Repubs lose on the clouture vote re:Surveillance Bill

Per TPM muckraker, the Rethugs attempt to block amendments to the Surveillance Bill fell short..YAY! Made my monday 😉 From TPM:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) cloture vote failed 48-45 just now, well short of the 60 votes necessary.

In the end, four Dems crossed over to vote with the Republicans: Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA). Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) was the lone Republican to vote with the Dems.

Now we’re on to the question of whether an extension will be passed. We’ll have more on that in a moment.

Judge rules parts of revised USA Patriot Act unconstitutional

All righty then! From FindLaw this morning we get this:

A federal judge struck down parts of America’s top anti-terror law as unconstitutional Thursday, saying courts must be allowed to supervise cases where the government orders Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten USA Patriot Act “offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.”

Click the link to read the entire article. I am out of town and will continue to be for probably a week..but I will try to post important news items..