Patriots

Speaking as someone who has, at various points in life, purchased both hydrogen peroxide and acetone, I'm worried about the renewal of the new PATRIOT act. Marcy Wheeler has been covering the story. The following letter from Senator Russ Feingold showed up in my inbox just now:

I read some of the early reviews from today’s Judiciary Committee meeting regarding our mark-up of the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and noted that one person wrote that most of the Senators seemed to be “bending over backwards” to give the government free reign to do whatever it wants. Having attended the meeting, I can’t say that I disagree with that assessment.

As the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001, I’ve heard a lot of my colleagues talk the talk over the years about their desire to curtail the government power-grab passed some eight years ago. Today was the day for some to walk the walk. In a committee where Democrats have 5 more members than Republicans do, the measure passed by an 11-8 vote.

I’ve posted some more thoughts on what happened on Daily Kos and I encourage you to read them here.

What’s more clear today than ever before is that we need to hold more Democrats' feet to the fire. Help me do so by giving them a call today at 202-224-3121.

Yes, the link goes to Daily Kos. And here's a snippet from Feingold's piece:

I am also very troubled that administration officials have been taking positions behind closed doors that they are not taking publicly. I am pleased that we have not heard the type of public fear-mongering from this administration that was such a regular part of the discourse in the past. But if the administration wanted to further water down the already limited reforms in the bill that was on the table, they should have said so openly. Instead, at our only public hearing we were told that the Justice Department did not have positions on the crucial issues about to be discussed. Then, over the past week, in classified settings, the Department has weighed in against even some of the limited reforms that Sen. Leahy originally proposed. That led to the unusual spectacle today where many members of the committee based their decision to further weaken the bill on a classified briefing held yesterday, but could not fully discuss or debate their reasons. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am privy to every bit of the classified information that was referred to today. And nothing presented in the classified briefings justifies the failure to address the real problems with the expiring Patriot Act provisions and other intrusive powers.

Incidentally, many cynics thought that the well-publicized flap of terror arrests (discussed here) might be connected to the Judiciary committee's deliberations. Marcy's coverage buttresses the cynic's view.