Patriot Act – A little history

The Patriot Act – officially the USA PATRIOT ACT, which is an acronym believe it or not which stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” is a scary piece of work. Even for those who support it have to be concerned at times.

It effectively created the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). It allows the government to detain individuals without trial, wiretap with relative impunity, enhance surveillance, and so one. Some say it is about time – that is until they are the subject of the “enhanced” government interdiction.

But here is the really, really scary part that I have always been concerned about. Some facts:

• The act itself is 208 pages long – not insignificant in scope.
• It amends 10 Acts and Titles of US Government Code.
• It adds 9 US Codes and amends over 100 others.
• The path to law was:
  • October 23, 2001 – introduced to US House of Representatives
  • October 24, 2001 – pass US House by vote of 357-66
  • October 25, 2001 – passed US Senate by vote of 98-1
  • October 26, 2001 – Signed into law by President

Think about it! Besides the obvious trodding over the Bill of Rights at every juncture, the whole process is scary odd. A 208 page, complex, bill that fundamentally changed the infrastructure of the investigative and criminal justice system of the Federal government was “supposedly” developed in response to 9-11. In 41 days, this bill was supposedly developed and sent to the US Congress. My Ass. On top of it, it was introduced one day, passed the House the next, the Senate the following day, and signed one day after that. Who read the damned thing? I am certain no one who actually voted on it.

Now I know that many will say that we have been living with this law for a whole lot of years so why bring it up now. I say we need to revisit this because it is scary bad and we need to fix it. Obviously not immediately as we have a POS in the White House but it is something that we should be asking candidates about.

In case you think I am just going after the Republicans, remember that the Democrats under Obama extended the sundown clauses. It is about time someone visits this crap and see who is hiding under what rocks.