Thank you, Senator Corker, for your "no" vote on this bill. You and many others in the Senate have worked tirelessly to ensure that we Americans and our country would continue to be safe and secure under the protection of the provisions of the former Patriot Act, the first order of our government as provided for in our Constitution. Senator Burr's presentation brought tears to my tired eyes after all of the serious and critical negotiations the last few weeks. Thank you, Senator Burr, for your professionalism in presenting the facts.
It not only is disappointing, but indeed is shameless, that a few of the elected chose to monopolize the Senate floor as well as guest spots with the media to opine about our personal privacy being intruded upon and at risk in the bill which is an absolute, blatant lie . . . and that is as nice as I can put it. Anyone who happened to watch the Ed Show immediately after the final vote this afternoon and witnessed Rep. Jim McDermott (D) certainly got an ear full of false, hateful spewings that someone in authority in the House needs to correct. Freedom to speak certainly is something we cherish but to lie to the people while representing the Congress of the United States on a federally licensed information source and seemingly enjoy misrepresenting the facts is something else. Anyone interested in the verbatim facts can read them in the Congressional Record for today (June 2). Perhaps conduct standards for government officials should be the next order of business for Washington in general.
We voters need to be able to separate job performance from campaigning as we follow proceedings in the House and Senate on C-Span. With five senators already in the 2016 presidential race, I know I am going to have a field day.
Charlotte Parton
Chattanooga