The House yesterday voted to start restoring civil liberties in our country, by rejecting an extension to what they are calling the "sneak and peek" law. This law enables law enforcement to secretly conduct searches of personal property belonging to anyone classified as a potential terrorist. Basically, anyone who they want to name so they can get a look at your stuff without going through the normal legal procedures of notifying you they are conducting the search.

The Justice Department went back to the scare tactics and said this vote was detrimental to the country's safety. Specifically, the Department said this would work as a "terrorist tipoff" and the legislation should be left in place.

I have to say it has been refreshing this week to see the House vote against the White House on some key issues. This one is an important one for civil liberties. The House also voted to ease restrictions on reimporting pharmaceuticals from foreign countries -- an effort to help the market push prescription drug costs lower. The third key vote was the legislation passed to reverse the FCC's new media ownership rules.

I don't know who put starch in these people's shorts and panties, but thank the universe that people are starting to challenge the out-of-control nature the government has been in for the past nearly two years.

DOJ Warns About \"Terrorist Tipoffs\"

More than a few conservatives and many libertarians have commented negatively on some of the more extreme measures being pushed by Ashcroft and DOJ, so I'm not surprised that Congress didn't renew this piece of the legislation. There are many more aspects of Patriot I and II that need to be stripped away though. As the recent Congressional 9/11 report demonstrates, better enforcement of existing laws, better intelligence, and above all, communication between the spy agencies may have gone a long way towards preventing the horrific attacks we suffered two years ago.