Although I am often upset with the stands taken by my Congressman, he finally made me proud. He had the courage to say NO to the administration and the extension of the (falsely called) Patriot Act. On 25 February, he voted NO. What makes the legislation more odious is that it was an unrecorded roll call vote 9how convenient).
The extension was buried in an act called, “On Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments” for H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. By calling it a motion on Senate Amendments, they were able to slide the vote by under the radar. Such actions show the true nature of the leadership of those in charge of CONgress. Pelosi and her ilk have handled many items in a less than straight forward manner, including this one. My suspicion is that he voted NO on this one in order to appease some of his constituency, which are often displeased by his voting. Yes he represents some liberal parts of Travis County, but he also has to answer to many counties in central Texas like Fayette, Gonzales, Hays, Caldwell, Bastrop, Colorado and Lavaca Counties. His views often do not reflect the values and priorities of those parts of his constituency.
Some of the powers of the Patriot Act that were extended include the following:
The three sections of the Patriot Act extended include Section 215, which authorizes government appropriation of business and library records regarding people not suspected of any criminal activity with gag orders to boot, Section 505 which authorizes “national security letters” allowing them to grab information on law-abiding Americans’ private activities without probable cause of a crime, and the “lone wolf” provision that allows people acting alone to be treated as if they were a foreign-sponsored spy or terrorist.
One good vote is a start. He still wants to take away my light bulbs, raise my taxes, raise the pipe tobacco tax by 775%, force me to purchase health insurance, force the smart grid onto Texas, etc., etc. He manages to land millions for Travis County, but what has he done that promotes the values of the other counties in his district?
Liberty for Texas and the South!
J Murrah
Caldwell County values, Colorado County, Current Affairs, Fayette County values, Gonzales County, Lloyd Doggett, Patriot Act, pipe tobacco tax, Political Well Being
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
0 Responses to “Doggett was right on this one!”