Login HereSometimes, a little Aretha goes a long way. It's been a long week, and I've been having a Motown and Atlantic Records mix morning here -- and I wanted to share a little of it with you all.
We are five weeks out from the elections in November, and there are plenty of reasons to keep on chugging right through the finish line. As I said yesterday, I'll be damned if a little disappointment is going to keep me from trying to kick some GOP butt this Fall, but for those folks who need some added incentive, I've put together some reasons to get up, dust off, and get to work:
-- The ACSBlog has been doing a great series this week on upcoming cases to be heard by the SCOTUS. This includes two crucial cases on women's reproductive rights issues. If you think the make-up of the House and Senate isn't crucial in the next few years for issues like this, I have one word for you: Alito. The whole of the federal bench is appointed for a lifetime seat -- who do you want making decisions on that for the next two years, the GOP or Democrats?
-- If you haven't seen this clip from "Iraq for Sale" about outsourcing essential military jobs to KBR, you should. And if that doesn't make you angry, there's more. Wouldn't you rather have Sen. Byron Dorgan and Rep. Henry Waxman demanding accountability from the Bush Administration than what we are not getting at all now from the rubber stamp Republican Congress? (btw, in case you missed it, we'll be doing a Film Salon with Robert Greenwald on "Iraq for Sale" on October 4, at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET. Please join us!)
-- Medicare-D donut hole. Need I say more?
-- The Bush Administration wants to strip the rights of workers to have unions without holding any public hearings on the matter. (Huh? you say. Yes, you read me correctly.)
-- Two words: Jack Abramoff.
Here's hoping that Glenn is correct and the "Joe Lieberman" lesson has been learned. What I want, though, is to be able to start teaching the Bush Administration what "separation of powers" means, and for that, there has to be some political separation between the legislative and administrative branches of government. The only way to achieve that is to elect a majority of members of Congress from an opposing party because the GOP has shown for the last five years that they are either unwilling or unable to live up to their Constitutional responsibilities.
It's time to take America back. And it is high time for some respect for the Constitution. Now, let's get to work...have you volunteered for a local Democratic candidate yet?
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Spotlight
Fitz!
Leahy! Yes I am volunteering, Ms. Christy.
YES!
Ray Charles!
we’ve got to get the congress back. i know people are mad at the weak knee’d Dems. but we need the chairmanships of those committees. we can whip the wimpie ones into shape when we take the power back. don’t lose heart now. push past the despair.
If you’re listening to 60s Aretha, you’re having an Atlantic Records morning. Now you’re going to have Jerry Wexler on your ass!
Yes, I am volunteering, A LOT, and it is indirectly because of this community. Honestly, I can’t tell you how good it feels! Not only am I working my butt off to elect a true progressive values-oriented woman and to rid us of a Rubber Stamper, but it is a wonderful outlet for all those political toxins that have built up over the last 5 years.
Rove wants us demoralized, don’t bite!
Peterr @ 4
I miss that man. And Louis Armstrong, too.
Peter Lee @ 6
Can you get a draft deferral for that?
Peter Lee — hehehehe — I had trouble finding a good YouTube for this post. I’ve got the Supremes, a Motown compendium and Aretha on mixed play at the moment n– I should have been more specific about it being an Atlantic/Motown mix. You’re right — I will have the Atlantic folks on my ass (and Howie teasing me later if I don’t amend above!).
EPU’d
OK everyone, there’s an easy button on the top of the page that says Blue America. Scroll up, click, find good candidates you want to support, give, then feel better.
Then, those who can, get out on the streets tomorrow to support your dem candidates. If they want a fight, we’ll give them one.
WE WILL NOT COWER
WE WILL NOT GIVE UP
WE WILL SHOW THEM!
WE WILL WIN.
now I gotta go look for a new microwave. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping—but not until they’ve given $$ to good dem candidates. My list today, Ned Lamont, Coleen Rowley, Joe Sestak, Victoria Wulsin.
Louis always makes me feel better. Same with Stevie Wonder!
“Freedoooooooom!!
Whoa-oh, freeeeedom
Give me some FREE-dooom,
Whoa-oh, FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOM!!”
