CNN.com – Senate gives Patriot Act six more months – Dec 22, 2005
While republicans are declaring victory over this compromise, it is they who caved in fearing the act’s demise. Hopefully this 6-month period will allow adequate time for the act to be reworked into something a little more compatible with the civil liberties gauranteed by the Constitution.
Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com
This is probably the best news I’ve heard all week! I was worried the neocons would use the “nuclear option” and ram this bill through, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. The battle is far from over, but this little skirmish turned out alright. Another little scandal that probably helped crystalize the need to revise PATRIOT was the uncovering of a secret order in which the President authorized the NSA to electronically surveil Americans without a warrant. (which is illegal)
Yesterday President Bush admitted that he was responsible for sending our country to war on bad intelligence. What gets me is that he still thinks that invading Iraq was the right thing to do regardless. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see how the ends justify the means. Is Iraq better off? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I was surprised to see that John McCain was suckered in by Bush’s latest speech. He of all people should be able to see that this is little more than a ploy to up the President’s ratings while not actually admitting wrongdoing. Bush even had the audacity to claim credit for fixing the problems with intelligence that his administration created in the first place! At least it hasn’t seemed to have an effect yet. NBC mentioned this morning that the President’s approval ratings were down to 36% with 60% disaproving of his job performance.