Prior to 9/11 and the Patriot Act, law enforcement and intelligence agencies already had the ability to share a lot of information, they just didn't do it for bureaucratic reasons. Acts of Congress won't change bureaucratic bungling. There was a serious need to update laws due to technology advances, but anyone who thought rushing the Patriot Act through in the wake of 9/11 was sensible law making, probably voted for Bush.

It would be wise for us to remember though, that while Bush is busy campaigning for Patriot Act II, there are bigger fish being fried in terms of our threshold democratic rights, besides the blurring of lines between domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence. Like racial and ethnic profiling, fair elections, open and publicly accountable government, judicial review of executive action, the right of the accused to a public jury trial, separation of powers among the three branches of government, and the rights to free expression and free association.

Threshold rights enable civil society to know what government is doing and to rein in abuses. Think of it this way: temporary restrictions on some forms of privacy enable the government to know what you are doing, which is troubling enough. Threshold rights enable you to know what the government is doing, and that's why they form the core of democratic society. The degree to which a society protects threshold rights speaks to whether it is free and open, and whether self-correction can occur without violence. If the press is free, the electorate has open elections, and the courts are performing their sworn duty, even a president who tries to assume the powers of an emperor can be dealt with.

I remain deeply opposed to the Patriot Act. But at this point, I think I'm even more concerned about the erosion of the threshold rights under the last several administrations. The changes made by Bush in the wake of 9/11, when combined with the devastating effects of the 1996 bill passed by Congress (which Kerry supported and voted for) that set aside most limits on how much of America's broadcasting industry big media firms could own, we've seen little oversight and reporting on what the government is doing.

I believe the changes Congress made in 1996 have had a damning effect on our democracy, and allowed Bush to get away with all these things he is getting away with, so I'm not convinced the Patriot Act should be our number one priority right now. I think getting the 1996 bill overturned, and getting the Congressional committees with media oversight and the FCC to clean house, are probably the only hope we have left of maintaining a democratic society in the US.

It is easy to rally everyone round the Patriot Act, because the left hates the Bush administration and House Republicans so much. But I'm beginning to think that they are just using the Patriot Act as more subterfuge, like CarolC keeps talking about, to distract us from the real issues that we need to pay attention to. Like why hasn't the media been acting as that fourth estate for about the last decade?

We have to admit to ourselves that the Clinton administration was corrupt in it's ways too, if we are to do what is best for the nation. Not just keep painting over the problems with anti-Bush rhetoric. That is just too dangerous. We need to think, not react.