8. February, 2003 - USA-PATRIOT 2?

Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act. They haven't really shown it to many legislators, and have been publicly denying that it was in the works, but having it all written up would sure be convenient if there were to be another terroristic act to put a scare into everyone, wouldn't it? And yeah, this one's worse than the first. The full text is available as a PDF and it's got some spooky shit in there:
- Section 201 would prohibit disclosure of information about people detained as suspected terrorists.
- Section 202 would restrict distribution of "worst case scenario" information from EPA filings.
- Sections 301-306 would authorize the creation of a DNA database of suspected terrorists.
- Section 501 would allow the government to take away the citizenship of people belonging to "terrorist organizations".
I'm probably going to put together letters to my Congress-Critters explaining just how bad an idea this sort of legislation is. [boing boing]
Eric Raymond has released The Art of Unix Programming for public review. It's been good reading through the first five chapters. [holy schmoly]