Bush closer to snooping approval

This from the Wall Street Journal:

The Senate rejected an attempt by a number of Democrats to strip from surveillance legislation a provision that would bar lawsuits against phone companies alleged to have helped the government's warrantless spying, handing President Bush a small initial victory.

Congress seems poised to renew the extraordinary wiretapping powers allowed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which would otherwise expire on February 1. Such renewal could effectively make permanent some of the police-state powers granted to the government in the panic-stricken wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.