Parsing the reasons

I'll turn him into a flea. A tiny, helpless flea. And I'll put that flea in a box. And then I'll put that box in another box. Then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I'll smash it with a hammer! - The Emperor's New Groove

In defense of the Patriot Act, DeRoy Mordock at the Nation Review lists every single reason he could think of for the Act. Some perspective:

1. 2,977 people killed during 9-11. (Equal to the two largest reports of civilian deaths at IraqBodyCount.org. Ten percent of the total civilian death count in Iraq caused by the war.)
2. $659,000 seized entering Eqypt. (Enough to buy a nice, middle class house in San Diego County.)
3. 1,320 pounds of heroin taken from three "al-Qaeda- and Taliban-linked San Diego weapons dealers." (one-tenth of one percent of the Afganistan heroin production in 2004.)
4. 401 total terror suspects arrested using the Patriot Act. (There are 463 street gangs with 39,032 members in Los Angeles alone. There were 291 gang related homicides in Los Angeles in 2004.)

These were the best reasons one of the finer minds at Nation Review (a bit of an oxymoron, that) could come up with. "Killing a flea with a hammer" seems an understatement. I guess I'm suppose to feel safer with this overweening attack on the Constitution passing the Senate by a vote of 89-10. I have a lot more to fear from the Patriot Act than I do from the tiny squad of terrorists it is suppose to interdict.