Sen Feingold Blogs Request for Activism on Patriot Act

US Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), the only senator with the wisdom and courage to vote against both the Iraq War and the US Patriot Act, and the first senator to call for a set timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq, posted to his diary today at leading liberal blog community DailyKos, in order to bring all progressives up-to-speed on stymied legislation for reauthorizaton of certain controversial segment of the Patriot Act.

Blogs Senator Feingold to the liberal community, "I just wanted to give everyone an update on where things stand with efforts to reauthorize the Patriot Act. With the help of many of you over the last couple weeks, not to mention your efforts over the past 4 years, we were able to prevent a bad reauthorization bill from being pushed through earlier this month.

However, because the "sunset" or expiration date of December 31st for several provisions of the Patriot Act is fast approaching, we know that over the next few weeks a final Patriot Act reauthorization bill will come before the Senate.

We need to do everything we can to push for critical improvements to the draft final bill, or conference report, that we stopped a couple of weeks ago. It's time for everyone to let their voices be heard."

Please take the time to read the rest of the senator's message at this link to DailyKos.
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Speaking of Russ Feingold, did you see him being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos last Sunday on ABC's This Week? I did. Great interview....the senator was authentic and likeable, decisive and leader-like, especially on the Iraq War.

And for the first time, he almost acknowledged that he might be a candidate for the presidency in 2008. When asked about it by George, the senator laughingly replied, ""...one thing we can all agree on is that this country is overdue for a cheesehead president. We've never had one."

(Per ABC, a cheesehead is a native or resident of Wisconsin, a leading dairy state. The term also refers to the yellow "cheese" wedges worn on the heads of Green Bay Packers football fans.)

More and more, pundits see Senator Feingold as the anti-Iraq War alternative to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic race for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Needless to say, the next few years will be quite interesting for the US political scene.....
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Related Articles
-- Profile of US Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin
-- Senator Feingold Demands Specific Date for Troop Withdrawal from Iraq
-- USA Patriot Act at US Liberals @ About.com
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