Remember how we had to hurry up and renew the Patriot Act to stop terrorists, and who people who were afraid of civil liberties being denied were untrusting of the government?

We're now using the Patriot Act to battle the imminent threat of cock fighting:

Just after midnight on May 13, 2004, a small team of FBI agents crept into the legendary Del Rio Cockfighting Pit in Cocke County.

The illegal gambling arena was closed, and agents were able to copy a computer hard drive before slipping away. They didn't notify the property's then-owner, Michael Maynard of Hot Springs, N.C., of the search for another three months.

Acting under the authority of the Patriot Act, the agents had obtained a search warrant that allowed them to clandestinely enter the property, search for evidence and not tell anyone about it until the government or a judge was ready to let the owners know they'd been there.

Originally touted as a tool in the struggle against terrorism, the Patriot Act now was being used in the hills of East Tennessee as part of a shadowy war that had been going on for decades, a struggle that pitted the federal government against a homespun Appalachian culture that had churned out generation after generation of proud outlaws.

And hurrying up executions... not of terrorists... but of anyone we feel like:

A report in the Los Angeles Times says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be empowered to speed up state-run executions under new regulations that are being finalized by the Justice Department.

Under a provision in the USA Patriot Act, the attorney general is authorized to decide whether defendants received adequate representation at trial, thereby ending years of potential appeals and putting states on a "fast track" to carry out executions, the paper reports.

Makes me feel all patriotic just thinking about it.