House Approves Extension of Patriot Act

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., center, takes a question regarding The Patriot Act as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, right, and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., take part in a news conference calling for its renewal on the eve of the House vote on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)


Looks like the House Republicans are continuing their march of converting democracy into a dictatorship. This is from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - The House easily approved renewing a modified USA Patriot Act on Wednesday, but with the bill facing a Senate filibuster, its Republican leader began talks with the White House on instead extending the current law unchanged for a year.

The House voted 251-174 to approve a House-Senate compromise that would modify and make permanent most of the Patriot Act's 16 expiring provisions. But a group of Republican and Democratic senators is lobbying for more time to add additional safeguards on the law.

Of course, our dictator approves of the "Patriot" Act.

President Bush urged against any delay in Senate action. "The Patriot Act is essential to fighting the war on terror and preventing our enemies from striking America again," he said in a statement. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment."

Facing a threatened filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was talking with White House officials about a one-year extension of the current law without any changes, a senior Republican aide said.

Frist's action indicated new trouble for making most of the 2001 law's provisions permanent, a priority for both the Bush administration and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill before Congress adjourns for the year.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The law expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.

We have got to kick these Republicans out of the federal government.