By By Patriot Act

++By 77 to 17 the Senate has voted to start debate on the House's American Freedom Act. This will supplant the Patriot Act which Mitch McConnell desperately wanted to extent. McConnell wants a 60 vote threshold on amendments, which look like they will worsen the situation.

++The House Act pretends to incorporate reforms of the NSA that were proposed by the Obama Administration.

++Intercept tonight has a superb piece on why the NSA is overwhelmed by the data they collect anyway and can not adequately analyze it. And that NSA personnel believe there needs to be a reform so that they can begin to do their job.

++The only so-called success they could point to was the arrest of a taxi-driver in Minnesota who raised about $800,000 for an Al Qaeda branch in Somalia