Let me introduce you to a bipartisan pro-Bill of Rights group headed up by the well known conservative Republican Bob Barr of Georgia, called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances.

The group is trying to inject some sensibility into the frenzied political debate about the Patriot Act and warrantless surveillance.

Below are some excerpts from the group’s homepage. Further down is a list of many of the organizations that are members of the PRCB.

Check out the member list. It takes courage for some of those organizations to publically oppose the awesomely powerful Republican machine.

Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances

FROM THE PRCB HOMEPAGE:

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The Patriot Act in its current form grants the government many unbridled powers at the expense of some of Americans’ most fundamental freedoms, especially their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

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The need for increased oversight and additional checks on government powers is more apparent now than ever. In the past few months, we have learned that the government has been violating the laws governing secret surveillance and that, since the Patriot Act loosened restrictions on National Security Letters (NSLs), the FBI has been issuing thousands and thousands to ordinary Americans with no connection to a suspected foreign terrorist. We know that the President himself has authorized intelligence investigators to spy on U.S. citizens in America without warrants, in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Yet some Members of Congress have turned a blind eye to these blatant abuses, bowing to pressure from an Administration that has refused time and again to support the inclusion of sensible civil liberties safeguards in the Patriot Act.

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Alliance Members

Members of Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances urge Congress to review and, where necessary, amend provisions of the Patriot Act to bring them in-line with the Constitution.

Rep. Bob Barr, Chairman, PRCB, Former Member of Congress (R-GA)
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
American Civil Liberties Union
American Conservative Union
Americans for Tax Reform
American Policy Center
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Free Congress Foundation
Libertarian Party
Gun Owners of America
Second Amendment Foundation

The members of our Alliance are concerned about efforts by Congress and the Administration to make all the temporary powers of the Patriot Act permanent, without any recognition of the serious reservations many law-biding Americans have about secrets searches of their homes and their possessions by federal agents, as well as other far-reaching provisions.

Bob Barr, Chairman, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances