by TChris

Russ Feingold and two other senators had the courage to stand up for your right to privacy. It's pathetic that other senators didn't join them.

The Senate brushed aside an attempt to block renewal of the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act today, voting 96 to 3 against changes urged by Senator Russell D. Feingold, the act's most persistent critic. Mr. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said he wants to make the Senate debate several more days on the bill, and under the Senate's rules he can do so. But today's vote signaled that, once Mr. Feingold has exhausted his moves, the act will indeed be renewed by the Senate before its scheduled expiration on March 10.

Feingold is a national treasure. A heartfelt thanks to Senators Feingold, Byrd, and Jeffords for putting up resistance to the administration's unquenchable thirst for unreviewable discretion to pry into our personal information and private communications.