They say patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel– and it’s got to take a little moxie to vote against a bill with the brilliantly dumb name, ‘Patriot Act’.
At the time of enactment cooler heads were pointing out that surveillance could be done on an emergency basis and a warrant obtained afterwards– but at some point there has to be accountability for searches done in the name of security.
So the Patriot Act is going to be scrutinized and debated.
Have I read that right? I’m on my second cup of coffee and have to be out the door to work. I’ll keep the radio on while I drive.
Recurring Nightmare 
I agree that even in an emergency,there’s no reason the authorities can’t get a retroactive warrant from a FISA court regarding invasive surveillance.
This is different from entering a premise without a warrant in emergent circumstances when a danger to life and limb exists.
Case in point:on at least two occasions in Providence while working drug enforcement we had people break into uninvolved apartments while fleeing us-we couldn’t hesitate to follow them there because of danger to the occupants.In one case the offender had jumped into the bed of an 8 year old boy and gotten under the covers to hide.The kid never even woke up thankfully.
The drug dealer tripped and fell getting out of bed.Awww.
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BTW your quote about patriotism is I believe,from Samuel Johnson.
I don’t subscribe to that,but I’m sure some people here would think I was a scoundrel for my way of thinking.
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Where’s “Jesse from Cranston”? Computer get confiscated?
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That’s an interesting comment.
Jesse would like to see me get run over by an 18 wheeler and right about now I could do worse.
Maybe he stepped into an open manhole.
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