Thursday, December 08, 2005

Patriot Act News

it's bad, but not as bad as it was before. These days, I take small improvements in the land of suck as good news:

The provisions that drew objections from lawmakers included one that allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation to subpoena business and library records to gather information for a counterterrorism investigation. The agreement requires the FBI to show the information it seeks is relevant to a counterterrorism probe, a claim that is reviewable in court, Specter said. (from Reuters)

To clarify: before, FBI could take any library records for any reason (and you can be damn sure they weren't handing out reasons like it was Christmas). Now, they've got to have a reason directly related to counterterrorism (though who defines what that means is a whole 'nother pot of worms).

Also, this provision is one of the few that won't go perm. 4 more years to fight against it.

Better coverage from npr.

It's still not a done deal, so if you are a voice raiser, the time is now.