Newsday reports that the House Judiciary Committee chair isn’t sold on Patriot II:
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s plans to expand a post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law face resistance from a powerful House Republican who says he’s not even sure he wants the government to keep its new powers.
James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, complains that the Justice Department isn’t sharing enough information for lawmakers to make a judgment on how well or poorly the USA Patriot Act is working.
“I can’t answer that because the Justice Department has classified as top-secret most of what it’s doing under the Patriot Act,” Sensenbrenner said when asked about the future of the anti-terrorism law in a recent interview.
Without Sensenbrenner’s support, the bill is a non-starter.
Boy, I do hope so..
I begin to smell a rat. I’m wondering if this thing isn’t like the supposed “modem tax” the FCC was going to impose. Which turned out to have some basis in fact–there was some rough noise about maybe at some future date possibly discussing such an issue at the FCC–that turned into endless years of wouldn’t-fucking-die rumors and chain letters.
So far all I seem to be able to find in terms of sane analysis is that there’s something called Patriot Act II that may be winging its way into committee at some specific point, and there are some bad things in it. Everything else is stern editorials and watchdoggery–but what the hell are they watching???