Well, I suppose it's nice that someone is at least trying to combat this shit. But, you know, it would have been nice if you assholes had tried stopping some of this shit before rubber-stamping the USA-PATRIOT act without question.

When it comes to this bookstore and library records provision, the first thing Asscroft or one of his cronies always brings up is that it's been invoked zero times. That may or may not be true, but it's wholly irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that they have the capability to do this kind of shit, and that's the fucked up part. It's kinda like the old saying on being paranoid; you only have to be right once to make it all worthwhile. Well, they only have to invoke this power once to make all the criticisms that much more valid. Saying that it's never been used, of course, is intended to imply that it's not a big deal and that it might never be used. Well, if it's not a big deal, then why are you cocksuckers so insistent upon keeping it?

The orders are issued by a special court that handles foreign surveillance intelligence cases, and are easier to obtain than search warrants or subpoenas.

The special court they're talking about, I believe, is the court system set up by the Foreign Intelligence Service Act, which rarely - if ever - gets any mention. An overview of FISA can be found here ("Overview" section just past the "News" section; also includes a rundown of how the PATRIOT Act amended FISA).