Reading Habits

[Guest guest]

They want to keep track of what we READ now.

 

And any vegetarian knows how Neocons lump us in with the liberal kook vote,

so we will be targeted for borrowing a vegetarian cookbook.

 

I am not joking.

 

The Congress sure won't do it.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/articles/A37480-2004Jul8.html?referrer=email

 

House GOP Defends Patriot Act Powers

Partisan Rancor High as Plan to Soften Anti-Terror Law Is Defeated

 

By Dan Morgan and Charles Babington

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, July 9, 2004; Page A01

 

House Republicans, under strong pressure from the White House, narrowly

defeated an effort yesterday to water down the Bush administration's

signature law to combat domestic terrorism.

 

 

By a 210 to 210 tie vote that GOP leaders prolonged for 23 tumultuous

minutes while they corralled dissident members, the House rejected a

proposed change to the USA Patriot Act that would have barred the Justice

Department from searching bookstore and library records. White House

officials, citing the nearly three-year-old law's importance as an

anti-terrorism tool, warned that an attempt to weaken it would be vetoed.

 

But the victory came only after GOP tactics infuriated Democrats and a

number of Republicans. The vote, scheduled to last 15 minutes, dragged on

for 38 minutes despite outraged shouts and a unified chant of " shame,

shame, shame " from Democrats across the aisle.

 

The showdown was the latest in a series of bipartisan challenges this week

on the House floor to administration positions on trade sanctions against

Cuba, budget cuts in a major loan program of the Small Business

Administration, and funding for programs promoting democracy abroad. Last

month, the House approved a natural resources bill that slashed many of

the Bush administration's initiatives in land conservation and the

environment.

 

Last week, Senate negotiators, defying the White House, insisted on

pushing for a six-year transportation bill costing $318 billion -- $62

billion above the administration ceiling.

 

With President Bush's approval rating slipping as a result of setbacks in

the Iraq war, lawmakers in both parties appear emboldened to defy the

White House and the House GOP leadership.

 

" The Republican leadership is out of control, " said Rep. Martin T. Meehan

(D-Mass.). " Today's vote on the Freedom to Read Protection Act is just the

latest example of a growing trend towards abusive, closed-fist

partisanship on the part of Republican House leadership. "

 

Rep. C.L. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), a conservative and an advocate of the

defeated provision, told reporters after the vote: " You win some, and some

get stolen. "

 

At one point the electronic tally board above the visitors' gallery showed

the proposal passing, 219 to 201. But as the Republican whip organization

went to work to get defectors to switch, the number of those voting for

passage dropped steadily.

 

The final count recorded 18 Republicans joining 191 Democrats and Rep.

Bernard Sanders (Vt.), the House's lone Independent and the chief author

of the amendment to limit some powers of the Patriot Act. Sanders called

the proceedings " an outrage " and " an insult to democracy. "

 

The House has voted in the past to block portions of the Patriot Act, but

Congress has never managed to alter any part of it. The law was quickly

passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It gave

the government strong powers and leeway to conduct investigations and

detain suspects.

 

Supporters of the Sanders proposal argued that fighting terrorism did not

justify encroachments on basic liberties that are implicit in the broad

authority the act gives to law enforcement agencies charged with hunting

terrorists.

 

Addressing the House before the vote, Sanders said: " All of us want to

support the law enforcement officials going after terrorists, but we can

defeat terrorism without allowing the government to get a secret order

from a secret court without any showing of any evidence that the person

whose reading records are sought is engaged in any kind of illegal conduct.

"

 

His amendment had the support of groups that include the American

Booksellers Association, the American Library Association and the PEN

American Center, representing writers.

 

Supporters of the Patriot Act say authorities need to track potential al

Qaeda members who communicate using Internet facilities in public

libraries.

 

Under the current law, authorities need a special court order to require

libraries and other venues to provide records on the sale or borrowing of

books and on Internet sites used.

 

Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs the subcommittee that drafted the

underlying spending legislation before the House yesterday, said, " I

believe the Patriot Act has helped " safeguard the safety of Americans.

 

Other Republicans said there were few examples of the act being used to

invade the privacy of library users.

 

Yesterday's battle was over an amendment to a $39.8 billion bill financing

the departments of Commerce, Justice and State for next year, which passed

397 to 18. The Senate has not taken up its version of the spending measure.

 

The floor fight was reminiscent of November's vote on a Medicare

prescription drug program, when GOP House leaders kept the vote going for

nearly three hours while they persuaded reluctant members to support

passage of the bill.

 

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

 

 

" I'm a rocky shore with no light or harbor, at times. "

--Diogenes Trannell, keyboards

 

" War consists of waving a lot of flags, dropping lots of bombs, sending a

few prefab heros (a.k.a. special forces), and watching the newest

incarnation of the " SCUD Stud " on TV. "

--Dan Waltmire