It Ain't the Act. It's the Interpretation of the Act.

Sen. Wyden is a Democrat. I'm perfectly happy to join in his concerns, and I'll even give kudos to the ACLU. As you recall, I have NEVER wholly supported the damn thing--regardless of who was President when it was created (and regardless of the fact that Jim Sensenbrenner voted for it.)

Read to the end of the post, folks. There's a surprise there...

...“It is fair to say that the business-records provision is a part of the Patriot Act that I am extremely interested in reforming,” Wyden says. “I know a fair amount about how it’s interpreted, and I am going to keep pushing, as I have, to get more information about how the Patriot Act is being interpreted declassified. I think the public has a right to public debate about it.”

...Wyden says he “can’t answer” any specific questions about how the government thinks it can use the Patriot Act. That would risk revealing classified information — something Wyden considers an abuse of government secrecy. He believes the techniques themselves should stay secret, but the rationale for using their legal use under Patriot ought to be disclosed.

“I draw a sharp line between the secret interpretation of the law, which I believe is a growing problem, and protecting operations and methods in the intelligence area, which have to be protected,” he says.

"Business records"? Whaddya talking about......spreadsheets? Tax returns? OfficeMax receipts? Double-declining amortization?

Not exactly.

“No one has tipped their hand on this in the slightest. But we’ve come to the conclusion that this is some kind of bulk collection. It wouldn’t be surprising to me if it’s some kind of internet or communication-records dragnet.” --M. Richardson, ACLU

...In a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, Udall urged Congress to restrict the Patriot Act’s business-records seizures to “terrorism investigations” — something the ostensible counterterrorism measure has never required in its nearly 10-year existence.

Has. Never. Required.

NEVER REQUIRED!!!!

Bet you didn't know that, either, eh?

HT: Agitator