Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times on Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent
Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today.
The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.
The landmark legislation expanded the government’s power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects.
When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or “sunset,” at the end of 2005 unless Congress re-authorizes them.
The Demopublicans and Republicrats have, hand in hand, done a fine job of shredding the remains of the Bill of Rights over the last few years. Are any libertarians still planning on voting Republican again in order to “not waste” your vote? You might as well piss in the wind and pray you don’t get wet.
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Link courtesy of Patrice McDermott via the In Defense of Freedom mailing list.