Victory in the Senate for the Real Patriots - Bush & GOP backed anti-civil liberites Patriot Act defeated

Victory in the Senate for the Real Patriots - Bush & GOP backed anti-civil liberites Patriot Act defeated Hooray for Senator Russ Feingold! Hooray for the 47 Senators who said "Nay" to closing down the debate on whether the Bush & GOP backed anti-civil liberites Patriot Act.

• Akaka (D-HI)
• Baucus (D-MT)
• Bayh (D-IN)
• Biden (D-DE)
• Bingaman (D-NM)
• Boxer (D-CA)
• Byrd (D-WV)
• Cantwell (D-WA)
• Carper (D-DE)
• Clinton (D-NY)
• Conrad (D-ND)
• Corzine (D-NJ)
• Craig (R-ID)
• Dayton (D-MN)
• Dorgan (D-ND)
• Durbin (D-IL)
• Feingold (D-WI)
• Feinstein (D-CA)
• Frist (R-TN) flip-flopper and Trojan horse who can now call for new vote
• Hagel (R-NE)
• Harkin (D-IA)
• Inouye (D-HI)
• Jeffords (I-VT)
• Kennedy (D-MA)
• Kerry (D-MA)
• Kohl (D-WI)
• Landrieu (D-LA)
• Lautenberg (D-NJ)
• Leahy (D-VT)
• Levin (D-MI)
• Lieberman (D-CT)
• Lincoln (D-AR)
• Mikulski (D-MD)
• Murkowski (R-AK)
• Murray (D-WA)
• Nelson (D-FL)
• Obama (D-IL)
• Pryor (D-AR)
• Reed (D-RI)
• Reid (D-NV)
• Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Salazar (D-CO)
• Sarbanes (D-MD)
• Schumer (D-NY)
• Stabenow (D-MI)
• Sununu (R-NH)
• Wyden (D-OR)

Fears about excessive surveillance are well founded

The story that finally broke today about Bush violating the Constitution and who knows how many laws to spy on Americans shows why the government can't be trusted with unrestrained surveillance powers.

Senate fails to reauthorize Patriot Act
Threat of filibuster of controversial measure successful

"I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care," said Feingold, the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

"It is time to have some checks and balances in this country," shouted Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "We are more American for doing that."

Let's demand an investigation into Bush's flagrant disregard for the Constitution, and the "the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees" that the NY Times said knew about it.

I don't know who those chairmen and ranking members were then, but here's their committee membership now.

• U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence - Members
• U.S. House Intelligence committee - Members

We also need an investigation into the Pentagon spying on legal, protest groups who had the nerve to exercise their First Amendment Rights.

"Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks 'suspicious' domestic groups"

The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center. ...Two-hundred and forty-three other incidents in the database were discounted because they had no connection to the Department of Defense — yet they all remained in the database.

Categories: Patriot, Act, civil, liberties, Senate, Feingold, Bush, illegal, surveillance, Pentagon