Morning Taylor!

Wow.

Bravo Taylor!

What a rethug chickenhawk crum he is and that whiny voice is an added irritant.

Hey Angie, morning all. Wow, indeed, FM.

My Dad was drafted in 1968 (born 1946) and is legally blind without his glasses. He served proudly over in Viet Nam with the 11th Cav and has the scars to prove it (both mentally and physically). The recruiters most definitely would find ways to get guys into service, including those with terrible eyesight. Much like now they were desperate to get bodies on the frontlines, so to say his eyesight was poor tells me that Weldon sure didn’t try very hard to serve his country.

Any polling on that race, Taylor?

Since nobdy else did it:

FITZ!

Taylor -

I remember those days, and was quite happy with my over 300 lottery number. I would not criticize anyone who used any means to avoid the draft in those days, but then to swift boat others who did serve is beneath contempt. The chicken hawks have lead to most of our problems in Iraq, including AWOL himself.

Ooo-wee, is that a real billboard, Taylor? Do you know where? Wish we could cover the country with them! (Now to read your post.)

OT: Drudge says that Novak is about to start a catfight with Armitage. Should be fun to watch.

op99 - I hesitate to offer any polling data without analysis, because I’m not an expert on polling, which I leave to Chris Bowers @ MyDD. However, Weldon is leading at this point. But I thought this article was interesting and very desperate by Weldon’s people. They’re clearly trying to push their polling data, which is suspect, if you ask me.

http://www.delcotimes.com/site.....#038;rfi=6

GOP= Grand Old Prevaricators

aka Shapeshifters “R” Us

Limits to Surveillance Bill Blocked

Filed at 11:30 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans blocked Democratic attempts to rein in President Bush’s domestic wiretapping program Wednesday amid a sustained White House campaign to give the administration broad authority to monitor, interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects.

While refusing to give the president a blank check to prosecute the war on terrorism, Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee kept to the White House’s condition that a bill giving legal status to the surveillance program pass unamended.

By voice vote and roll calls, Republicans defeated Democratic amendments to insert a one-year expiration date into the bill and require the National Security Agency to report more often to Congress on the standards for its domestic surveillance program.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin.....orism.html

My recollection is that the highest number called (persons with this number were drafted) in the initial lottery was 195, and that is was successively lower for each of the next two years.

Off topic, but:
I was just over at Steve Gilliard’s place, and August Pollak (in comments) said that polls show Lieberman ahead of Lamont.

Anyone have any information on what’s going on over there? I figure this is the place to go for Lamont info…

Spotlight this post to local media in Pennsylvania! Spotlight Spotlight Spotlight!

A bit OT.. again being on different time zone does not help…

Lately it has become harder and harder to read the news about Bush and his cronies and their unbelievable policies and decisions: every time I fire up my browser or I open a newspaper I am flabbergasted by the new low that has been reached and every time I tell myself “that’s the bottom, it cannot get worse that this”. And nevertheless it gets worse no matter what: during the last week I have come across several discussions on different blogs and news sites about the decision of the USA government to disengage itself from the “quaint” constraints of the Geneva conventions… to say it bluntly to legalize and codify torture as a acceptable “tool” to obtain information from prisoners.

There.. I have typed it down and still I do not believe we are now to a point that something like this is the topic of a discussion. I remember when 2 years ago, before Abu Graib become dreadfully known, before the conditions of the persons held in Guantanamo become of public knowledge, before “extraordinary rendition” become such an “ordinary” occurrence, a discussion like this would be beyond the realm of possibility, would never even be considered as a legitimate point to raise or consider. And today we have the president of the USA publicly stating that fear of prosecution for war crimes is one of the restrains that need to be lifted from the head of the Usa Intelligence forces, saying that CIA “black prisons” are a terrible reality (acceptable and according to his rotten idea of the law, absolutely legal), we have officials that when directly questioned about the use of torture can only answer with long awkward silence (I have recently watched again (thanks to C&L) the unbelievable clip of Gonzalez testifying under oath in front of the congress… and I still cannot warp my mind around that!).

It was not long ago, when MCain proposed its anti-torture bill, that all the main players of the USA government (cheney excluded … yes I know I am missing a capital letter here… I am very aware of that) did go on record in front of a camera to say that things like.. “of course the USA did not condone torture and it would never do that… why shall we even discuss this… come on, we have also have a new nice bill by “Maverick” MCain saying that we are not going to that and we never did.. So nothing to see here, let talk about something else”. What really struck my mind was not the rhetoric avalanche coming from TV and newspapers: I was in my early days of blogs exploration (started from Micheal Moore web site after watching F911 and long before I become addicted to Firedoglake :-)) but I still remember a comment to a post about this matters that I found on Huffington Post: “Do we really need a bill to confirm that torture is not something we do? Wasn’t there a time when something like that was a clear point, a point that went without saying because any other alternative would just be crazy and americanized?” **.

