In the News

The Pacific Northwest spawns gadfly lawmakers who don't shape-shift to political currents. Sens. Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska were the only U.S. senators to vote against the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing the use of force against North Vietnam. In the mid-1970s, Idaho Sen. Frank Church shepherded a select committee to investigate extralegal intelligence activities, including efforts to assassinate foreign leaders and the "HTLINGUAL" program that opened U.S. mail.

It's prudent to question authority, particularly when authority crosses the limits.

Fast forward to the digital age, where evolving technology meets immutable human nature. Today, it's a replay of harmonizing civil liberties and the rule of law with the catchall of national security.

On Tuesday, Rep. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., introduced the USA Freedom Act to attempt to halt the ends-justify-the-means MO of the National Security Agency.

Sensenbrenner, one of the original authors of the 2001 Patriot Act, has witnessed enough un-patriotic abuses of the post-9/11 law that he's resolved to mend the holes.

A companion bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, also will be introduced this week.

Freshman Rep. Suzan DelBene, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was joined by Everett Rep. Rick Larsen in co-sponsoring the bill.

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