(Aretha)
The buzz on the news today isn’t the Senate legislation. It’s Jack Straw’s scathing remarks about the Bush Administration’s handling of the war.
I think it’s significant that Bobby Kneepads has broken ranks with BushCo on the war. This could be a major development.
RevDeb at 11 — Kerry sent around an e-mail to his list this morning echoing that, with a call for donations to Tester, Webb, Cardin and Whitehouse — all Senate seats which are within serious possibility for Democrats winning. He must be paying more attention to the Roots visits from all of the MA group! :)
“Jack Straw says Iraq situation is Dire” via CNN.
OfT:
The Sons of Confederate Veterans are demanding an apology from Felix Macaca. Methinks the Senator may be coming undone.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01835.html
some days the only thing that keeps my head from exploding reading all the insanity pouring out of washington is the knowledge that henry waxman is my congressman. every time i see him calling for some sort of accountability from bush administration it lowers my blood pressure just out of the danger zone. but oh how i would love to see him with subpoena power to really start kicking some ass.
e.c. at 17 — click through that Jack Abramoff link above — Waxman has done an exceptional job of documentation.
There’s amazingly little buzz about yesterday’s shredding of the Constitution. What the pols did doesn’t surprise me in the least, but that the people as a whole don’t even seem to care… Makes me incredible wary of how close we are to the precipice.
This election is HUGE, tantamount to saving us from going over that cliff. Whoever listed the steps to be taken is right on: 1.) elect the D’s, throw the R’s out, 2.) fix the D party with good progressive candidates, 3.) begin to undo the incredible damage to this country. Or something like that.
TRex @ 13
I agree - the Sunday morning shows will have a little bit on Bush getting his way with gutting the Magna Carta, but Bobby’s little book will have the tongues wagging.
“I listen to the commanders when it comes to troop levels,” . . . except when he doesn’t.
“There’s no infighting in my administration between Powell and Rumsfeld,” . . . except when there is.
“No one could have anticipated . . .” is a phrase we’re going to be hearing a lot in the coming days. I’d like to end it in November with “. . . a Democratic Senate.”
Volunteering for Webb; $,$,$ and time and LTE’s
Boosh’s song for the day: Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
So are we going to start… seeing leaflets?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....29734.html
…being offered bounties to turn each other in?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00390.html
From Salon’s War Room:
The committee report says Abramoff’s team had at least six direct contacts with Mehlman, including an instance in 2001 in which Abramoff offered him a pair of tickets for a U2 concert. But when it comes to White House officials with Abramoff connections, Rove was plainly the biggest of the fish. Rove has dismissed Abramoff as nothing more than a “casual acquaintance,” but the committee identified 82 contacts between Abramoff’s team and Rove’s office. In one e-mail exchange, Abramoff told Rove’s secretary that he’d just talked with Rove about hooking him up with tickets to watch the NCAA basketball tournament from his skybox at the MCI Center. Abramoff worked out the details with Rove’s secretary — the same secretary who on at least one occasion informed Abramoff that the White House had come around to his way of thinking on a political issue.
Uh-huh.
Get me the fainting couch. I’m SHOCKED that someone would presume to bribe the White House directly! SHOCKED!!
TRex at 22 — you mean, Rove’s secretary, Susan Ralston who was hand-picked for the job by Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff? Get out! (hahahahahaha)
Motown morning recommendation:
When I got an ipod, one of the first things I did was record Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On lp start to finish as one track. The reason to make that track is so you have to deal with something emotionally difficult… It’s like playing chicken - asking yourself “do you honestly think you can hit fast forward on this and live with yourself? No. You can’t just skip it. You have to go through it. Deal with it, kid.”
Last friday, on the way home from work, walking through Union Square in NYC, BAM! No escape. The next 45 minutes (all the way back to brooklyn on the train) — meditation. On our nation. On my brother in the Army (”send that boy off/to die”), on “Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs.”
So necessary to remember that this isn’t the first time our country has failed, and it may not be the last.
Tough day, Firepups. Chin up. Fight the good fight.
TRex @ 22
This could get fun.