The impact of the fact that a discussion like that was even going on had on the western world, on Italy for example from where I am typing, but on all Europe, cannot be easily explained: the first approach was denial (”That’s not true, your rotten leftist (sigh!), the USA would never do that, they are the country who stopped the Nazis!”, “It’s propaganda, look at what’s going on in the middle east, the USA are different”), then when the stories from Cuba and Iraq become public, there was astonishment , scorn and disgust. The damage done to the image of the USA is deep and awfully difficult to cancel: I am afraid that the image of your nation is tarnished forever for lots of people, especially for those who cannot see the sane part of it so well represented by a community like the one of this blog. We had The cultural shock of seeing the “good guys” (as I have stated in other previous post, far from being perfect, the USA still is the leading nation of the western world) morph in front of us in a bizzarro-version of what they used to be. You can be sure no amount of Hollywood movies or rhetorical propaganda is going to make this go away from the minds of the younger people, from the latest generations (at least from the ones who do use their brain, from the smartest of the bunch): I have grown up with the idea of the USA as the country who saved the western world from the Nazis, they are growing up with the idea that the USA is the ruthless nation that tortures and deports out of fear and scorn… That’s a **ll of a difference, isn’t it ???!??

What really bothers and surprises me is the lukewarm reaction of the public opinion in the USA: top government officials fiddling around with the idea of radically altering the basic principles of your nation, allowing torture to happen “within the limits of the law” (… only typing that makes me longing for a shower..) and there is no outrage (outside the circle of sane people I can find here, of course), no pressure to change this course of action, to stop the sliding of the nation towards authoritarianism and, I must say this, fascism. It is really weird to see the similarity in behavior of some many Americans (39% still approve of Bush?! 49% still believes in ties between 911 and Iraq ??!!??) and the Italians of the 1920 when we let our nation become part of the nightmare of fascism and evil (weird and awfully scary). And I cannot believe that the press it is making no effort to counter this folly, to held the people in charge responsible for this mess: God bless people like Keith Obermann for having the guts to do his job when everybody else seems afraid and scared! (by the way I have bought his book as soon as Firedoglake posted about it!). I really need someone to explain me how such apathy become the rule, how the American public become so passive and uncaring…

Working hours are over, I have ranted long enough, gotta go

Peace everybody

** For me it was an epiphany: the blogs were the new medium I was looking for, a medium that cut through the layers of deceive coming out from the traditional media outlets, it was the way to inform myself about was going on without filtering and distortions thanks to the hard work of some strong minded individuals (hi Jane!): guess what? I am still hooked!

Frank Probst @
10

OT: Drudge says that Novak is about to start a catfight with Armitage. Should be fun to watch.

Please look at emptywheel’s current post at The Next Hurrah: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c......html#more

hmmm, even Ronnie served:

In the Army Now
Reagan joined the Army in 1942, but his poor eyesight prohibited him from battle duty. As a lieutenant and, later, a captain, he oversaw the making of movies that trained soldiers for battle.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/p.....an_dk.html

OT: While people are talking about “dodging” something . . . .

I realize I am late to this, but maybe a few other commenters are also.

Go to 9/11: Press for Truth (at MediaChannel.org) and start watching.

The tears start welling up in my eyes at 17 minutes, maybe earlier. And I have more than an hour remaining to watch. Gotta stop and post this, and go shut the door to my office, and continue.

So far, it’s stuff that we knew over the past few years. Don’t know where it’s going next.

Thanks to Jennifer Nix for highlighting this in her previous post here at FDL. I clicked. I am hooked.

From Taylor’s link @ 11

The Weldon campaign piggybacked on a survey of likely voters in state Sen. Ted Erickson’s 26th District and found the Republican congressman leading Sestak 59-34 when both candidates are identified by name.

-snip-

Erickson’s district covers about one-third of the 451,000 voters in Weldon’s district and includes the large Republican municipalities of Upper Darby, Springfield, Marple and Ridley Township.

The GOP’s registration edge is approximately 2-1 on Erickson’s turf while the entire congressional district is registered 56 Republican, 31 percent Democratic and 11 percent nonpartisan.

Interesting, that shows both candidates adding 3 percent on top of the party registration number. I wonder what’re the affiliation numbers for the entire district?

