DOMESTIC WATCH: A PROGRESSIVE OPINION

I wrote this morning a simple sentence. An article in this morning's New York Times left me so livid that I could not think straight. It's generally pissed me off for much of the day. I very nearly went back to bed, which is my normal anger-management strategy but I've missed enough classes using this.

I think I've calmed down enough to write about it. Actually, this post was written several times over, what you're about to read is the most calm and most collected version. Others devolved into expletives, name-calling, and specious logic.

It's about the Patriot Act.

Apparently many Republicans, and some Democrats too, want to make the Patriot Act permanent. I can't stand the legislation now, but I take a small comfort in the fact that many of the most draconian of its provisions "sunset" in 2005. Especially the ones that have wide overreach that step on, in the eyes of me and other civil libertarians, the Constitutional Rights of American citizens which are the very core of our American beings. Of course, there's also Patriot Act II in the works...Total Information Awareness isn't as dead as it should be, and I'm sure a derivative of Operation TIPS is in the works.

I'm very sorry, but this cannot occur. I'll say it again. This. Cannot. Occur.

I am unwilling to live in a country that must take draconian measures to protect its citizens. I'm unwilling to let this happen. There are ways to protect citizens without ripping our cherished, MY cherished Constitution to shreds. I would urge the Bush Administration and their cohorts in the Justice Department to come up with something better. I would urge the Republicans to rethink some of what they want to do with the already horrible Patriot Act.