Representative Sensenbrenner (there is a mouth-full), the Republican committee chair of the high-profile Judiciary Committee, has stated that he will not support a continuation of the US Patriot Act, let alone an expansion of its powers.

The Representative is from Wisconsin, and oversees one of the more coveted committees in the House. He stated that the administration's stance on providing requested information, demonstrating the way they are using the legislation, and willingness to reduce the high-level of secretiveness is unacceptable.

The attached article also details some of the ongoing battles around the desired expansion of the Patriot Act. It is a good read.

Republican Committee Chair Questions Patriot Act

People get so touchy when the Bush administration is compared to the totalitarian regimes of the last century. However, if there is one key lesson from those times, it pertains exactly to this issue. The more you relinquish your rights and liberties, the tighter the noose the government has over the people who they govern. Expanding powers of the government to basically invade our homes and privacy simply gives them easier ways to clamp down on any dissension or threat to their control.

This is exactly how the totalitarian regimes gained power. They promised their people, and then the people of the world, that if they were given greater authority and power, they would make the world a more peaceful and prosperous place. We all know the terrible things that came of those efforts. Did we not learn our lessons well enough in the 20th century? Do we really have to repeat them now?

Weimar Republic, anyone?

But seriously, I guess government intervention is okay so long as it's proposed by...well, but then a GOPer is against it. More need to speak out about this.

Remember, MOST of the hijackers could have been caught if the INS had just done what it was ALREADY required to do by law in terms of checking up on visa holders. AND it currently is experiencing a crisis in terms of tracking the backlog of student visa holders....

Patriot II has got to go!

I grew up in Sensenbrenner's district. He's a suburban boy (and distant relative of the family that ran Kimberly-Clark Paper -- think Kleenex and Kotex -- for ages). He's a classic Republican from the days before Congress-as-paintball: totally un-flashy, so clean he's boring, fiscally conservative, leans toward big business and lower taxes but doesn't like to give away the store ... and generally defers to the president and Pentagon on national security issues.

So for him to question USA PATRIOT (the whole thing's an acronym, believe it or not eek! ) or anything security-related is worth sitting up and taking notice.

Hats off to the sensible Representative from Wisconsin. This administration is out of control with their hunger for power and domination.

If Sensenbrenner suddenly shuts up, or is tainted by a heretofore unknown scandel, you'll know who's behind it.

He's not the only one who's come out against this madness. My GOP fave is Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam vet who became so disgusted by Karl Rove's attacks of "unpatriotism" against former senator Max Cleland that he threatened to take the unheard of step of running his own commercials on behalf of the Democrat. The gimp-knee ("I couldn't go to Vietnam") Saxby Chambliss, super-patriot, beat Cleland anyway, but Hagel has also questioned the obscene tax-cutting bills and other nonsense from Rove and company.

".... And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes." (Rumsfeld)

well. I hope that shows some of you republican haters out there that we are not a monolithic bunch of mindless zombies.

so think before you paint all republicans as Rush Limbaugh clones.

I don't recall seeing many posts where "all Republicans" were lumped together as Rush Limbaugh types. Generalities and stereotypes are unfortunate ways to approach the world.

However, I do think that there have been a number of posts that have made it ultimately clear that some posters are completely behind all of the policies proposed by the White House. Questioning that judgement, and the fervency with which the support is offered, is not meant to equivalate all conservatives.

I am very happy to see that there are conservatives who are finally stepping out into the light of scrutiny to ask for some sense of reason on these issues. If only the Democratic leaders would do more of the same.

Just like questioning the motivations of the war makes many of us neither Saddam supporters nor Clinton lovers (despite being told this repeatedly by other posters), being a conservative does not mean someone is unable to bring a sense of constraint to the current situation. These people who are more in the middle are the ones who will lead us back to reason.

It is not a hatred of Republicans. It is a sense of being incensed at the manipulation by the administration and their lack of interest in pursuing more globally-oriented solutions.

Charlie,

I would refer you to many of the recent posts (about "personal responsibility" z.b.) that refers to all republicans being such and such.

Just as there is a stereotyping of gays by conservatives, there is a stereotyping of conservatives by the greater gay culture. That is an established fact.

I have not been posting to that thread, and was speaking more toward the threads in this forum.

There has, unfortunately, been a lot of reductionism or tribalism or whatever you want to call it in many P&R topics (statements to the effect of "Either you're with us all the way or you're the enemy and don't deserve to live" or "Who are you for?" followed by namecalling), and it's gotten much worse recently.

I won't say which "side" of anything has done more of this because, if it's not even, it's close enough to even to not matter (to me anyway ... draw your own conclusion). I'm just saying the whole phenomenon is tiring. It's politics as paintball ... cathartic for some, I suppose, but not particularly conducive to solving anything.