I appreciate the push to Spotlight this post. It’s the only way we’ll get any answers is if the local Penn. media pick it up and start asking questions.

Thanks for your story, GaryL, which is what I’ve been getting as well. But if Weldon’s eyes were bad, why didn’t he start with that story and stick with it? It smells, if you ask me.

petedownunder - Bingo. Those were bad days and everyone older I knew wanted out of the draft. It’s when you start swiftboating veterans who served honorably that raises my antenna.

Number 153 was borderline; you need to get the selective service draft records for his draft board to ascertain how far they went. I was registered at the Camden, NJ draft board in that era and often the higher numbers were not drafted. The quota was filled first by enlistees and Camden had quite a few. I had friends with lottery numbers in the range of 150 who sweated a lot, but were not drafted.

Weldon is abominable, but he may not have needed to use any special avoidance tactics to avoid being drafted with his number.

See if the records of his board are available and check the numbers to be sure.

Very nicely done.

Now how about Rove? He pulled a relatively low number (read it once in a blog but have forgotten it).

He pullled out of college his junior year to work for the RNC in Maryland with no student or medical deferrment.

For a somewhat comprehensive list of Weldon’s Chickenhawk pals see:

http://www.villagevoice.com/ne.....166,1.html

(Mod, if you haven’t gotten to my unlucky 13 ^ by the time I finish typing this, lhp et al. will want to see it — thanks!)

I can also attest that poor vision was no protection against the Vietnam draft. I was living in Kansas City then, and still dating guys. One of them, a soldier at Ft. Riley, Kansas, who was awaiting deployment, had to wear glasses so thick they were heavy to pick up.

So partly for good ol’ John’s sake, I really hope you/we can nail this bastard Weldon once and for all, Taylor!

Kimba1970 - I have the same disbelief. The United States of America as a state sponsor of torture - open policy, ready to be enshrined by Congress.

Unbelievable.

I don’t know about Weldon’s draft board, but in some areas they’d draft anyone who wasn’t dead. (I’ve heard of at least one person with severe kidney problems being drafted, over the objections of his doctor, and having to be given a medical discharge during basic training.) Other places the boards would give a 1-Y or 4-F to anyone who could plausibly fake a problem. My brother got CO status (and to this day is a CO) after some time corresponding with his board ‘registered, return receipt requested’. It all depended on who was on the draft board locally.

Whoa, Taylor, great post. Investigative journalism is alive and well.

For once, I’d like to hear one of these chickenhawks be honest and say, “Well I didn’t go to Vietnam because I was young and stupid and I was scared shitless of getting my ass shot off”.

But I guess that doesn’t fit with the GOP’s narrative to preserve the myth that Repubs are the party of strong, he-man types.

Read the “Questions and Answers” snippet again, Mudge. Weldon could have said he wasn’t called. Instead he gave one story, then changed it to another.

Also, I learned through a source, whom I cannot name, that Weldon was the Mayor of Deleware Cnty in the late 1970s, when he was around 30. Draft boards were controlled by county back then and the Delaware County War Board was a Republican machine back in those days. Makes you wonder if there was some sort of sweetheart deal made with Weldon. I mean, it’s not George W. Bush’s champagne unit, but making deals with country war boards was not unheard of in those days.

Also, check out this blog post re: Weldon giving his daughter some help through his congressional office. It’s not unheard of, but this blogger isn’t very happy about it:

http://www.totallydelco.com/bl.....ariah.html

PS-Just saw P J Evans’s comment @ 28. Bingo.

More O/T. Seems like we’re getting new optical scan voting machines in CT. I heard of this before but I didn’t realize that the maker is Diebold. Via CT Bob. Personally I like our old machines.

Whoa, Taylor, great post. Investigative journalism is alive and well.

For once, I’d like to hear one of these chickenhawks be honest and say, “Well, I didn’t go to Vietnam because I was young and stupid and I was scared shitless of getting my ass shot off”.

But I guess that doesn’t fit with the GOP’s narrative to preserve the myth that Repubs are the party of strong, he-man types.

Great post.

Weldon, what a weasel that man is.

OT: was watching Bush Monday night and one phrase stood out amongst his usual mish-mash of bullsh*t.

He was talking about a woman O’Dhoul or some such, and how she had told him she was going to ‘cross her fingers, and pray.’

The ‘cross her fingers, and pray’ comment seemed odd, when I thought about it, because most people who pray do not cross their fingers while doing so.

