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Friday, May 09, 2003
The senate has rejected a proposal to eliminate the subset clauses in PATRIOT & friends, meaning that the additional methods granted law enforcement will now expire in a few years. However, it did pass a "lone wolf" measure "expanding the government's ability to use secret surveillance tools against terrorist suspects who are not thought to be members of known terrorist groups." No one's explained to me yet why this is necessary seeing as how a "lone wolf" terrorist would just be a guy plotting a crime, which we already have adequate measures to deal with, right? Any thoughts?

"The Democrats weren't going to give us a vote on the thing unless there were no Hatch amendments, period," said a Republican Senate aide who demanded anonymity. "A lot of the Democrats hated the Patriot Act even though they voted for it, and they certainly didn't want to see it made permanent. It's an ongoing, simmering debate."

Well, good. Thanks, guys, for like representing me and stuff.