(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Fri, 14 Feb 2003 19:15:16 GMT)

I've been meaning to rant about this for a while now, but haven't found the time yet.

Last Friday, the Center for Public Integrity announced that it had obtained a secret draft of Patriot Act II. Previously, it had been kept in almost complete secrecy, only being shown to Dennis Hastert and Dick Cheney.

The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (full text) is outrageous. Secret arrests, eavesdropping without court orders, delaying notification to targets of investigations for up to three months, secret subpoenas, crippling the Freedom of Information Act, deporting American citizens, huge new powers for the FBI, and more.

Obviously, we need to fight terrorism more effectively, but shredding the Bill of Rights is unacceptable.

Bill Moyers interviews Chuck Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity. TomPaine.com has a useful summary. WarBlogging.com has addressed Patriot Act II repeatedly. It's all positively Orwellian.

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