Obama Renews Patriot Act With an Autopen Signature
Friday, 27 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks
Because President Obama is in France, the Patriot Act renewal was signed with an “autopen” machine. Really? A machine can forge his signature on a huge piece of legislation? Even a fax seems like a better idea. The LA Times says the president had to be roused early this morning, which, if you’re going by French time, was after the deadline settled on by Congress, to “sign” the document. According to the Times political columnist Andrew Malcolm, this isn’t the first time this has happened: “A very large number of the very large number of presidential signatures that leave any White House on photos, letters, mementoes, books, are actually fake. False. As phony as a Donald Trump presidential candidacy.” He just hopes the machine is unplugged at night “to avoid any embarrassing missile launches by janitors dusting the equipment.”