Although my intent was not to establish the constitutionality of President Bushes actions, it appears that mr.smith and Southern Federalist have done so to my satisfaction. So codification of what should be emergency measures into law via the Patriot Act seems redundant and unnecessary given that the President is endowed with the power to implement the measures in the Act under the WPA.
Such power would then be limited to the length of the conflict. As it stands, many of the provisions in the Act will be with us long after we defeat the current threat. Freedoms surrendered are usually not returned once the actions that proscribed them pass into history. Freedoms that were returned to Citizens after WWII were never codified into a law that had to be repealed or face challenges from the judiciary after the conflict. I don't know Luis, but it looks to me like a huge power grab by the DOJ that can be used against all Americans for any activity that the Feds deem to be in their interests to contain. Privacy and private property rights are bedrock principles of conservatism. It is incumbent on conservatives to question actions and acts that appear to threaten these principals.
Nothing that hasn't happened before; nothing that won't happen again.
This is when we are up at bat, we have to challenge the government, it is our duty. That's the system set up by the Founders.
The Founders couldn't have possibly envisioned a world where all politicians are honest, and have the best interest of the nation in their minds, so they gave "We the People" the tools to challenge them.
Those tools are seldom used, we are immersed in the day to day business of life, and we sit back and yell about "those idiots" in DC; gotta stop sitting there, and gotta start doing our yelling through the Courts.
By the People, for the People, of the People.