The Patriot Act

One of the guiding principals in this country is that the citizens have more power than the government. The Patriot Act was a knee jerk reaction to the 9/11 attacks, that put the trust on the shoulders of the government. Link here:

What does it do?

Civil libertarians have strongly opposed the measures, which give law enforcement officials access to educational, financial and medical records without having to show probable cause of a crime.

It also allows police and prosecutors to access details of an individual's Internet activities and correspondence without probable cause or consent, among other measures.

Which, of course, means the government can spy on you without the consent of a judge who reviewed the supporting material to determine if there is any reason for the investigation.

Well, okay.. fine. American's like to feel safe, so it's easy to get them to give up their civil liberties. Lets just put aside for the moment that our entire way of life is predicated on the basic assumption that we are a free people and that we control the government, not the other way around.

Lets say for the sake of the weak of heart, we go ahead and give up our civil liberties for 5 years after a terrorist attack.

But this is just wrong in every way...

The Patriot Act, which was passed six weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States, contained several temporary measures which required a new congressional vote or faced expiration by December 31 of this year.

Thursday's House vote made 14 temporary provisions of the legislation permanent and extended two others that had been scheduled to lapse at the end of the year.

Why make it permanent unless your basic plan is to turn power over to a Soviet style politburo? What is the harm in sunset provisions? Don't sunset provisions force Congress to re-evaluate highly controversial legislation in light of the current political climate?

They can and should argue the merits of the Patriot Act, but I see absolutely no reason to make them permanent. I don't care which party voted in favor of it - it's just as wrong.