And now for some good news:

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives abandoned, at least temporarily, a drive to open Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling after concluding on Wednesday the initiative was threatening passage of a huge bill to cut spending...

Environmentalists have opposed expanding oil drilling to the sensitive area in Alaska and some Florida congressmen have worked to kill the offshore oil and gas drilling plan. Both projects have been a high priority of U.S. oil companies.With a more ambitious, $54 billion spending-reduction bill getting bogged down in the House, Republican leaders jettisoned the oil drilling plans for now.

And

The House of Representatives unanimously approved a motion favoring a four-year expiration on some of the most controversial provisions of the Act. This "motion to instruct" the joint conference committee members won wide bipartisan support and signals that leaders are concerned about the secretive powers at the heart of the Patriot Act controversy.

While the motion is non-binding, it sends a powerful message just as the conference committee prepares to vote on the competing versions of the Patriot Act passed by the House and the Senate. It is a rebuke to the Bush administration and their effort to make all of the expiring Patriot Act powers permanent or extend them for ten years before the next review.