Why are they such sellouts? Can someone please explain this to me? Oh wait, they had to go on vacation and the King said they had to approve this before leaving. And whatever Georgie wants, Georgie gets.

House Roll Call here

From Reuters:

The Democratic-led U.S. Congress yielded to President George W. Bush on Saturday and approved legislation to temporarily expand government’s power to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order in tracking foreign suspects.

Civil liberties groups charged the measure would create a broad net that would sweep up law-abiding U.S. citizens. But the House of Representatives gave its concurrence to the bill, 227-183, a day after it won Senate approval, 60-28. The action came amid warnings of possible attacks on the United States.

Key points in the surveillance bill passed by Congress this week:

_Expands the administration’s powers to eavesdrop, without a court order, on foreign suspects’ communications passing through the United States.

_Requires new wiretaps to be approved by the director of national intelligence and the attorney general, not just the attorney Ggeneral.

_Requires a court-issued warrant when a U.S. resident is the main target of surveillance.

_Requires Congress to reconsider the law in six months.