Rand Paul is taking a stand against the Patriot Act:
Do the many provisions of this bill, which were enacted in such haste after 9/11, have an actual basis in our Constitution, and are they even necessary to achieve valid law-enforcement goals?
rather than examine what went wrong, and fix the problems, Congress instead hastily passed a long-standing wish list of power grabs like warrantless searches and roving wiretaps. The government greatly expanded its own power, ignoring obvious answers in favor of the permanent expansion of a police state. It is not acceptable to willfully ignore the most basic provisions of our Constitutionin this casethe Fourth and First Amendmentsin the name of “security.”
It's a lengthy, stirring bit of writing - and it quotes Russ Feingold, the only Senator to vote against the legislation when it passed for the first time in the wake of 9/11. The man who ousted him, Ron Johnson, voted "aye" in the recent vote to reauthorize the legislation.