House and Senate Approve Patriot Act Renewal

From the Washington Post:

The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's power to root out terrorists.
The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush's troubled second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act, Bush and congressional Republicans said, was key to preventing more terror attacks in the United States.

Here's what Russ Fiengold (the leading critic of the Patriot Act) had to say about the renewal:
"Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character of this country to survive and prosper," he said. "They want both security and liberty, and unless we give them both _ and we can if we try _ we have failed."

9 Democrats voted against the bill, with Jim Jeffords (Independent from Vermont) joining the no vote. The following is a list of Dems voting against:

Daniel Akaka, Jeff Bingaman, Robert Byrd, Russell Feingold, Tom Harkin, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Patty Murray, Ron Wyden


Click here to read the article.

Click here to read an article about the House passing the renewal from the Rocky Mountain News.

Also read a related article Patriot Act Includes Crackdown on Meth Use from the Washington Post.

--Tom Hayes