Oh good gravy.

Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act. The revised act would grant the FBI the power to write its own secret subpeonas, not subject to judicial review, whose very existance would be a secret punishable by jail time if revealed.

My favorite quote:

In testimony in April, FBI director Robert Mueller said: “The administrative subpoena power would be a valuable complement to (existing) tools and provide added efficiency to the FBI’s ability to investigate and disrupt terrorism operations and our intelligence gathering efforts.”

Golly, I bet their job would be easier still if we dealt away with other pesky loopholes, like rights to a jury trial, requirements to show probable cause, rights to due process and other commie-pinko ideals.