For me (as a European) I think it shows that there's life left in the democratic process in the US. I am heartened by that. It shows, though the effort failed,

For me (as a European) I think it shows that there's life left in the democratic process in the US. I am heartened by that. It shows, though the effort failed, that there is a strong bi-partisan backlash against mass surveillance. I think it also shows up badly how silent European countries have been; where are similar parliamentary revolts in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, ...? I am very glad the vote was close, it would have been utterly terrible if it was not close. The executive branch is well out of step with the House. One really wonders if the president's pre-election rhetoric was naivety or lies. I suspect a bit of both. I believe that it points to the fact that the executive branch has been partly captured by the military, let's not forget that a general heads what should be essentially a civilian organ. The issue still remains though that even if miraculously provisions are put into place for US citizens we still have the mass surveillance of every other nation's citizens by numerous nations just because net traffic is routed through their geographic location. Never mind tapping into trans-oceanic cables - if that's true, I can't believe that could be true, how horrific. We need a Geneva convention on mass surveillance / privacy. It's going to take years and years. Also, what do all the spooks do with all that hardware?