I just got to the conference center in Edinburgh. The trip wasn't bad--I slept most of the way from Chicago.

When I checked my email, I had several emails that people had forwarded to me pointing out an email from UITA requesting that members attend a $500/person fund raising reception for Sen. Orrin Hatch. The announcement read, in part:

In recent years I've worked closely w/ Senator Orrin Hatch and found him to be a true champion of technology issues in our country. Since he's had such an important impact on our technology community, I hope you'll join me on May 30th to thank him directly.

Huh?!? A true champion of technology issues? Sen. Hatch is the single biggest threat to the Internet in the Senate and, consequently, to the livelihood of many of the UTC members this announcement was sent to.

At best, this can be seen as an acknowledgment that, barring divine intervention, Hatch will win the Senate race he's in and be in office six more years and so you'd better make friends with the powers that be. Still, it rankles me to see Hatch called a "champion of technology." He's not.