READ THIS: With a Whisper, Not a Bang.

Did you know that parts of the much-ballyhooed (and boo'ed) Patriot Act II has been signed into legistlation by George W. Bush? That it was slipped into the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal 2004, and therefore was not subject to public debate, floor debate, or committee? That it allows the FBI to not only search and seize financial records of U.S. citizens, but they can now do it without any reference or suspicion of said citizens' connection to "terrorism" -- and puts a gag order on the financial institution to prevent them from even saying the records were ever turned over? Oh, and did I mention that the term "financial institution" now includes any organization that uses cash transactions? Yes, boys and girls, that means car dealerships, jewelers, stockbrokers, casinos -- the works. But you don't have to use a cash transaction to have your records seized by the FBI -- they can do it to anyone, for any reason whatsoever, for any transaction whatsoever. Oops -- so much for using that supermarket card that tracks everything you buy. Not a good idea, kids, unless you really want the FBI to know how much pasta you bought last month.

Best part of it all? Congress will no longer have the right to see what and when the FBI has used its powers to exercise this sort of search and seizure. Up until now, when the FBI wrote a letter demanding records from, say, a library, under the Patriot Act, it had to report to Congress that it was doing so and who was searched. But in these pieces of Patriot II, those records no longer are reported to Congress. NO ONE IS WATCHING THE WATCHMEN.

You didn't read about this? Not suprising. The Act was signed by Bush, on a rare Saturday, the day that Saddam Hussein was captured. Kind of overshadowed this legislative elephant, didn't it? No, no, you didn't see this in the news, boys and girls; look over here! Yes, here! Look, we got Saddam! Aren't we a good executive branch of government? No, no, don't look at these pieces of legislation that take away your right to have courts and judges oversee any search and seizure, watched by all sorts of safeguards. That's not what we want you to notice. That's why we sat on it, since around Thanksgiving, and waited to sign it until the United States citizenry was looking the other way.

What the hell kind of a country does this and still says it's a democracy? Okay, any of us with any wits about us know it's a republic, not a democracy, but, dammit to hell, we are not supposed to be living in a police state run by the government.

Am I the only person scared shitless by all of this?

ADDENDUM: To be fair, I direct you to follow the thread of discussion about this issue at Dav Farber's Interesting People mailing list. There are some cool, and informed, heads talking about the legislation and its possible repercussions.