Thursday, June 16, 2005
House Smacks Down Part Of The Patriot Act...
The Preznit achieves lame duck status in the 6th month of his 2nd term. That's gotta be a record...
The House handed President Bush the first defeat in his effort to preserve the broad powers of the USA Patriot Act, voting yesterday to curtail the FBI's ability to seize library and bookstore records for terrorism investigations.
Bush has threatened to veto any measure that weakens those powers. The surprise 238 to 187 rebuke to the White House was produced when a handful of conservative Republicans, worried about government intrusion, joined with Democrats who are concerned about personal privacy.
One provision of the Patriot Act makes it possible for the FBI to obtain a wide variety of personal records about a suspected terrorist -- including library transactions -- with an order from a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where the government must meet a lower threshold of proof than in criminal courts.
It seems like some Republicans in Congress are looking at the Preznit's (and their own) abysmal poll numbers and realizing that if they continue to roll over and do his bidding, they could very easily be out of a job next year...
Now if they would just come to their senses about the other horrible ideas Bush has forced upon the country...
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