restore trust in the Internet by ending the government’s bulk Internet metadata collection and increasing transparency around U.S. surveillance practices,” the group said in a statement.
[...]
Tech Companies Throw Their Support Behind Strengthened NSA Reform Bill
by Alex Wilhelm, Cat Zakrzewski, techcrunch.com -- 07.29.14
Isn't about time that the DO NOTHING Congress actually did something, to make our lives just a little bit better?
And finally put an end to this broad-sweeping 'search and seizure' of our "private effects" -- without the Constitutionally-required "probable cause" of some actual individual wrong-doing?