New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | April 8, 2005

Alberto Gonzales says he doesn't want to go rifling through your library books. Which is a good thing, since as Jacob Sullum notes, that's pretty much all that's stopping him.

Comments

|4.8.05 @ 2:44PM|#

Prepare, folks. The revolution cometh.

Mark Draughn|4.8.05 @ 2:52PM|#

I have never committed a violent crime against anyone. I have never carried a concealed weapon. I have no intent to harm federal employees.

Therefore, using the same kind of logic, Alberto Gonzales should be willing to give me a letter authorizing me to enter federal buildings without passing through a metal detector.

But he won't, for the same reason I don't want to trust my privacy to his interests and restraints.

|4.8.05 @ 3:40PM|#

Funny article...that was basically what I said when I first heard Gonzales' BS on NPR a few days ago. "Oh, well, we should keep these provisions, because they haven't been used". Oh, yeah, that's a justification---sure, the law is tyrannical, but, since it has not yet been taken advantage of, well, it's OK.

"Hey, see this gun I have pointed at your skull? Well, don't worry about it, because I haven't pulled the trigger so far..."

|4.8.05 @ 6:37PM|#

Remember the creation of RICO statutes? They were for use on organized crime.

Them someone came up with a brilliant idea..let's prosecute Abortion clinic protesters with them.

I think they've since been used to go after various white collar grey areas as well.

Regardless of how justified any of those prosecutions may be, the plain fact is they wouldn't have happened were it not for a law written for another purpose.

Applying this to Al G's library sniffing, my biggest fear is NOT that the Gonzales Justice Dept might snoop into my library activities.

It's that some future lunatic (or some current one) might come up with a use for them.

Beware the Law Of Unintended Consequences...

|4.8.05 @ 6:41PM|#

Applying this to Al G's library sniffing, my biggest fear is NOT that the Gonzales Justice Dept might snoop into my library activities.

It's that some future lunatic (or some current one) might come up with a use for them.

Don't worry, there's no danger of a Big Government Liberal using these powers for nefarious left-wing purposes. Hillary Clinton will die in the terrorist attack scheduled for 2007, which will also be the pretext for canceling the 2008 elections.

You may be tempted to go out and tell people what I'm up to, but under the Patriot Act it is illegal for you to reveal any of this.

So it's all good!

|4.8.05 @ 9:59PM|#

As to library records, I asked my library for an annonymous library card. I suggested that they could issue the card to a fake person, just as they do to children, but then have an adult co-sign for responsibility. I would co-sign as being responsible for any books my fake person didn't return. They didn't go for it, as librarians are not the most creative people, but it was not dismissed out of hand, either.

|4.9.05 @ 1:19PM|#

Now is the time for us to act and tell congress to let section 215 expire. Besides citing the government's ability to conduct the fishing expeditions that section 215 of the Patriot Act authorizes, we should bring up the point that Section 505 is already too invasive since Congress expanded the definition of "financial institutions". This makes it all the more important to let section 215 expire.
Please take action as if your liberty depended on it because it does indeed. Let your congressperson know:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

|4.10.05 @ 11:19AM|#

A few months ago my boyfriend and I moved to a new apartment, and it so happened that his old car died at the same time, so he had to buy a new one. However, he had to wait a few days before being allowed to drive the new car off the lot, because thanks to the PATRIOT Act, you can't buy a car now without first showing proof of residence. I guess the idea is that showing a copy of your new lease makes it impossible to stuff the trunk of the car with explosives, or something.

He said that even the guys at the car place were pretty horrified by all this.

|4.10.05 @ 12:12PM|#

thanks to the PATRIOT Act, you can't buy a car now without first showing proof of residence

I feel safer already!

And I, for one, welcome our new car sales overlords.

|4.10.05 @ 12:20PM|#

Thoreau-
The new car act seems to me to be the whole PATRIOT Act in a nutshell--bullshit regulations that make life harder and more complicated for ordinary people, while doing exactly jack shit to actually make the world safer. I mean, if al-Qaeda is going to make a car bomb, are they first going to spend thousands of dollars on a late-model car, and warranties, and all that? Of course not--they'll either use the car they already have, read the newspaper ads and spend a few hundred bucks on some old clunker, or just steal a car outright.

|4.10.05 @ 12:30PM|#

mean, if al-Qaeda is going to make a car bomb, are they first going to spend thousands of dollars on a late-model car, and warranties, and all that?

More to the point, even if they did buy a nice new car for their bombing, what good would a proof of address requirement do? Surely the Al Qaeda operatives must have an apartment somewhere.

My wife and I are preparing to get rid of one of our cars, and we're going to donate it to a homeless shelter to give to a reliable resident. (We volunteer there, and we trust them to give it to a responsible person who needs it for his or her job.) But now I realize that we might be unwittingly aiding terrorism, since giving a car to a person without an address puts national security in jeopardy.

If you guys don't hear from me again on this forum, that means we've been dragged off to Gitmo. As Newman said to Kramer before the Post Office thugs dragged him away, "Tell the world my story."

|4.11.05 @ 12:52AM|#

The new car act seems to me to be the whole PATRIOT Act in a nutshell--bullshit regulations that make life harder and more complicated for ordinary people

Jennifer, Yes, but I fear there is another, more toxic use of the PATRIOT Act; that it will be used to punish political dissent.

I was on talk radio here in Denver this Saturday urging folks to get a hold of their congress people to tell them to let the sections of the act that are set to expire, do so. We can fight this one.

|4.11.05 @ 12:58AM|#

...I wanted to say "*even* more toxic use of the PATRIOT Act", because bullshit regulations that make life harder and more complicated for ordinary people are certainly toxic as well.

|4.11.05 @ 6:32AM|#

Rick-
Of course you're right; what I meant to say was "the only IMMEDIATE result of the PATRIOT Act in a nutshell."