Congress Caves - As other articles state, the Dems are always afraid:

[EV_Ares]

Posted Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007, at 5:56 AM ET
The New York Times and Washington Post lead with the House passing changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The changes were requested by the White House and though Democrats worried that the administration was overreaching, they were more afraid of appearing weak on national security. The Los Angeles Times leads locally with California's secretary of state imposing "some of the nation's strictest regulations" on electronic voting machines, which she says are susceptible to hacking. The new rules mean many counties won't be able to use the machines for February's presidential primary.

The Senate approved the administration's changes to the terrorist surveillance program on Friday night, putting pressure on the House to act. The White House claimed the changes were needed after a secret court ruled that foreign communications routed through the United States could not be tapped without a court order. But the administration asked for a whole lot more than a simple fix to that problem.

The changes WILL GIVE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL broad authority to approve surveillance of all communications involving foreign suspects. Only if his procedures are deemed "clearly erroneous" could the special FISA court step in. Some wary Democrats put forward a separate proposal giving more power to the court, but it was defeated on Friday. It was all about politics, says the NYT and WP, and the Democrats didn't want to spend their summer vacation "fending off charges from Mr. Bush and Republicans that they left Americans exposed to terror threats." The good news for the Dems is that the changes will expire in six months, giving them half a year to GROW A SPINE.

((((entire article @ Slate & link below))))

http://www.slate.com/id/2171719/