Revamping the Patriot Act

Albany (Ga.) Herald: The firestorm caused by the disclosures made by Edward Snowden, now a fugitive hiding out in Russia, on the National Security Agency’s domestic and foreign spying programs has reached a point where President Barack Obama says action needs to be taken to rein them in.

The devil is in the details, and there are precious few about what this actually means.

And one major detail is this: The NSA spying program, which is collecting massive amounts of data on Americans, has bipartisan support in Congress. It has so much support, in fact, that this effort by Obama may well be another non-starter with lawmakers.

When Obama made the announcement Friday, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “As Congress has known for years, these NSA intelligence collection programs are vital to our national security.”

Obama, who insisted the government has no interest in spying on ordinary Americans, outlined a four-part approach, but, again, the details were vague.

Whether any of this will go anywhere and what it will mean depend on a Congress that has shown little desire to work with the president.