Mission Creeps

Reader Bryan Alexander passes along the latest evidence, as reported by those dastardly liberals at Fox News, that mission creep has come to the Patriot Act:

FBI agents investigating two strip club owners in Las Vegas on bribery charges bypassed a grand jury and instead used the Patriot Act to subpoena the financial records of the bar owners as well as several prominent city and county officials.

Former Rep. Bob Barr tells Fox why this is bad: "The administration presented the Patriot Act to the Congress two years ago as a carefully tailored and limited piece of legislation specific to targeting terrorism. And now they're using it for purposes that are obviously and completely unrelated to terrorism." Unless, of course, they're smuggling boxcutters in those thongs.

(For Reason's interview with Barr, go here.)