Failed legislation

So, the USA Freedom Act (limits NSA surveillance) died in the Senate and the Keystone pipeline failed in the Senate as well, falling one vote short of passing.

I believe that the bill limiting the NSA surveillance sounded reasonable, but I am not so sure about why the Keystone Pipeline bill failed.

Sure, the pipeline would create a lot of construction jobs, but I don't like the way property is taken from folks not willing to sell for a pipeline across their property.  Detractors said the oil traversing the pipeline would be sent to the Gulf and sold on the World Market, and not keep prices down here in the US.

Much of the oil entering the US enters through Texas refineries and is distributed to us from there.  I kinda think that is what would happen to the Canadian oil.  If Canadians just wanted to ship oil abroad, why not build a refinery and ship it from Canadian ports?  It seems possible.  Isn't it a lot shorter to pipe to the Canadian West coast than all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico? Are the Rockies that much of an impediment?

Copied from The VERGE

The US Senate has just voted down the USA Freedom Act by a vote of 58-42, leaving it just two votes shy of the 60 it needed. The bill would have ended the controversial phone record metadata collection by the NSA, but the Senate was not in favor of rolling back any of the NSA's broad surveillance powers.

While telephone companies would have still collected the data in question, the records would have stayed in the hands of the phone companies and a new type of court order would have been needed by the government to access these records. Additionally, companies would no longer have been required to hold onto their records longer than they ordinarily would have for normal business purposes.

CONGRESS WILL NEED TO ACT BY NEXT JUNE

However, new legislation around this program will still be required despite the Senate's vote today. Next June, the legal basis for the phone record collection program as part of the Patriot Act will expire — so new legislation will be required if the NSA wants to have continued easy access to these records.

Originally, the USA Freedom Act was meant to be not just a way to ban bulk collection under Section 215 but a multi-pronged reform bill, incorporating changes to how the government managed national security letters and internet surveillance. But a series of amendments to the House version weakened it, until a last-minute change watered it down to the point that some privacy advocates withdrew support. The bill passed, but Leahy promised to roll back the biggest changes with his own Senate version, which was introduced this summer.

Leahy's bill, to many, is a major and welcome improvement. One of the most important differences is its definition of the "specific selection terms" that NSA agents use to look for call records: the House version left the phrasing nebulous, while the Senate adds several qualifiers, including an explicit ban on searching for broad terms like entire cities or area codes. The EFF worries that it could still be twisted by the intelligence community, but it still decided it was by far the better option, given that "essentially, the House bill left it up to the intelligence agencies," as Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the NYU Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program, puts it. The bill also includes better transparency measures for national security letters and covers a wider range of phone surveillance tactics than the narrowly focused House bill.

"YOU CAN'T PUSH IT TOO FAR WITHOUT LOSING CRITICAL SUPPORT FROM BOTH SIDES"

It may also be less likely to get amended into uselessness. Leahy boasts of having groups that ranged from the ACLU to the NRA on board with the bill, and the White House put its weight behind the bill yesterday, calling it "a reasonable compromise that enhances privacy and civil liberties and increases transparency." And the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, which includes Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, is unsurprisingly urging its passage. The bill is "a rare creature," says Goitein, "and you can't push it too far without losing that critical support from both sides." It's also coming some six months before the sunset of the Patriot Act, which justifies phone surveillance. If Congress can't approve a surveillance reform bill that explicitly keeps Section 215 around, it might expire altogether, something the White House warns would remove "critical authorities."

Obama has promised to end bulk collection of phone records, but his administration has repeatedly had the order that allows it reauthorized, albeit with more restrictions on how intelligence agencies can search the database. It's also fighting over the program's legality in court. A federal appeals court recently heard arguments over whether collecting bulk phone records in court is unconstitutional, following a decision by one judge who condemned the program.

From what I understand so far... there were patriot act extensions hidden in there somewhere. Liberty isn't a poker chip imo. The entire action that involves citizens is obviously unconstitutional. The head of the nsa lied about the information gathering right to congress and the american people. After snowden whistleblew you might think clapper was arrested? Fired?... lol no. He still works at the pleasure of the potus. No more half measures... this must end immediately and finally.

What's the return on investment for all the data they collect? Pretty small I would guess. Just like the TSA has never captured/caught a terrorist trying to board a plane for all the mega-billions spent. In that case the terrorists won a round - they forced us into altering our lives.