[Ymani Cricket]

What is so fishy about this Patriot Act is that it has 30,000 words, yet supposedly it was written in 6 short weeks?!?! Who exactly wrote it? When did they start drafting it? This is scary. It appears that this was being written and ironed out for quite some time.

You know, I have read all the arguments back and forth about this (over 220 now) and you seem to have brought up the most thought provoking point of all in the shortest amount of space, IMHO. This Bill was proposed within a week (or less) of the attacks. I remember thinking to myself then that it seemed AWFULLY quick that the Bill was ready and waiting. Anyone who is pro Anti-terrorism Bill want to explain this in a rational and meaningful way? The "Republican's can do no wrong" response doesn't answer the question. Something intelligent please.

[steve-b]

It's obvious to anyone with a multiple-digit IQ that this government wish list was written long ago, with a few minor revisions to fit the crisis du jour. Several of the provisions (e.g. roving wiretaps, e-mail surveillance) were in the "anti-terrorist" powers Billzebubba tried to get after Oklahoma City.

[rightwinggardeninggirl]

Ymani, you know what it is really interesting? In my Federal Taxation class (my instructor is a socialist BTW *barf*), I brought up the Patriot Act, and this woman who is a hopeless liberal echoed the exact same sentiment I did! She said "We live in a police state". So, perhaps this Bill could possibly unite the libs with us to do something about it. (Then once we have a tea party, we can go back to bickering.) Although, her reaction did surprise me. My class is full of foreigners, so I didn't go on a diatribe about our inept INS. I'd only had one cup of coffee and just didn't have the will to face a rabid mob.