Empirical evidence notwithstanding, stupidity is not a requirement for membership in the U.S. Congress. Also, stupid acts by Congress do not have to be forever.

Witness the infamous, freedom-busting, Orwellian piece of legislative stupidity known as the Patriot Act. Passed by a panicked Congress right after 9-11, and reauthorized by a cowed Congress in 2006, this thing empowers the FBI to make wholesale, secret invasions of the American people's privacy — grossly violating one of our country's core values.

As we've learned from investigative reports by the bureau's own inspector general, concerns about intrusive and abusive actions by a bulked-up FBI were not theoretical. This national police agency has been found guilty of "widespread and serious misuse" of the Patriot Act's most invasive provisions. For example, the act opened up our private records to government agents, enabling them to write their own authorizations for poking into our personal business without having to show any reasonable cause for spying on us. Hundreds of cases of the FBI sweeping up information it has no authority to collect have now been documented.

Did no one foresee the stupidity of granting such broad, unchecked power? Yes. Sen. Russ Feingold did, and he cast the one courageous vote against the Patriot Act in 2001. Now Feingold is back with S. 2088, a bill to rein in the FBI and restore the people's constitutional rights. As he puts it, we've learned the hard way that "trust us" doesn't cut it when it comes to preventing government snoops from abusing their power.

Congress has the responsibility to put appropriate restraints on government authorities, and that's what Feingold's "National Security Reform Act" does. To help put some real patriotism in the misnamed and misguided Patriot Act, contact Feingold's office at (202) 224-5323.

AIRLINES OUTSOURCING OUR SAFETY AND JOBS

Airlines have been cutting everything from pillows to staff — but what about cutting corners on the structural safety of their planes?

Well, fasten you seatbelts. Beneath the radar of the flying public, airlines execs have engaged in a widespread and worrisome cost-cutting move: outsourcing maintenance of their planes to low-wage countries. Some airlines send landing gears, engines and other parts out of country for repair, while others send entire planes. This sets off safety alarms for us passengers. Not that other countries don't have competent workers, but — get this — the airlines increasingly are using "non-certificated" maintenance shops around the world. Maybe such places are A-1 repair sites, but we don't know, because our industry-cozy Federal Aviation Administration has not even inspected and certified them.

Bad enough that our government is letting such a basic safety function slip away, but maintenance is also a key industry for middle-class jobs. As a Machinist Union leader points out, "This is a technological base, an important industry base, for our country, and we're just giving it up." We know that CEOs are dramatically raising airfares, but they're then quietly using our consumer dollars to undermine America's middle-class future, sending our skilled jobs, technology and maybe our safety to such eager countries as Mexico.

We can't blame Mexicans for that, because their officials are simply on the ball, trying to lift the economic fortunes of their people. Mexico's government, for example, will soon break ground for the National Aerospace University, which will train a sophisticated workforce for building and maintaining aircraft.

Where are our leaders? Why aren't they doing that? Why aren't our corporate and governmental officials investing in the American people, rather than aggressively downsizing America's future?

To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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