Dec. 10, 2005 - 17:38 MST

'TIL ITS OVER

An editorial in the Rocky Mountain News makes a few good points I think. In full:

PATRIOT ACT STILL NEEDS WORK

"After months of contentious neotiations in Congress, a revised Patriot Act still doesn't go far enough to protect individual liberties."

"There have been some good changes since the last revision, such as dropping a provision that would have made it a crime punishable by a year in prison to disclose receiving a national security letter. But the plan retains a five-year prison term if the disclosure is aimed at obstructing an investigation."

"Narrowing the renewal period for the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions to four years rather than seven or 10 is also an improvement. But the law would still leave the government "in possession of medical records, business records, library records that are completely irrelevant to an investigation," in the words of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich."

"With regard to the national security letters, which are used by the FBI to demand customer records from businesses such as telephone companies, Internet providers and libraries, the latest compromise would give businesses that receive such letters the right to challenge them in court. But it appears the process is set up in such a way that the government will nearly always prevail. There is also no provision for notifying the individual whose records are being targeted."

"Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar is among six senators who continue to oppose the latest version of Patriot Act renewal and say they will vote against it if it does not contain "modest but critical improvements." One of the provisions they continue to oppose would allow federal agents to secretly search a person's home or business without telling the person for 30 days. The Senate originally approved a seven-day limit on such "sneak and peek" powers, and that's what the group wants in the final version of the bill."

"In a statement released on Thursday, the group of six said they did not believe the latest version of the act would pass the Senate."

"Since some provisions of the Patriot Act are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31 without congressional action, a vote is scheduled next week on the latest version. There was some talk this week about extending the act for three months in its current form to give negotiators more time to reach an agreement. But Salazar's spokesman Cody Wertz said the first priority is to craft an acceptable measure that will "protect the freedoms of innocent Americans." There's still time to do that. We urge negotiators to try a little harder."

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One of the first things that grabs me the wrong way is the nomenclature of an Act that removes many of our civil rights -- The Patriot Act -- implying that it was done as an act of patriotism. Of course this a "Mission Accomplished" administration that finds a catchy name for every flub they flab.

The thing that concerns me is that the Patriot Act could possibly be used to assume dictatorial powers over all of us. Such things as recently going on at the Denver Federal Center of requiring people who are riding a bus that is going through that property to show identification. Heading towards the old "Show your papers," thing that was extant in Europe for a long time.

I think the search in secret, and the "national security letter" requiring all sorts of information from all sources is in itself dictatorial.

9/11 paranoia was, I think, what led us to allow the Patriot Act to become law. And at every turn panic was peddled to us in order to frighten us into believing every thing we were told by the administration.

It is time, I think, to take away many of those powers granted to government by the Patriot Act. Also to put a stricter time limit on said law.

Now that we see that a lot of the panic over Iraq was manufactured and pushed on us I think it is time for the public to get a bit paranoid itself.

So I have hopes that some sense can come into the adults in Congress and things become sane, but I wonder. Like Yogi Berra said, 'Taint over 'TIL IT'S OVER . . . . . . . . . .

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