Is John Dean around? After his reminiscences about Rumself (!) in the Book Salon threads, I’ve got a followup for him:
What do you think of Henry Kissinger’s return to the White House, to give advice to Bush on the Iraq war? Any other old memories of Henry and Don that seem more than a little appropriate today?
so now the government report shows that the white house wasn’t just in bed with jack abramoff but that they were naked under the sheets, the nie says that iraq is making terrorism worse and bob woodward’s new book says that, well bush is a lying idiot blah blah blah. what more is it going to take before the rupublican base starts to get a clue. or are they really just that brainwashed by the bush cult of personality?
Well, both of my Democratic senators from NJ voted for the torture bill. My chat with their staffers was posted on Shakespeare’s Sister.
Any ideas? The primary has already come and gone.
Puting Dems in office is only step one.
Once we do that, we continue to hold their feet to the fire when they can no longer whine that ‘they can’t do anything because Repubs wont let them”.
If we kick out repubs our work is far from over.
Kicking some backbone into the weenies we elect will be the next step.
Charlie Bass voted for torture. Go Hodes!
George Allen voted for torture. Go Webb!
George Allen’s self imploding campaign is surreal to follow.
many more allegations of his racism coming to light daily despite the lame attempts by his loyalists to try to tamp them down.
Yesterday Senator Macaca co-sponsored a bill in the Senate to provide relief to black farmers after years of ignoring the issue. (sounds a little reminiscent of his quite transparently CYA anti lynching legislation after being caught with a noose and a Confederate flag in his office,eh?) Now that he has denounced his love of the Confederate flag, a group assoc with same has publically come out against him.
And with all that, Senator McCacain has made a commercial for the sorry racist. This rethuglican loyalty sure runs deep, even thru this stench. blech. But despite the foul stench emanating from Felix, he has a huge war chest and no end to the dirty tricks and endless lying, so the race is still close. It is vital to kick this scum out of the Senate and ruin his Presidential aspirations forever. He is not fit to hold office.
ad at linky
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/el....._mccain_ad
It crossed my mind again last night wondering what spun off of Fitz’s interface with Ralston last year. Was she already getting some gentle pressure from the backside by DoJ for her role in Abramoff dealings? Could Fitz have seen back then what was down the pike for Rove that would provide a more direct path to serving Rove with a heavy dose of justice? Why indict in the CIA leak if you’ve got a boatload of evidence and cooperation from a convicted Abramoff that obliterates Rove.
IANAL, just wondering.
Christy — WOW. You weren’t kidding about Waxman and team doing a great job.
Awesome. LOVE that website.
And now it’s archived FOREVER on the toobz, so many of the sordid details of Abramoff, the RNC and White House all laid out in PDF’s.
Heh.
Ralston must have sung like a nightingale. She’s up to her neck.
No wonder they’ve buried her in the bowls of the bureaucracy.
God forbid she’s been disappeared…
Peterr @ 26
Whenever Rumsfeld’s name comes up in connection with Iraq (and that’s such an unusual event), I like to take this little stroll down Memory Lane.
“No one could have anticipated . . .” is a phrase we’re going to be hearing a lot in the coming days. I’d like to end it in November with “. . . a Democratic Senate.”
And….. “I haven’t read it yet”
Does not matter that these yokels are driving the bus over the cliff but that is ok that they do not read a NIE that was released in April or ANY thing else….. Maybe I need to send them “Hooked on Phonics” CD set just to make sure they CAN read?
Have you ever seen so many people who have NOT read things…. What do they do all day? What is their job if not to read NIE’s or PDB’s or intelligence reports?
katymine @ 34
Cut ‘em some slack. They’re “creating reality.” It’s hardly their fault that a reasonably well-informed nine-year-old could create a better one.
rat bastahd @ 19
I think a number of Republicans held their noses and voted for this thing - hoping it will be struck down quickly. I think that’s why there isn’t a lot of crowing today. Only the most venal of the bunch - i.e. Bush and some other nitwits - are acutally proud of this abomination. Has McCain had a word to say since last week?
——————
“And even some Republicans who said voted for the bill said they expected the Supreme Court to strike down the legislation because of the habeas corpus provision, ultimately sending the legislation right back to Congress.