Crossing one’s fingers is a superstition, so where did Bush get this image, what possessed him to say it ? Was it a baleful attempt to gruffly ad-lib his shoot-from-the-hip ’sincerity’ ? Was it a slip from the speechwriter/teleprompter ? Is it a reference to some obscure cultural affectation that commonly has people crossing their fingers when they pray.

My own reaction at the time was that it was another example of the faux-religious-sincerity affected by Bush and his image-handler-speechwriter-consultants.

One of the persistent annoyances I have with Bush is the facade of religious sincerity that he affects, a
faux sincerity that many people are fooled by. This cross-your-fingers-and-pray comment the incongruence of the remark seemed a careless slip of that facade.

Maybe they were using a new speech writer, and were more concerned with focusing on their war-on-terror political haymaking ?

Perhaps it was just a sloppy ad-lib from the Shrub.

Maybe its just me splitting hairs though.

OT– Harry Reid has introduced a very voluminous (570 pages) amendment to the port security bill in the Senate that is making the rethugs– Collins, Patsy Roberts, Stevens so far– insane. It is essentially a protest over the NSA, Military Commission thingy, and failure to implement the 9/11 Commission report recommendations (as far as I can tell).

Taylor, it is perhaps worth repeating: the standard excludes only those whose eyesight cannot be corrected, not those with bad eyesight alone.

I served in the Army with 20/400 eyesight including astigmatism, and I did so without the kind of story that your “Reluctant Soldier” told.

I simply wear glasses, which correct to 20/20 (and that correct the astigmatism). The Army standard allows you to serve if the vision can be corrected by wearing glasses.

Period.

Curt Weldon wears glasses. See http://curtweldon.house.gov/

Taylor Marsh @ 11

op99 - I hesitate to offer any polling data without analysis, because I’m not an expert on polling, which I leave to Chris Bowers @ MyDD. However, Weldon is leading at this point. But I thought this article was interesting and very deseprate by Weldon’s people. They’re clearly trying to push their polling data, which is suspect, if you ask me.

http://www.delcotimes.com/site.....&rfi=6

From the intro paragraph, it sounds like even the reporter could see that the polling was suspect, since it only covered Republican-heavy parts of the district. According to Chris Bowers, PA-07 is “the 8th most Democratic district held by a Republican,” so I think it’s fair to say that polling the Republican parts is meaningless (other than if Weldon was losing there, he’d obviously be doomed.)

One other amusing tidbit:

it was conducted by Republican pollster Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies.

Neil Newhouse, aka Joe Lieberman’s post-primary pollster.

lisa @
14

Off topic, but:
I was just over at Steve Gilliard’s place, and August Pollak (in comments) said that polls show Lieberman ahead of Lamont.

Anyone have any information on what’s going on over there? I figure this is the place to go for Lamont info…

I just commented at newsblog — the Survey USA poll is a real stinker:

http://www.surveyusa.com/clien.....mp;q=31204

Only 542 “likely voters” included — for WABC New York.

Prof @ 35: Exactly, Weldon wears glasses, and could have while serving in Vietnam. So why didn’t he get drafted? Why the eyesight story?

OT - EXCLUSIVE: Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong

Chickenhawks often have vision problems; they just can’t see putting their own butts on the line.

I have grown up with the idea of the USA as the country who saved the western world from the Nazis, they are growing up with the idea that the USA is the ruthless nation that tortures and deports out of fear and scorn… That’s a **ll of a difference, isn’t it ???!??

Kimba, if that breaks your heart, imagine what it does to ours.

angie @ 33

OT– Harry Reid has introduced a very voluminous (570 pages) amendment to the port security bill in the Senate that is making the rethugs– Collins, Patsy Roberts, Stevens so far– insane. It is essentially a protest over the NSA, Military Commission thingy, and failure to implement the 9/11 Commission report recommendations (as far as I can tell).

I’m sure the problem is just that he didn’t follow GOP procedure and introduce it after midnight. *g*

I told my apolitical mother about Weldon’s criticism of Sestak because he sought treatment for his cancer-stricken daughter in DC. We were on the phone, so I couldn’t see her reaction. There was a long pause, and finally she said that the thought of a candidate behaving with such cruelty made her feel ill. Mom asked, “Where does he come from?” When I answered “Pennsylvania,” she had the perfect response: “No, I mean, what universe would you have to come from to think that this is acceptable? On what planet is this okay? He doesn’t sound human.”

She nailed it.

out of the relevant period, but my father was naval reserve in WWII. He was called up, even though he was (a) 5′3″ (under the limit) and (b) about 20/400 and couldn’t read a newspaper without glasses (’Read the top line on the chart? What chart?’ is the way that works). But he had a BSME and experience with aircraft engines, and they found a slot for him.

