[SteelyDan]

Where do you draw the line on efforts to fight domestic terrorism? This is a really tough issue for me, and I don't pretend to know the answer. On the one hand, we'd be crazy not to take strong steps to prevent terroristic attacks, and I'm generally supportive of government and law enforcement efforts directed toward this end, but at the same time I can't get over this fear of the "enemy within," and the fact that the government can't be fully trusted. The first Patriot Act was about all I could stomach, and even then I had some reservations.

Now, it appears there's a plan for Patriot Act II, with even more sweeping governmental powers (and less privacy, less judicial review, etc.):

http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0

I'm really torn about this. If it's absolutely necessary to protect our way of life, then how can we say "no," but doesn't the proposal endanger exactly those rights we're supposedly trying to protect?

Whatever the answer is, this isn't something that should be approved without some public debate, but it sounds like the government has been trying to sneak it in under the radar screen.

[Airwolf]

We haven’t heard anything from the Justice Department on updating the Patriot Act,” House Judiciary Committee spokesman Jeff Lungren told the Center. “They haven’t shared their thoughts on that. Obviously, we'd be interested, but we haven’t heard anything at this point.”

Senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee minority staff have inquired about Patriot II for months and have been told as recently as this week that there is no such legislation being planned.

This thing sounds like it's nearly a done deal as far as writing it and no one on the Judiciary Committee knows anything about it. :scrutiny:

To quote Han Solo... "I've got a bad feeling about this".

This reeks of Patriot Act version 1.0 where magically this huge piece of legislation gets assembled in *days* and rammed through without anyone even getting a chance to read it. I think most everyone agrees that most of the Patriot Act was already written, pieces and pet projects that had sat in files for years waiting for a chance to see the light of day.

I doubt this will go through so quicky and with so little real debate.