RIP Bill Proxmire

Growing up in Wisconsin, Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI) was always something of a family hero, but most of the world knows him as the creator of The Golden Fleece Awards, an annual highlight of "outrageous waste" of taxpayer dollars by the US government. Let's remember his death yesterday at age 90 with a link to the Golden Fleece Top 10.

And: Following in the footsteps of Proxmire and Minnesota's recently departed Eugene MacCarthy, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is fightin' the good fight over the Patriot Act. Once the lone voice of dissent on this invasive provision, he's now joined by two dozen other senators, which may make a filibuster of the act a possibility. Send him a note of thanks here.