Legal Research

Hearty souls who monitor pending legislation are probably well aware of THOMAS, the Library of Congress web site dedicated to making U.S. government information available online.  You know, hawt stuff like bills and the Federal Register.  However, I'd like to take a moment to give a big shout out to GovTrack.US. 

This fabulous free resource offers all sorts of goodies.  CRS summaries, the full text of bills, overviews, speeches, voting rolls, congressional district maps -- it's like Festivus for policy wonks but much, much more!  GovTrack.US even provides handy RSS feeds and e-mail alerts which subscribers can use to track bills like Bambi's Mom on opening day of hunting season.

Serious props are due to the good folks at GovTrack.US for their diligent coverage of the latest round of FISA-related bills.  Intended to amend Public Law 95-511 (a.k.a. the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978), the forthcoming amendments will "establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence." 

Frankly, I'm not sure which I find more upsetting -- re-watching "that scene" from Bambi or knowing that S. 2248 already passed the Senate in February 2008 and the vote on its companion bill H.R.3773 is scheduled for tomorrow.  Ah, so many civil liberties, so little time to undermine them.... After all, what's a little warrantless electronic surveillance between a government and its constituents? ;) 

Disclaimer: No animals, cartoon or otherwise, were harmed in the making of this post although my chocolate Lab did fall asleep on my foot.  Twice.