Duh

Weekends are good.... Here comes one.
Dans Le News...
Everybody knew that Bush and Co. were all about prying into our affairs, but now all the politicians in Washington are pretending to be Up in Arms today after the story by the New York Times on Bush's allowing the NSA domestic spying priveleges. I mean, duh. Everyone knew this was going on. I'm just glad that someone finally found proof. Brilliant!

Congressional leaders of both parties called for hearings and issued condemnations yesterday in the wake of reports that President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 allowing the National Security Agency to spy on hundreds of U.S. citizens and other residents without court-approved warrants.
Bush declined to discuss the domestic eavesdropping program in a television interview, but he joined his aides in saying that the government acted lawfully and did not intrude on citizens' rights.
The existence of the NSA domestic surveillance program was reported late Thursday by the New York Times and confirmed by U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
The Washington Post, citing an informed U.S. official, reported that the NSA's warrantless monitoring of U.S. subjects began before Bush's order was issued in early 2002 and included electronic and physical surveillance carried out by other military intelligence agencies assigned to the task.

I wonder where bush would have stood if the NSA wanted to spy on corporations. They've got all the same rights as people, right? Somehow I think his money-lovin' ass wouldn't have held them to task. C'est la vie.
And a big hooray to the government for stalling the Patriot Act renewal. Bless their pork-barrelling little hearts. The article in the NYT even cites the NYT article on NSA spying as having a possible influence on why the act was stalled. Sweet! Who said liberal rags couldn't get a few things done.

The Senate on Friday blocked reauthorization of the broad antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act, pushing Congress into a game of brinksmanship with President Bush, who has said the nation will be left vulnerable to attack if the measure is not quickly renewed.
With many Democrats and some Republicans saying the bill does not go far enough in protecting civil liberties, the Republican leadership fell short of the 60 votes required to break a filibuster. Now the future of the law, which greatly expanded the government's surveillance and investigative powers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, is in doubt.
The debate, a passionate fight about the balance between national security and personal privacy, became a touchstone for repercussions after the disclosure on Thursday night that Mr. Bush had secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for terrorist activity.
On Friday afternoon, after the report in The New York Times and the fallout it engendered, Vice President Dick Cheney made a hurried trip to the Capitol to defend the domestic spying program against charges that it might be illegal, while Mr. Bush said he would do everything in his power within the law to protect the country from another terrorist attack.