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House Republicans suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday when they fell seven votes short of extending provisions of the Patriot Act, a vote that served as the first small uprising of the party's tea-party bloc.

The bill to reauthorize key parts of the counter-terrorism surveillance law, which expire at the end of the month, required a super-majority to pass under special rules reserved for non-controversial measures.

To Eric Holder: Stop Lying About The PATRIOT Act

From Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall: Law enforcement is using a secret interpretation of the PATRIOT Act to spy on people who aren't connected with terrorism. The FBI operates under a cloak of secrecy, so we only know about this because these two courageous senators are defying the intelligence agencies and speaking out. Here's the New York Times:

"Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives,"

One of the more interesting (of many) paradoxes of statism is that people simultaneously esteem and loathe politicians. Most would deny the former sentiment, but a belief that the state is a collection of experts tasked with running society and the economy betrays that denial. Further, this esteem is manifest in their reference to politicians as “leaders,” “authorities,” and “officials.”

After years of prodding from outside watchdogs, the Internal Revenue Service said Monday that it will require anyone who prepares federal tax returns for pay to register, pass a minimum competency test and be subject to continuing education requirements and ethics rules.

The Senate voted Wednesday to extend for a year key provisions of the nation's counterterrorism surveillance law that are scheduled to expire at the end of the month. In agreeing to pass the bill, Senate Democrats retreated from adding new privacy protections to the USA Patriot Act.

Congressman Hank Johnson proves that politicians are stupid, not evil

CNN has learned that Congressional leaders have agreed on a tentative deal that would extend the Patriot Act for four years.

The House on Tuesday failed to extend the life of three surveillance tools that are key to the nation's post-Sept. 11 anti-terror law, a slipup for the new Republican leadership that miscalculated the level of opposition.