Comparisons

"This obstruction is inexcusable," President Bush said at the White House in the latest of a series of attacks on critics blocking renewal of the measure. "The senators obstructing the Patriot Act need to understand that the expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers."

made me think of this quote

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”" -- William Pitt, House of Commons, 11/18/1783