[AnotherUnixGeek]

The key point here is that Mr. Sensenbrenner strongly believes that these guys are misinterpreting the legislation he wrote to justify everything they are doing. As such, he and others are proposing legislation to make it crystal clear what is and what is not appropriate surveillance.

Well, that's something, I guess. Better would have been if Sensenbrenner had written the Patriot Act a lot more tightly, with strict definitions and limitations. And better still would have been if he had not written the Patriot Act at all - there was no good reason for this bizarre, cynical exploitation of the 9/11 atrocities except as a basis to expand federal power over the lives of American citizens and establish new bureaucracies which can never be abolished.

[T-Bird45]

Never wasting a crisis is central to all government of every stripe, it’s the nature of the beast. Many pointed out the pitfalls only to be trashed for not taking “security” seriously. Same goes for the formation of Homeland Security, the 2000s version of the Gestapo, at least by direct translation. Gestapo = Geheim Staats Polizei = Homeland state police.