Will the sunset on liberty?

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Wed., 6/28/06

“Jumping Johnny” Ashcroft is the spookiest Attorney General of all time—and that’s really saying something.
He fathered the now-infamous USA PATRIOT Act, a 342-page “little shop of horrors” that gave federal agents sweeping powers to spy, tap, enter, intercept, search, seize, detain, incarcerate, and prosecute—mostly on executive whim.
It went before Congress only hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when there was a political urgency to “do something”—and most members didn’t even read the thing before it was rammed into law.
However, enough members detected the stench of repression wafting from this bill that they added a “sunset” provision requiring some of the nastier provisions to expire within four years. They were right to do this, for it turns out that the PATRIOT Act is thoroughly unpatriotic, a catch-all law that gives government autocrats unbridled power to spy not just on foreign terrorists, but also on ordinary citizens.
Because of the sunset amendment, we would be rid of some of the act’s most dangerous intrusions in just a couple more years . . . except that the Bushites are now maneuvering in Congress to repeal the sunset provision—a legislative sneak attack that would make all of the PATRIOT Act’s intrusive, anti-democratic powers permanent.
To the barricades, patriots! To help beat back Ashcroft’s assault on America’s liberties, call Sen. Russ Feingold’s office: 202-224-5323.