Patriot Act passes like a tropical breeze

The good for nothing Senate passed the Patriot Act today. "The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions permanent and set four-year expirations on the others." They don't say which ones. It was an 89-10 vote with some token attention thrown towards civil liberties concerns. Not enough.

"This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of the American people," Bush said in a statement from India.

Great. The threshold for drug dealers is already so low that a kid with a couple of joints in his pocket qualifies and they've effectively suspended Fourth Amendment rights for drug cases, so what exactly did they protect here? It's another victory for the GOP extremists and their drug war thugs. I've had it with Reid.

"Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president," said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to pass the bill package. "What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is have a better bill. It has been improved."

What a crock. The changes were cosmetic and they threw in the ill-advised anti-meth provision which now means you can't buy a cold remedy in your local convenience store if you happen to get sick outside of pharmacy hours, among other unrelated to terrorism provisions. This is just business as usual. Our attention was distracted so they pushed through objectionable policy mandates as amendments.

The "no" votes came from Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Feingold, Byrd and seven other Senate Democrats: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Keep that list handy. They may be the only incumbents worth supporting. Where are the rest of the names of those who have been obstensibly opposing this administration.? Where's Kerry; where's Kennedy; where are all those symbolic signers against the Alito nomination? News alert to the Democratic party. You can't just pretend to fight when people are watching. You either fight for principles or you have none, in which case you don't have my support.

I've had it. I've thought about this for a long time and I'm starting my own damn party.