If the services are in need, they’ll take you, with or with perfect vision. Weldon is a chickenheart.

The key part:” which does not correct to at least one of the following”

Meaning it has to be that bad after glasses.

I don’t have any problem with guys not wanting to serve in the Vietnam War. A very unjust, illegal war, founded and prosecuted upon lies (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, etc.) by primarily Presidents Johnson and Nixon. What is despicable is when phonies like ‘Nam dodgers Cheney, Rove, Bush and Weldon practically predicate their political careers on support for another immoral and illegal war. And continue to send American soldiers to their deaths. The Vietnam evaders are a cowardly bunch of bottom-feeders. I just don’t see many politicians who support the Iraq War willing to send their children there to serve. The scent of this hypocrisy is absolutely suffocating.

I’m working on a transcript over at HEP, of more of the Strickland/Blackwell debate. The only reason I started doing this is that I read a flippant article in our “alternative” newsweekly. I couldn’t respond coherently to it, but I thought at least if people had the actual text of what was discussed in the debate, maybe cooler heads could write letters to the editor. Mine would most likely be peppered with profanity at this point.

But the reason I am not diarying this is that I am in *no* freaking mood to have some “worldly” Democrat quip something to me about how Blackwell as governor is a done deal because of Diebold. (Happens *every* damn time I do write about this race.) Those remarks do *not* help–WAY too much is at stake here.

Anyway, a heads-up that I’m working on a transcript.

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com

At the beginning of the post is a link to the stupid article in the Other Paper.

Taylor,

I read the rules, but Weldon is a nutcase. It sounds better to lie and say it was his eyes…allowing him to maintain a continuity to his chickenhawk status, rather than admit that he merely was not called (and did not enlist).

He did not serve. The question is why. The eye issue appears to be bogus, but serves his purpose, I merely suggest that he may not have been called. Delaware County includes Chester as well as the main line.

OT– voting on the amendment now which “implements all recommendations of 9/11 Commission and calls for a “new direction” in Iraq.”

lets see what the DINOs do.

Renee in Ohio– any word on Subway Serenade?

OT. AP Texas court to reconsider DeLay charge.Bush ‘assassination’ film to be released in U.S.@CNN. comment from White House, How “UNAMERICAN” hahahahahahahahaha

My lottery number was 28.

Being a music and weed dual-major was a very difficult undertaking, so I dropped what I thought was a 3-credit course, which was, in fact, a 4-credit course. Part-time students did not qualify for the 2S exemption.

Like, WOW, man!

The only explanation of how fast I was notified of my status change to 1-A was that they took my drop-slip, noted that I was under 12 credit-hours, called my local draft board which must have been meeting that afternoon. 3 days to my mailbox.

I was very near reporting to Toronto for duty when I found an ally in my childhood physician, who provided x-rays and from a broken elbow and supporting statements that I had significant damage to the elbow, with limited use of my right arm.

I practiced for about 2 weeks on not using my right hand, lighting cigarettes my left hand, even encouraging my friends to toss objects at me unannounced (a la Cato and Clouseau)to force me to do everything with my left hand.

I failed my physical with flying colors and am proud to have taken on the military and won!!

Renee in Ohio @ 46

I’m working on a transcript over at HEP, of more of the Strickland/Blackwell debate. The only reason I started doing this is that I read a flippant article in our “alternative” newsweekly. I couldn’t respond coherently to it, but I thought at least if people had the actual text of what was discussed in the debate, maybe cooler heads could write letters to the editor. Mine would most likely be peppered with profanity at this point.

But the reason I am not diarying this is that I am in *no* freaking mood to have some “worldly” Democrat quip something to me about how Blackwell as governor is a done deal because of Diebold. (Happens *every* damn time I do write about this race.) Those remarks do *not* help–WAY too much is at stake here.

Anyway, a heads-up that I’m working on a transcript.

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com

At the beginning of the post is a link to the stupid article in the Other Paper.

I hear you. I too think defeatist remarks from “worldly” ones are insensitive to people working hard on campaigns.

@ 45…

“The Vietnam evaders are a cowardly bunch of bottom-feeders”. Should read: ‘This group of Vietnam evaders (Cheney, Rove, Bush and Weldon) are a cowardly bunch of bottom-feeders”.

