With a call for open rebellion against the program, Senator Rand Paul (shown, R-Ky.) held the Senate floor for ten-and-a-half hours Wednesday in opposition to extending provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that allow the National Security Agency to collect billions of telephone records and and electronic messages every day.
"We should be in open rebellion, saying, 'enough is enough, we're not going to take it anymore,'" Paul said of the NSAs metadata program. Calling for a thorough and complete debate, the first-term senator asked: "Do we want to live in a world where the government knows everything about us? Do we want to live in a word where the government has us under constant surveillance?"
The PATRIOT Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Section 215, which authorizes the surveillance activities, is due to expire on June 1, unless reauthorized by Congress. A Justice Department memo, circulated among members of Congress Wednesday, said unless Congress renews the authority or a modified version of it, the NSA will begin taking steps to wind down bulk collection of data as early as this Friday. ...