Daniel 12:4 NLT “But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase."
“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer.”
With those words, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor for an eleven hour unofficial filibuster to call out the dangers of the Patriot Act’s allowing the NSA to collect information about the phone calls of all Americans.
It marked the second time Paul had used the filibuster to bring attention to what he feels are the NSA’s illegal methods for collecting information on Americans.
The Patriot Act allows the government to collect “metadata” of every call made on American phones. While the government does not collect the actual content of the calls, the government knows who is on the phone calls and can track who an American is speaking with and for how long they speak.
The sections of the Patriot Act that allow for the bulk collection of the data expires on June 1 and while Republicans leaders in the Senate want to allow it to continue, the Senate is voting on a House-passed bill that removes the NSA authorization to collect bulk data versus a system that will allow surveillance only if a judge approves a specific request.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to allow the bulk collection of American’s phone records to continue before Memorial Day.
