Patriot Act coming soon to your town........
U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling:
"The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.
The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said."
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Publicly, Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior Justice Department officials have portrayed their expanded power almost exclusively as a means of fighting terrorists, with little or no mention of other criminal uses.
Internally, however, Justice Department officials have emphasized a much broader mandate.
A guide to a Justice Department employee seminar last year on financial crimes, for instance, said: "We all know that the USA Patriot Act provided weapons for the war on terrorism. But do you know how it affects the war on crime as well?"

Just wait till they start imprisoning people as enemy combatants. This stuff always trickles down to the local level such as that drug/cash seizure (interstate lotto) that started during the Reagan administration with the DEA and other federal agencies to take cash and property of drug runners. Then before you know it sheriff Goober in Smallassville learns that he can racially profile some dark skinned people and play the lotto on the local level by "securing" the cash that migrant workers carry on the way home and happen to "weave inside their lane" while traveling through Smallassville. So, instead now it is used for ripping off poor brown folks and using their hard earn money to buy a new deluxe crown vic with the custom paint job, some night vision goggles, some begian police "attack those foreigners" dogs, and paramilitary uniforms for his fleet of "Barneys" and they slowly become the local militia that now is roaming around needing more money to buy some cool new toys for work - like the Kick Saddamn's Ass pontoon U-boat with the optional ski package to patrol the local river looking to see if anyone is molesting the catfish.
Am I making this up?........you need to live here for awhile.