The WSJ, I am glad to report, also covers the fact that some folks in the Senate are developing enough spine NOT to just rubber stamp the atrocious so-called "Patriot" act, the one which allows some Patriots to invade the privacy and undermine the civil rights of others at great expense to companies:

"WASHINGTON -- Opposition mounted on and off Capitol Hill to extending investigative provisions in the USA Patriot Act, as House and Senate negotiators worked to shore up an agreement to renew the antiterrorism law.

Sens. Larry Craig (R., Idaho), John Sununu (R., N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) and Ken Salazar (D., Colo.) said they will fight reauthorization of the entire measure unless it incorporates changes to prevent excessive government intrusion in personal matters.

The Bush administration has been pushing Congress to reauthorize and strengthen the act as a vital counterterrorism tool.

The six senators join an unlikely alliance of opponents to the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union and criminal-defense lawyers on one side of the political spectrum, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S.'s two largest business groups, on the other.

Business is concerned by the growing use, and with it costs, of demands on companies by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for personal records of customers, suppliers and employees.

The six senators wrote the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday saying that it was essential that a new Patriot Act "continues to provide law enforcement with the tools to investigate possible terrorist activity while making reasonable changes to the original law to protect innocent people from unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance."

"If further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming law," they said.

Their protest came just hours after Republicans had said a tentative agreement had been reached. But that deal appeared to be in doubt when Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) canceled a news conference on the measure.

Republican staffers said a compromise on differing House and Senate versions had been reached that addressed business and privacy-advocate concerns, curbing some extended powers for law enforcement. The terms reached by negotiators include some new restrictions on government powers, including greater public reporting and oversight of how often the government is demanding records and using various investigative tools.

On close inspection of the deal, privacy advocates and business groups concluded that important provisions that existed in the Senate version of the bill to prevent civil-rights abuses in terror investigations had been gutted. In particular, they felt there wasn't sufficient judicial oversight of National Security Letters, a form of subpoena used to demand phone records and other business records without the approval of a judge. While the proposed law does allow recipients to appeal the letters, it makes it relatively easy for the government to defeat a challenge by claiming that demand for records is a matter of national security.

Moreover, businesses that receive NSLs, as they are called, face new criminal penalties if they tell their customers about them. Under the proposed law, customers may in fact never get notice that their records were requested and obtained by federal agents. Businesses that receive these orders aren't advised that they have a right to consult an attorney and challenge the demand.

Business opposition to the new Patriot Act is in part driven by the costs associated with complying with tens of thousands of NSLs every year."

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It strikes me as pathetic that business will oppose such fascistic measures only because of the financial costs. Strategically, being willing to lie to your customers about their interests is very poor anti-productive behavior for a business, now being forced on them byt the security weenies. If I thought a business had pulled such a stunt on me my custom would be gone in a New York minute and I woudl do everything I could to prevent other business for them by those I know.

A