Which year are you in? fast no hassle payday loans for bad credit The Patriot Act was part of this country’s response to Sept. 11, 2001, first giving us the gift of torture — or enhanced interrogation — and then enhanced phone surveillance as part of the deal, surveillance we were reminded of this week. You should remember that this is the kind of surveillance that bothered this President a lot more when he was a U.S. senator. In that way, the whole thing makes him look as phony as Sensenbrenner.