Well wadda ya know, you're right! That's such a treat, it was almost worth being wrong just to see it!

And your restraint was palpable in that polite little message, Tom. I'm sure your instincts were screaming carpe jugulum!, and I'm grateful that your better nature prevailed. IOU 1 unit of mercy, to be redeemed at a later date.

That's funny. I should have paid more heed to the fact that I was reading an analysis and not the law itself. So much of the "Patriot" Act, like most legislation, consists of instructions for revision rather than actual text, that I think I interpreted that block as an amendment to the "Patriot" Act. He he he he...ya got me!

But ya know, I think I can still get the last word: That list of existing grounds for a wiretap is in itself so expansive that it makes my civil libertarian skill crawl...and yet the "Patriot" Act exists to expand Federal power even further. I'm amused to have been wrong on the specifics, but I'm not so amused by the general principle.