Thursday, 29 July 2004 - 11:19 PM CDT

My friend, you are wrong about the Patriot Act. In past posts you have passed off many of the Patriot Act's illegitimate grants of power to the executive as a mere bypass of powers that might otherwise be available from a compliant judge. That bypass (and the compliant judge to whom you refer) is a significant problem.

The architects of our republic saw the red tape created by a government split into three branches as a positive and important protection against the tyranny of any single branch. Indeed, that zeal for bureaucracy is seen in the creation of a bicameral legislature, an executive with the power to veto, a Supreme Court to review the actions of the executive and legislature, and the single document that governs and constrains them all. Any attempted re-distribution of those powers is dangerous, and should be avoided.

Our system of government requires and depends upon these three branches each eyeing the others with a suspicious and jealous eye against acting on their lust for power. The legislature has turned a blind eye to the Bush administration's insatiable desire by passing the Patriot Act. Hopefully, the judiciary will fulfill its role and reign the rogues back into the fold of our Constitutional republic.

For now, however, Natalie Portman is on Letterman. She's cuter.

Friday, 30 July 2004 - 12:36 AM CDT

I'm not sure if the Patriot Act is a bypass of normal intelligence and criminal investigative procedures, but it is a streamlining of it. And it takes down some of the barriers. But keep in mind that it is still subject to the same principles of probable cause and judicial oversight, which makes it no different from what already exists. It is focused on bad guys, not on dissenters, which is what the Moore-ons would have us believe.