Speaking of civil liberties...

It looks like Republican lawmakers are finally getting nervous about the constant rejection of conservative principles by this administration. They've rejected provisions of the Patriot Act that would allow the government to obtain library and bookstore records on a whim. The president's response? A threatened veto.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

The House voted 238-187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects. ['terror suspects' should be understood to mean 'anyone']

The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of innocent library users. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries.