The Patriot Act renewed

Anyone who has read my old blog will note that I am not a fan of the Patriot Act. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to a bad situation that some power-hungry politicians used to take away many of our freedoms. Thankfully, there are people today who are willing to take a stand and complain about the more offensive portions of the bill (as opposed to just after 9/11, when no one said anything, for fear of being called unpatriotic). Unfortunately, the powers that were supposed to end have been renewed and made permanent. How convenient that there was a terrorist act somewhere in the world that we cared about (England) right before the bill was put up for a vote. In the following article from CNN, it's reported that there are no reported instances of abuse of the Patriot Act powers.
My biggest beef is this: just because they haven't been abused doesn't meant they won't be abused. True, the corallary could also be said: Just because excessive powers have been abused in the past, doesn't mean the U.S. government will abuse this power in this instance. There might be some validity to that point, but I still wonder how far we can go in trusting our politicians.
Their goals include gaining more power and getting enough votes for reelection. Are our interests really being watched for, or is it just the big business interests? I know I don't have enough money to garner attention from Washington, so I kno where I place my bet. And I know enough history to know that given a little extra power, a lot more will be taken. You could almost call it human nature, but there are some nice humans out there. Just not enough in Washington.