Some interesting discussion in a few places on the renewal of the Patriot Act, what kind of reviews have gone into the various parts, what non-terrorism related bills are being attached to it, and other general inside baseball stuff.
In the post A REASON TO VOTE AGAINST THE PATRIOT ACT EXTENSION Instapundit offers up this quote from the Washington Times on mission creep
A conference report by Senate and House negotiators to extend for four years provisions of the USA Patriot Act includes a comprehensive anti-methamphetamine package restricting the sale of products containing ingredients needed to cook the drug and providing new tools to police and prosecutors to combat dealers.
Sens. Jim Talent, Missouri Republican, and Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, said the Combat Meth Act—together with anti-meth measures championed in the House—were included in the Reauthorization Conference Report filed Thursday.
... and offers his own take:
Okay, see, the problem with this is that it has nothing to do with terrorism. Putting it in the Patriot Act just reinforces my fears—present since the beginning—that this had more to do with finding an excuse to enact bureaucratic wishlists into law than with protecting us from terrorism. And Feinstein’s presence, alas, indicates that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans on this. Nonetheless, this is a dumb idea, it undercuts the entire rationale for the Patriot Act, and it’s a reason to be suspicious of the whole renewal enterprise.
And my inbox has been buzzing with messages from Declan McCullagh’s Politech list including Sen. Patrick Leahy’s support for extending the sunset timeline by 3 months, and his own latest piece on News.com
The Bush administration and congressional Republicans spent last week arguing that speedy approval of the larded-up “conference report” (click for PDF) was necessary to keep America safe. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, “I urge both houses of Congress to act promptly to pass this critical piece of legislation.”
But what Gonzales didn’t say was that the conference report has become a political version of a Christmas tree: It’s ornamented with dozens of senators’ pet projects. The result is a structure so weighty with irrelevant amendments it’s nearly twice the size of the original Patriot Act.
He goes on to list some of the more bazaar changes as well as what really hasn't changed much.
Finally, theres this good writeup from the Nation (via Yahoo!) centered around Russ Feingold but covering some of the process and changes in the bill between the full congress and the recent conference report.
