I don’t like when any bill is passed without the members of Congress reading it, but the fact is, just about *every* bill is passed without the members of Congress reading it. Which makes it a convenient talking point for every bill someone doesn’t like ;)

PATRIOT was a hell of a lot shorter. I’ve read most of it and skimmed it all.

If they didn’t, they’re incompetent.

(Then again, even the ACLU figured out that most of PATRIOT wasn’t bad, and it contained sunset clauses – unlike this mess, which will hopefully get laughed right out of the Senate.)

…just about *every* bill is passed without the members of Congress reading it..

I really don’t care if they read it, I want to be able to read it. I want everyone to be able to read it.

Proposed: a Constitutional amendments, that forces Congress to publish a bill in finished form in Thomas 7 days before they vote on it. Exceptions? Ten per year, but each time one is used the whole of the legislative body get a 10% pay cut for that year.

…and it contained sunset clauses…

which were all gutted out in P2, the sequel. There’s a reason I started calling it the perpetual PATRIOT act before p2 even was passed.

If they used the excuse that it was rushed through after 9/11, they surely don’t have that excuse for P2. Oh and all those (D) people who bitched so much when a (R) was in the Whitehouse? You won’t hear a damn thing now. It wasn’t like they were against the act, it’s just that it was a wedge issue at the time. Just like the (R) people finding themselves all of a sudden finding the RKBA.