It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

BUSH SEEKS TO EXPAND ACCESS TO PRIVATE DATA

in a plan announced this week to expand counterterrorism powers, President Bush adopted a very different tack. In a three-point presidential plan that critics are already dubbing Patriot Act II, Mr. Bush is seeking broad new authority to allow federal agents — without the approval of a judge or even a federal prosecutor — to demand private records and compel testimony.

Now I am not one of those who think that Bush and John Ashcroft stay awake a night thinking of ways to curtail our civil liberties. Having said that, I find it telling that this article includes this very revealing quote:

Officials could not cite specific examples in which difficulties in obtaining a subpoena had slowed a terrorism investigation.

If you want to make the case for intruding on civil liberties, at least base it on some sort of empirical evidence and not on supposition.