I was going through my email, when I stumbled across the following snippet in an EFF bulletin:

* Action Alert: End Game for PATRIOT in Senate, Public Loses

Two months ago, a bi-partisan filibuster in the Senate
prevented renewal of the PATRIOT Act without significant new
reforms. We cheered, but not for long. Now, the PATRIOT
supporters have announced a sham "compromise" bill and stand
poised to have it passed.

In the end, the Senate rebellion left the bill barely
changed - only a few token modifications agreed to by the
Administration are included in the new version of the bill.
It looks like these phony modifications will be sufficient
to break the deadlock and extend a dangerously unchecked
PATRIOT Act.

Your senators have one last chance to make a real stand for
your civil liberties. On the Senate floor next week, they
should vote against the "cloture" motion that would end the
debate and against the latest PATRIOT renewal deal. Your
senators should also support amendments proposed by Senators
Feingold, Bingaman, and Leahy that would add new civil
liberties protections and mitigate the worst excesses of
that bill.

Visit our action center now and urge your Senator to vote
against cloture, against the PATRIOT renewal deal, and for
the reform amendments.

Write to your senator now:
<http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=214>

I decided to click through and submit a letter to my Senators, Joseph R. Biden and Thomas R. Carper. I've the EFF's interface before, it's extremely convenient. They ask for your name and address, and provide you with a form letter which they send to your representatives for you. You can edit the letter, which I have done. I'm posting my copy here, in case others could benefit from it.

I strongly encourage all Americans to contact their Senators about this issue and urge them to make certain the PATRIOT Act is not rewnewed without at least some improvements for our protections. The EFF interface is an excellent tool to use, but any means of communicating with your senator would have an impact.

As a constituent who has followed closely the debate over PATRIOT reform, I am writing to ask that you vote against the current PATRIOT reauthorization bill.

The PATRIOT reauthorization bill, in its conference form, was sufficiently contentious to provoke an extended filibuster in the Senate. The concerns raised by senators then have yet to be addressed, and the meager changes that would be made to the conference bill by Senator Sununu's current "Additional Reauthorizing Amendments" bill, S. 2271, are wholly inadequate when it comes to protecting my civil liberties and those of and my fellow constituents.

I work in the private sector for a very large financial institution. Mind, I _do_not_ speak as a representative of that organization, I only speak as an individual. I reference it because in my seven years there, I have learned the value of the controls that are forced upon that business by government regulation. Oversight is critical for any human endeavor of value and risk, be it banking, trading, health care, food production, or so forth in the private sector. All of these endeavors are highly regulated by the Federal Government, for the sake of protecting the people whom elected the government. These regulations are then enforced by audits and compliance reviews.

The powers bestowed to the Federal government by the Constitution are, without a doubt, far exceeding those of the private sector. As such, use of those powers requires even more diligent and effective oversight. From all I can read, the Patriot Act striped oversight and protections that existed, leaving but flimsy shells behind, if anything. Judicial oversight of domestic surveillance is critical for the protection of Americans' rights.

For the Senate to proceed with unlimited renewal of the Patriot Act in its present form, without adequate oversight and protections, would be a gross betrayal of the constituency that elected that same Senate. Power granted to the government REQUIRES safeguards, lest abuse of that power lead at best to the violation of citizen's rights and false persecutions, at worse to a possible undermining of our very system of government.

Abuse of the minimal controls provided in the Patriot Act have already occurred. The EFF writeup of the Patriot Act [0] mentions the expanded surveillance under FISA wiretaps. And yet, in spite of this, the current Administration showed its clear and blatant disregard for what little the law required with their failure to acquire FISA warrants for domestic surveillance. With such flagrant disregard for the law, the Administration has clearly shown that it is not worthy of the trust required by the Patriot Act in its current form. In truth, no government is worthy of that level of blind trust.

It is absolutely mind-boggling to me that the Senate may actually pass this renewal, in spite of the scandal over the warrantless surveillance by the Bush Administration.

This bill should be delayed until after an honest and substantive discussion, and the addition of genuine checks on the powers renewed and extended by the law.

Please vote against cloture on the PATRIOT renewal debate, and support the Feingold, Bingaman, Leahy amendments to the Sununu bill. Please also engage other senators and encourage them to do the same. If PATRIOT is to be renewed at all, then it should contain these minimal safeguards.

Please note that I have posted a copy of this letter to my blog.
http://arnoth.net/~earnoth/blog


[0]http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism/20011031_eff_usa_patriot_analysis.php
[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121701233.html

The Australian has a good story about the Abramoff scandal.

A snipet from the article:

The Abramoff fraud and bribery scandal is as big as it gets, writes Sarah Baxter in Washington
January 09, 2006

AMERICANS are used to lobbyists and big business oiling the wheels of their democracy, but not to "in-your-face" corruption. Last week, it was there for all to see when Washington super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and promised to reveal details of alleged bribes to top politicians as part of a deal with prosecutors.

While the US Congress is convulsed by its biggest scandal in generations, up to 20 members -- including Tom DeLay, who resigned yesterday as the Republican leader in the House of Representatives -- could be implicated.

"It's colossal," said Alex Knott, of the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington. "If Abramoff discloses all of his quid pro quos, Americans will learn exactly how money has shaped their politics." ...

I, for one, am very interested to see what the gory details will be.

An interesting couple of stories about the Abramoff scandal that's brewing...

Tremors Across Washington as Lobbyist Will Aid Inquiry (NY Times, free registration required)

A look at the Abramoff scandal and where it goes next (USA Today)

Lobbyist case threatens Congress (BBC)

The next week should get verrry interesting. There seem to be a lot of scandals in the Capital these days...

go figure.

Normally I don't post about non-technical stuff on my blog, but I felt this story on MSN was particularly worthy of as much linkage as it could acquire.

From the article,

The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security...President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.