I will say this about the ACLU: When the state has turned the focus of its awesome power on (against) you, the poor, dangling helpless little individual doesn't stand a chance, so that even a bunch of commies like the ACLU are very much needed as a watchdog, and advocate to assist the individual when no one else will.
This is something to think about my rightwing brothers.
Of course, I vigorously disagree with them 99.999% of the time. But I do still appreciate their willingness to throw themselves in front of government's inherent "Big Brother" tendencies.
As for the patriot act, I believe it’s important to put it into proper perspective. In essence, the enlarged police powers in the act are no different from those already available to law enforcement when policing the mafia. Liberals -- why should an FBI agent have less police power for monitoring terrorist at his immediate disposal, than he has when investigating let’s say, e.g., Big Joey Massina, the boss of the Bonnano crime family?
If anyone has a gripe about police abuse, believe me it's Big Joey. If the ACLU is committed to protecting citizens from government overreaching, they should jump on board Big Joey’s defense bandwagon, as the FEDS, based on trumped up charges, are vigorously at work trying to execute him. The Justice Department abused the kingpin statue, pursuant to which they are prosecuting Big Joey. Ashcroft likewise made a mockery of the scope and purpose of patriot act by weilding aginst targets of opportunity; none of which, jhowever, had anything to do with terrorism. He abused the both the spirit as well as letter of the act.
Tthe Justice Department must shift its priorities now that Ashcroft is gone, and get to the business of capturing and killing terrorists. Were the FEDS shrewd, they would reach out to Big Joey for help in the war on terrorism. The Canadian border, the docks and piers of Brooklyn, etc… all would be considerably safer from the evil doers were Big Joey’s crew on the job. In W.W. II, the federal government did just this when it reached out to Charlie Lucky Luciano, who was rotting away in Clinton State prison, for help against the fascist. This relationship is known as the Navy red files.