Taylor Marsh @ 29

Also, I learned through a source, whom I cannot name, that Weldon was the Mayor of Deleware Cnty in the late 1970s, when he was around 30. Draft boards were controlled by county back then and the Delaware County War Board was a Republican machine back in those days. Makes you wonder if there was some sort of sweetheart deal made with Weldon. I mean, it’s not George W. Bush’s champagne unit, but making deals with country war boards was not unheard of in those days.

Is there evidence that he was consistently a Delaware County resident during the draft (not that that would have any impact on the influence question — just where to look for records)? Do we have anyone in the area who could check for Selective Service records? Even if you can’t access those, perhaps the fiches of the local newspapers - I’m almost certain they would have published the name and number of every local draftee.

Got it, Mudge. The question is why lie and why two different stories? Someone in the Pennsylvania media should ask the Weldon campaign.

okay, I am Spotlight challenged wrt adding contacts to my list for this story -

so just sent off e mails of Taylor’s post to these 2 guys

William Bender
Delco Times (Delaware County)
wbender@delcotimes.com

and

Tom Ferrick at Inquirer
tferrick@phillynews.com

go get ‘em

Taylor Marsh @ 38

Prof @ 35: Exactly, Weldon wears glasses, and could have while serving in Vietnam. So why didn’t he get drafted? Why the eyesight story?

Taylor, the Army had positions to fill that were not in Vietnam. I served in Korea during the Vietnam War. Others served in the US, Germany, etc.

And there are so many, many jobs that did not require putting on a helmet or toting a gun (although honor to those who endured that). Cook, accountant, military intelligence, military band.

My brother was in that draft. He was not drafted because of a back problem. I looked up his # and it was 125 the cut off was 195 for the first lottery (see http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm to look up other dates). The local draft board had lots of leeway as I recall but it took numerous hearings. I was in the next year. I had one year of student deferment before such deferments were eliminated. I remember the lottery drawing that summer (1970)and sweating it out. Fortunately I got a high # and didn’t have to go the route of CO. I went home and told my mother that I appreciated her long delivery that resulted in my birth in the early hours of March 13 (#241) - March 12 was #24. Thanks again Mom!!!

Great, great post. I so hope this becomes at least background noise now that the hoi polloi will be drawing their attention to the November election. Weldon has some ’splaining to do. As for the Memorial Day parade being a political event, what is their reasoning? Is every action that a candidate takes to be interpreted as a political event? Does this include shaving and using the toilet? Are these political acts as well.

Weldon’s a desperate wacko, and we need to keep flinging his feces back at him in case any of it sticks.

(My usual tiresome request re 41 here and 147 just below, dear patient mod. Thanks as always.)

Agreed, mui and Renee — sometimes the “worldy” pose does no one any good. I usually read it as a coping mechanism of the depressed.

Thanks Taylor, for an, as always, terrific post.
Yeah, it’s “all terror all the time,” but Rummy just somehow forgot to reinstitute the draft.

FYI
Dan Froomkin
White House Briefing Columnist
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; 1:00 ET
What’s going on inside the White House? Ask Dan Froomkin, who writes the White House Briefing column for washingtonpost.com. He’ll answer your questions, take your comments and links, and point you to coverage around the Web on Wednesday, Sept.

Going to Spotlight now.

This reminds me of the story about Mo Udall, who lost an eye in a childhood accident. He supposedly got into the Air Force by covering the same eye twice in the eye exam. The examiner never noticed.

OT, a driveby, and long. I apologize, but his just turned up in my inbox. It’s a blast email from Pat Leahy:

Today, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee performed an amazing acrobatic feat: legislating in the dark. And like any other good circus trick, today’s feat would have been entertaining to watch, too, if the issues being debated weren’t so important.

Unfortunately, in a lock-step Republican vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would grant President Bush permission to continue his warrantless domestic wiretap program, and in addition, immunize officials who have violated federal law by authorizing such illegal activities.

Believe it or not, their bill would even make the Administration’s future compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) entirely optional. It would transform the FISA from a check on abusive Executive authority into a black check to the White House.

At a time when the civil rights of American citizens are already being arrogantly abridged at almost every turn in the name of national security, this new legislation empowering President Bush to circumvent the time-tested FISA court process for authorizing domestic wiretaps is the last thing we need.

And the process that got us here is pure legislating in the dark. For months we have been asking for information about the National Security Agency’s domestic spying activities. But Congress — a co-equal branch of government on par with the Executive Branch — has been stonewalled at every turn.

How many Americans have had their conversations wiretapped? How many terrorists have been identified who would otherwise have escaped detection? Why did the Bush-Cheney Administration choose not to comply with the FISA? Why did officials refuse to come to Congress for authorization? Are there other domestic spying activities being conducted behind Congress’s back, outside of the law and without court approval?

