For example,

• Under the so-called “library provision” of the USA PATRIOT Act, the government can demand that custodians of records – including librarians, schools, social work institutions, and internet service providers (who, in these days of cloud computing, have access to a mind-boggling array of information about us) — turn over those records without having to explain to a court why they want those records, or whether the person who is the subject of the records has done anything suspicious.

• Under the expanded “National Security Letter,” the FBI and other agencies can demand some records from telecommunications and financial services providers without any court order at all and then gag the recipients.

• Patriot Act amendments let the government spy on Americans using a Cold War era statute designed for tracking the covert activities of Soviet agents.

Those are just a few from a laundry list of unchecked powers the PATRIOT act gives to government agencies.

Every time you see a headline that mentions some horrible thing the TSA did to an airline passenger, remember it wasn't that way before.

The US narrowly survived the communist witch hunt, and now we have a terrorist witch hunt. The only people witch hunts serve, are those interested in taking and keeping power for themselves.

Always remember, power is addictive, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.