Because as We All Know... The Terrorist's Favorite Weapon is Sudafed 

It's stunts like this that make me not trust a word that comes from any politician:

The new version of the Patriot Act scheduled to become law later this week will protect us from more than just terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. It addresses what lawmakers are calling another threat to our nation: methamphetamine, an illegal homemade stimulant.

According to the commander of the Albany County Narcotics Unit, rightfully so.

Beginning Sept. 30 it will be harder to buy something as simple as Sudafed. The law is supposed to make it harder to manufacture meth, but it's cracking down on the people who have to enforce it too.
...
To crack down on the drug’s processing, the new version of the Patriot Act requires pharmacies to store medicines containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter, impose limits on how much could be bought at once and force pharmacists to collect signatures and identification from consumers.

The next time someone complains about a politician who voted against the PATRIOT Act renewal... remember stuff like this. It wasn't simply giving the tools law enforcement needs to fight terrorism. It was also about sneaking in little pet projects that nobody thought they could pass on their own merits. Of course, in Wisconsin we have our own similar law, but now every other state has to deal with it too.

Oh, but it gets better. Because the PATRIOT Act renewal also increases law enforcement's ability to authorize wire taps... in anti-trust cases:

Section 113 of the Patriot Act amendments, H.R. 3199, adds the Sherman Antitrust Act to a list of "predicate offenses" that enable the Justice Department to wiretap phone lines and bug private buildings. Such wiretaps and bugs would have to be authorized by a federal judge.

The antitrust wiretap provision was not included in H.R. 3199—or its Senate counterpart, S. 1389—during initial votes by either house of Congress. Instead, the antitrust language was added during a December 8, 2005, meeting of House and Senate conferees who were reconciling differences in the two Patriot Act bills. The final conference report was passed six days later by the House and approved by the Senate earlier this month.

No Congressman or Senator is allowed to claim that the PATRIOT Act was just about fighting terrorism. It's a nice little trick they get to play isn't it? They can shout from the roof tops about how they're trying to protect you from a terrorist attack. Then when you're not looking, they'll sneak something dirty in there too. And the best part is, if anyone dares to say anything about it, they can mock you for being "soft on terrorism". Convenient... isn't it?

Both links via The Agitator.