We don’t have the answers to any of these critical questions. So how can this Republican Congress cram legislation through the Judiciary Committee expanding the use of warrantless domestic wiretaps?

This is ludicrous. And it is short-sighted. And it is wrong.

As the elected representatives of the American people, Congress needs to fully understand the supposed problems that this new Republican bill is intended to address, and what the legislation would enable the government to do that it cannot do now. We also need to know the extent to which these changes would sacrifice Americans’ liberties. We should not wait to find out what the legislation means until the President’s inevitable signing statement, after it is passed.

In the absence of any other information, this Republican legislation is a solution in search of a problem. After all, the former presiding judge of the FISA court, Judge Royce Lamberth, said on May 8th that the President’s warrantless wiretapping program would “require some tweaking” to make it comport fully with FISA — the existing process for approving domestic surveillance. And a federal judge last month ruled that the Bush program is unconstitutional and illegal.

So instead of Congress amending FISA to clean up after the President — something that we’re doing completely in the dark — President Bush should “tweak” his own domestic spying program to comply with existing federal law.

That’s what I will continue fighting for in the Judiciary Committee and on the floor of the Senate. I hope you’ll stand with me.

Sincerely,

Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator

Taylor: FYI, another piece of anecdotal evidence about draft “standards” circa 1970…

I was declared I-A, and despite being legally blind, having chronic asthma, a bad knee, a host of other health problems, being married, and having a draft lottery number in the high 250s, I was shipped with great dispatch to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for basic training.

“Poor eyesight” didn’t seem to be a draft impediment for anyone I knew, in those days.

Prof @56 - Yes, I know they had many other posts to fill, other than in country. Thanks for clarifying that for others, because my comment didn’t.

Re:

My # 61

To quote Natelie Portman’s charcter in one of the Star Wars movies

“This is how democracy dies”

I am just sick over this.

I have to get a brief out, but somebody please make sure MaryForce sees this.

I ‘m gonna go have a little cry and try to get back to work.

Setting aside Weldon’s particular case, my own experience suggests that one could get a medical deferment without getting the induction physical. I had my spleen removed when I was 28 months old; it ruptured due to a blood condition that wasn’t well understood back in the early 1950s (a lot more is known about it now). My family doctor sent an explanatory letter to our local draft board and I was out of the draft. The same medical history also kept me out of the Peace Corps.

Beal (58), thanks for that link to the text that includes this sentence:

The first capsule - drawn by Congressman Alexander Pirnie (R-NY) of the House Armed Services Committee - contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve never ever EVER felt so lucky to be a woman as when that news came down!

In looking at Weldon’s bio on his campaign site, I see that he was a volunteer firefighter in Marcus Hook in the early 70s and rose to the rank of Chief. Pretty good for a blind guy!

http://www.curtweldon.org/abou......cfm?ID=13

looseheadprop @ 59

OT, a driveby, and long. I apologize, but his just turned up in my inbox. It’s a blast email from Pat Leahy:

Today, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee performed an amazing acrobatic feat: legislating in the dark. And like any other good circus trick, today’s feat would have been entertaining to watch, too, if the issues being debated weren’t so important.

Unfortunately, in a lock-step Republican vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would grant President Bush permission to continue his warrantless domestic wiretap program, and in addition, immunize officials who have violated federal law by authorizing such illegal activities.

[snip]

This is ludicrous. And it is short-sighted. And it is wrong.

As the elected representatives of the American people, Congress needs to fully understand the supposed problems that this new Republican bill is intended to address, and what the legislation would enable the government to do that it cannot do now. We also need to know the extent to which these changes would sacrifice Americans’ liberties. We should not wait to find out what the legislation means until the President’s inevitable signing statement, after it is passed.

[snip]

So instead of Congress amending FISA to clean up after the President — something that we’re doing completely in the dark — President Bush should “tweak” his own domestic spying program to comply with existing federal law.

That’s what I will continue fighting for in the Judiciary Committee and on the floor of the Senate. I hope you’ll stand with me.

Sincerely,

Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator

Hmmmm . . . does this mean a fillibuster, a concerted effort to swing some Republican votes, or is he just venting? Whatever the answer, I’m glad it has his attention!

If you get any more on this, lhp, pass it along. If Leahy needs some folks to “express their concern” to members of the Senate, I think I know where he could find some . . .

is anyone watching cspan Lieberman voted with dems.

