You know how sometimes, when you make a plan, things you didn't expect happen?
James Sensenbrenner is discovering the law of unintended consequences.
Funny how this works. Sensenbrenner was a major player in the creation of the PATRIOT ACT. His legislation opened the door to NSA collecting data on phone calls. And all through the BushCheney administration, it didn't bother him at all.
But now it's become an issue and DNI James Clapper was called to the Hill to testify. Since the program is technically secret and the workings and extent ARE secret and the hearings were in the open, Clapper lied to cover it up, "He later admitted that his answer was untrue, or as he put it, the "least untruthful" answer he could give in a non-classified setting".
So now, Sensenbrenner is calling for Clapper's head: "Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it," Sensenbrenner told the Hill. "If it's a criminal offense -- and I believe Mr. Clapper has committed a criminal offense -- then the Justice Department ought to do its job."
Of course, if Clapper had answered the questions honestly, he would have committed a different Federal crime, one that Sensenbrenner wrote.
So now, a day (or 10 years) late and a dollar (or $100 billion) short, Sensenbrenner is co-sponsoring a new bill (with Pat Leahy), the USA Freedom Act, that would supposedly, curtail the massive collection of phone data and crack open the FISA starchamber a bit.
Maybe this will "fix" one of the problems with the PATRIOT ACT, maybe.
(sourced from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... )