RIGHT?
Where'd all these crickets come from?
Has everyone forgotten the klinton years? Carnivore, Clipper Chip, digital tapping ports, the war on cryptography? The FBI could walk in and rummage through sales records, library records, hotel registrations, etc. "Roaming wire taps." A record number of "national security" black bag jobs, but nothing to show for it. The list goes on. It sounds a lot like the Patriot Act, only worse. And the klintons didn't even need a law passed. They just did it, or were going to do it.
Oh, and they were doing it to protect us from "tax cheats, pornographers, gun runners, and militia". While there were protests from conservatives and privacy advocates, where was mostly cheering from the leftist media.
Yes, I have concerns about the Patriot Act, but less than what we've already gone through with the klintons. And as far as it being used against Free Republic, I have no doubt that several government agencies continue to monitor this site, simply because something started by the klintons takes on an unholy life of its own, and nameless federal bureaucrats continue to crank out reports that nobody ever read.