Dems Would Have Us All Be Sheep

Last Thursday, even as lone-wolf Nidal Malik Hasan was gunning down his fellow soldiers, Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee stripped a provision from the Patriot Act which would allow tracking lone-wolf terrorists. Panel OKs revised antiterrorism law:

The bill went to the full House on a 16-10 vote along party lines; Republicans cast all the "no" votes. GOP lawmakers said the legislation would hinder law enforcement and intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism.

The legislation would allow the act's never-used "lone wolf" provision to expire at year's end. The provision lets the government spy on non-Americans even when they are not linked to a recognized terrorist group.

Clearly no biggie. It's just non-Americans who aren't a problem apparently.

Wrong on both counts. God help us.

More. (Yes it has to do with non-Americans. Yes, Americans are a problem.) Cato rolls out the snark. Perhaps Julian Sanchez should think about the chilling effect on those sworn to protect us to do their jobs--when they are being subjected to criminalizing policy decisions after the fact. Perhaps he should give some thought to the erosion of their civil liberties and our long-term freedom as a society. (Sharia does not sound promising to me.) Too much to ask apparently. Maybe you don't worry about terror in your city. But I do.

P.S. More on criminally clueless leftists for "peace". Rescue them with your pen.

P.P.S.

(b) "lone-wolf" surveillance was never opposed by anything but a fringe of privacy extremists: sensible people realize we have to be able to monitor someone who is obviously a terrorist even if the government hasn't yet developed enough evidence to connect him to a known terrorist organization — even if that's not intuitive, the Zacarias Moussaoui experience makes it easy to grasp.

More.Charles Krauthammer:

We have not had a second attack in the eight years and we have not had any significant scandals or abuse of these powers in violating the liberties of Americans. It is really quite a remarkable achievement.