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When this act was passed in October, one of two things (or perhaps a combination of both) happened: Our legislators were afflicted with the 'get on the post-9/11 patriotic bandwagon' syndrome (so much so that they probably didn't even bother to read the 300-plus-page abomination in its entirety before affixing their blessing to it), or our legislators found themselves rubbing their hands together at the thought of being able to use 9/11 as an excuse to usurp more of their constituents' Constitutional liberties than have ever been usurped in the history of our country (with the possible exception of the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts....I guess those of us with a predisposition to look for a silver lining ought to be grateful that such legislation only seems to come along every two hundred years....).

The realist votes for #2.

The main effect that this monstrosity of legislation will have is that it will not only give the government the authority to surveille its citizens in a myriad of ways (all unconstitional), without a warrant or provable just cause, but it will also have us all serving as snitches against one another, under penalty of law if we don't. It's called government by intimidation.

And the requirements of both big- and small-business are Orwellian. The mandatory reporting of 'suspicious transactions' (now there's a definition that's about as clear as swamp water) represents a giant Big-Brother step that goes far beyond even the Bank Secrecy Act.

This representative republic, existing under this Constitution, cannot allow its citizens to be required to submit to unconstitutional surveillance by its government. Nor can it allow its businesses to be required to report transactions to the government, in effect opening their books in order to gain government 'approval.'

Congresses, and Presidents, have been passing unconstitutional legislation for decades, but this piece of legislation not only circumvents the Constitution, it declares it irrelevant. And the American people are either to ignorant to realize that the foundation of their republic is being buried without ceremony, or they are too apathetic to care. (My guess is 75% - 20%, with the other 5% of us left shaking our heads in disbelief).

Patriotism has officially been redefined to be submission to the 'legalized' government confiscation of wealth and usurpation of individual liberty.

There's more than one kind of terrorism....