Sad to say,I'm with the giant puppets on this one.

I suspect that most of my readership doesn't really need a new reason to be upset about the Patriot Act.

But what the hey...

According to the Washington Post, the ACLU is publicizing its objections to a portion of the Patriot Act expanding the power of the Secret Service to keep order at demonstrations, "keeping order" being defined as keeping protesters out of restricted areas. (Something I've observed the cops seem to do a good job of doing already.)

You can read the objections for yourself here.

Now, to be fair, Arlen Specter says it really just clarifies the issue, and Arlen Specter is generally a good guy.

That said, this seems to open things a bit too widely for abuse and needs to be reworded.

CC