Good news! A bipartisan group of Senators has threatened to block the Patriot Act reauthorization because the House-Senate “compromise” bill goes way too far.

“If further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming law,” GOP Sens. Larry Craig, John Sununu and Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold and Ken Salazar said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

This came a day after House-Senate negotiators crafted a tentative compromise to make most provisions of the existing law permanent, and set new seven-year sunsets for rules on wiretapping, obtaining business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and new standards for monitoring “lone wolf” terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power.

Congress is facing two deadlines: lawmakers want to leave before the end of the week for Thanksgiving, and more than a dozen provisions of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t renew them.

The Republican-controlled House hopes to approve the compromise on Friday, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told senators Thursday they will have to address the legislation “before we leave.” — Associated Press

If one of these people is your Senator, call them up and thank them for their work in blocking this unpatriotic garbage. If not, call your own Senators and urge them to vote No on the un-American Patriot Act reauthorization.