HuffPo is reporting that today Murtha will announce a resolution for the firing of Rummy. Turn up the heat, Jack.

meta @
69

HuffPo is reporting that today Murtha will announce a resolution for the firing of Rummy. Turn up the heat, Jack.

MURTHA TO OFFER RESOLUTION CALLING FOR RUMSFELD’S RESIGNATION…

Karl Rove didn’t exactly leave college during his “junior” year. Rove stayed in college for eight (!) years. He was active for those 8 years in the Young Republicans organization, destroying people even then. He “swiftboated” the president of the organization, destroying his reputation, so he could take the office.

Patrick Leahy!

Nelson NE– votes with the thugs
Pryor AK– ”

Jeffords votes with the dems
gosh, Lieberloser voted with the dems! I think his relationship is hurtin’ with his chairwoman Ms. Collins and I guess a kiss is just a kiss after all. hahaha

lhp @ 64– I am watching the same “lockstep monster” voting on the Reid Amendment– with a little DINO help. It’s incredibly sad and I wish more Americans would even watch a vote like this and really understand what it means to have not one check and balance left. ;(

In 1970 my draft # was 11, I was horrified. My student deferment was over in 1971 and I received my draft notice. My bags were packed for Canada and in desperation I signed every National Guard list I could find, the lists were hundreds of people long. On April 26th 1971 I walked into the armory in Niagara Falls and asked where I could sign the list. There were 11 recruits standing at attention in the anter room and the Captain asked me if I could spare 10 minutes. He said they called 12 men from the list and only 11 showed up. For the next 10 years I proudly served in the army national guard and army reserves. Those were desperate times that pale to today’s problems. Thanks for the opportunity to vent. I respect anyone who is HONEST about those those days no matter what course they chose.

Weldon also claims to have lived his whole life in his PA district, if that helps.

Rove is at it again. The latest hoped for victim, and perhaps his most important victim, is to be Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Rove’s latest nasty deceit MUST be stopped.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13561823/

“Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration’s abuse of power,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Congress has a right and obligation to conduct meaningful oversight on the unlawful actions of the president. But instead of investigating lawbreaking, the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to make it legal. We urge the full Senate to reject any attempts to ratify this illegal program.”

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/n.....60913.html

REPEAT AFTER ME: It’s called swiftboating. Rove is simply going to swiftboat Nancy Pelosi and every other Democrat. It’s what they do best.

*ooabby @ 73

In 1970 my draft # was 11…

I thought you were a girl.

Spotlighted these PA media so far.

Randy Parker : News Editor : York Daily Record
Sue Jones : News Editor : Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Gloria Ruane : News Editor : Tribune-Review
Brooke Nelson : News Director : WPTS 92.1 FM (Univ. of Pittsburgh)
Nick English : News Director : WPHB 1260 AM
Jim Penna : News Director : WWCP (Fox 8)
Jim DePury : News Director : WPMT (Fox 43)
Greg Zoerb : News Director : WHP (CBS-21)
Brad Rinehart : News Director : WFMZ-TV (Ch. 69)
Pat Maday : News Director : WPXI (NBC-11)

Liz Rogers : Managing Editor - News : Observer-Reporter
James Burchik : Editorial Page Editor : Lancaster New Era
Randy Montgomery : News Editor : Lancaster New Era
Glenn Kranzley : Opinion Page Editor : Morning Call
Chris Satullo : Editor of the Editorial Page : Philadelphia Inquirer
Dale Davenport : Editorial Page Editor : Patriot-News
Jack Kelly : National Security Writer : Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
James O’Toole : Political Editor : Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tom Waseleski : Editorial Page Editor : Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Roberta Shorrock : Director : National Public Radio (NPR)

Weldon is Ass-Stick-Matic

twolf1 @ 70

meta @
69

HuffPo is reporting that today Murtha will announce a resolution for the firing of Rummy. Turn up the heat, Jack.

MURTHA TO OFFER RESOLUTION CALLING FOR RUMSFELD’S RESIGNATION…

OK, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jack Murtha. He is a stand up guy. But this is just dombshit stoopid timing.

NO Jack, this is no time to lose focus. The ONLY THINGS Dems should eb doing right now are things diecrtly related toi winning elections and things diretcly related to stopping really evil legislation or other power grabs.

Firing Rummy now diminishes or chances in Nov. because it acts as a saftey valve relieving pressure that has built up.

Also, it wastes politcal capiatal and energy and time that could be spent on the Gutting of the War crimes Act or the nuetering of the FISA courts.

Jack, Let’s take back Congres, then you fire anyboday you want–or impeach them.

Just not now, Jack.

Not now

John Casper, you get a Citizen Hero Award this morning!