By John Dennis
Published 05/24/11
Mr. Obama will reauthorize The PATRIOT Act by May 27th, unless the world ends, through June 1, 2015 now that "leaders" in both houses, on both sides of the aisle, have extended abusive power to other members of imperium Washington.

The PATRIOT Act "grants the administration authority to request information about U.S. citizens from various entities, including Internet providers and phone companies, without obtaining court orders." It allows for "Sneak and Peek" searches where agents may enter your home, search and leave, without telling you or anyone else. Moreover, The PATRIOT Act allows FBI agents to write their own search warrants "to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order."

Before the PATRIOT Act cheerleaders cry "give me a 'P'", consider what's at stake. This generally awful law allows individuals within the Obama administration, or future administrations, to spy on anyone they choose, with no oversight.

An administration, if anyone bothered to ask, can always say that their PATRIOT Act targets are possible terrorists. But how would anyone know? Oversight prevents abuse of power, a reason for the Fourth Amendment. Not to mention the Magna Carta.

What if this or future administrations use the Act to attack political enemies? That would never happen, to be sure.

Banks are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports, a practice that began with The Banking Secrecy Act of 1970 but escalated substantially with the PATRIOT Act. To some, superficially, this type of preventative measure might seem reasonable as long as it's limited to potential terror operations.

Tell that to Elliott Spitzer. Ostensibly, the former governor's cash transactions created SARs, opening him to investigation. We know what Mr. Spitzer's real reasons were for the unusual cash transactions. In the end he had to resign from office. The non-terrorist former governor had a mess made of his a life and lost his job because of the PATRIOT Act.

Even more disturbing to consider: were the Spitzer SARs actually generated routinely? Or were they ordered in retribution against the man who earned the nickname "Sheriff of Wall Street" by policing bankster shennanigans?

We can't know.

Even conservative proponents of this Act ought to understand by now the chilling potential for abuse. Those odd souls on the right who trust the government, bizarre as that might be, would do well to make Washington follow the Constitution, see a judge and get warrants.

Which brings us to our friends on the left, they who screamed bloody murder when this act was originally passed under a Republican administration. Why are they silent as the PATRIOT Act is extended? They ought to challenge Mr. Obama in the Democratic primary solely for this violation of his constitutional oath.

The whole business of spying on Americans without oversight is creepy. The thought of some government agent lurking about, looking through your window, slipping into your homes to rifle through teenage underwear drawers should make anyone's skin crawl. Not requiring a warrant means not having to explain bad behavior.

I wonder what the response would be if state law enforcement agencies concocted these privacy abusing practices. Leave it to the staggering arrogance of Washington to think they have such privileges.

It's time to repeal the PATRIOT ACT before the Uncle Sam mascot is replaced with Peeping Tom Washington.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1447