AP: Bush Sees Patriot Act Renewal As Key Goal

Bush Sees Patriot Act Renewal As Key Goal

56 minutes ago Politics - AP

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft is leaving, but the top issues for the Justice Department are the same heading into President Bush's second term: persuading Congress to renew key parts of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act and continuing fundamental reforms at the FBI.

Nominated to replace Ashcroft is Alberto Gonzales, the White House general counsel who would become the first Hispanic to lead Justice. If confirmed as expected by the Senate, Gonzales will inherit a job that begins each day with a detailed briefing of the terrorist threats facing the United States.

Prosecutors and FBI agents say nothing is more central to confronting that threat than the Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It gave the government expanded powers of surveillance and prosecution against would-be terrorists, their helpers and their financiers.

More than a dozen provisions of the law are set to expire by late October 2005 unless renewed by Congress. These include authority for judges to issue search warrants that apply nationwide, authority for FBI and criminal investigators to share information about terrorism cases and the FBI's power to obtain records in terrorism-related cases from businesses and other entities, including libraries.

...much more, including alternate bills suggested (and a couple of odd pictures) at

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041112/ap_on_go_pr_wh/second_term_law_enforcement&cid=536&ncid=536

I recommend reading the whole article on this.

and all vote for it. (Except Feingold.)

we are going to be screwed by this administration in the coming years and decades to follow. And those are just the ones I KNOW...I shudder to think of the ones we don't even see coming or could never imagine.