Patriot Act Redux
It's a shameful day in Washington. The skies are gray and dreary, appropriately enough. A bi-partisan Congressional negotiating group has come to an agreement on renewal of the Patriot Act. The compromise measure is somewhat watered down, but the worst provisions are intact.
All 16 provisions of the Patriot Act are being extended. 14 permanently, 2 for seven years. The "temporary ones" deal with roving wiretaps against the individual, not a specific phone line and accountability for governmental demands for information.
The most heinious parts of the Act, allowing investigators to access bookstore records are now law.
The charge was led by Rep F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. , a Wisconsin Republican. I suggest that in the future the word "Sensenbrenner" be used as an adjective for privacy violation.
About the only thing that was taken out of the bill was an insane provision allowing prosecutors in terror cases a second chance to get the death penalty if a jury seemed disinclined to do so.
This is a sad day for America. The Patriot Act has not saved a single American life, and in point of fact, is primarily aimed at U.S. citizens, not foreign nationals. Let's catch the people who destroyed the World Trade Center, not Americans who read the wrong book.
For those of us old enough to remember the cold war, consider the Iron Curtain. It was touted as a defensive measure to protect the East from attack, but the broken glass, the razor wire and the landmines were aimed inward, to hem in those within.
The Patriot Act is our Iron Curtain.
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Posted on November 17, 2005
