As you may be aware, Sens. Leahy and Sununu introduced a legislation to extend the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act by 3 months so that the reauthorization legislation can be debated thoroughly before most of the act becomes permanent.

It is critical to pass this extension before the Senate recesses for the holidays, and I'll leave it to you to imagine the political calculus, given that 16 provisions will expire on 12/31.

The bill number is S. 2082, and it currently has 48 sponsor+co-sponsors. If we have 3 more senators onboard, the bill will have the 51 votes required to pass. Please help push it past that mark.

Key Words: Patriot Act, Defense spending bill, National Deficit, Legislative Activism, Activism

An observation: the run away Bush National Debt. which stood at $8.1 trillion on 12/15 will soon hit the National Debt Ceiling that was raised in November of 2004 to $8.18 Trillion (yes, after the election).

A simple estimation shows that the Federal Government will default on its payments, effectively a bankruptcy, from around the 12th of January, if not earlier, unless the Congress plays along with this grotesque mismanagement by Bush, Cheney & Co and raises the debt ceiling again.

Being X-posted across: Daily Kos, My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, myDD, political Cortex. Volunteers for posting this at Democratic Underground (I can't post a new topic there yet) are welcome.

Update 1: The house voted in favor of the conference report on wednesday by a 251-174 vote with 44 Democrats voting to pass the conference report (alas). Roll call.

I have added C-Span 2 feed below the fold. A must-watch on Friday (if you take headphones to work on Friday you can keep tabs on the developments all through the day). Thanks.