“We should have done it right, because we’re going to have to do it again,” said Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican from Oregon, who had voted to strike the habeas corpus provision, yet supported the bill.”
katymine @ 34
don’t forget the copy of ‘My Pet Goat’ to read as they work their way through ‘Hooked on Phonics’!
As for what they do all day - God knows (but she isn’t telling us). I think they spend a lot of time either in meetings or picking nits from each other’s pelt.
Adie from belowthread - be sure to pass along my, “heckuva job Brownie” to Sherrod’s campaign, although I already called it in.
Got a bubbly intern who thanked me for telling him that his protorture boss has no business serving in Congress, much less the United States Senate.
Everyone has to do what they have to do. I am deadset behind certain Dems, like Leahy. I am going for the throat of Republicans, like Hostettler here in the Bloody 8th, that supported torture.
I am ALSO going for the throat of Democrats, like Brown, who supported torture.
I’ve seen the explosive eruptions here and elsewhere when Bush does one awful thing after another and his numbers don’t budge and people ask, “what would it take to make a kool aid drinker turn their backs on Bush- having him sacrifice a baby on stage during Dancing with the Stars?”
Now you know. You look and see what you are willing to tolerate to win, and you have found your common ground.
How do you believe that the exact same triangulation won’t happen immediately upon election, with 2008 squarely in the sites of the torturers. Because remember, they are the torturers. Torture stopped, they gave the order to start it again.
Already, no one wants to talk about torture, because it is now a liability issue for the campaigns. So the win is total. It means that the people and the press go mute on the topic, because the Republicans never wanted it discussed and now the Democrats have to admit to either voting for it; or deliberately and knowingly failing to mount any campaign against it in the weeks precedeing the vote.
We have real, solid, horrible and complex issues facing the country. Where do you find leadership to address those issues with Harry Reid sitting back and thinking that maybe McCain and Bush will wear each other down over torture and Reid just won’t have to deal with it? Where do you find insight, foresight, or even hindsight there?
I believe the last election was huge. The next election will be huge. That’s an excuse.
YOu are either about the issues or about the party. Everywhere I looked before the vote - Dems were already being given the pass, “pre-immunity” for voting in favor of torture, because it was already decided going in that it was an acceptable trade off for winning.
That’s really what you are saying. Re-starting the stopped torture isn’t a problem if it means winning. Karl Rove is not the Hilary Clinton whipping boy to take the lashes earned by the people who not only cast the votes, but those who refused to tackle this issue in good faith prior to the vote.
There are some wonderful Democratic leaders who were there, and I have sent them tears, prayers and I will send them my support. But I can not understand making excuses for someone pushing the restart button on torture, because “just this time” or because “THIS election is so important” or because “we think they’ll be better when they are in office and don’t even have to worry about our votes.”
Torture hasn’t fallen off of page one as an issue for me, just because it is now an inconvenient truth issue for Dems who can never credibly hold anyone accountable when they have opted for complicity and prior to complicity, silent assent. It should be and remain the most “uncomfortable” of all issues for every politician who endorsed, and every politician who failed (Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi) to organize a response and a voice and preferred to sit back and see what the Republicans would do.
dab from CT @ 36
You had your chance, didn’t you, Gordie?
It took 30 years of inattention and a right wing propaganda effort of unimaginable proportions to get here.
How long do we have to get out of here? Global warming trends needed to be reversed 15-20 years ago. Religious wars need to be stopped NOW. AIDS is killing off all of Africa and has started in on Asia. Who knows if H5N1 is going to moot all of this? North Korea has nukes. Oil production has peaked. All of these things are path dependent, IOW, they are shit that has happened. No going back. Only repair as far as we are able.
There’s a lot that needs to be done immediately to make survival of humanity possible. And the US is running as fast as possible in the wrong direction on all of them.
This is not parlor games. This is about survival. FDL is more than informative, it’s one of the few insitutions that can stop the madness.
Talk about a thin line. Way to go, girls!!!
EvilDrPuma @ 35
Yesterday, as I was watching one of the votes in the the unfolding trainwreck on C-SPAN2, The Kid (just days away from his fifth birthday) asked who was calling all the names, and why. I explained about taking a vote, and then he started echoing the clerk of the Senate as each name was called. When it came to “Mrs. Feinstein,” he said “Mrs. Feinstein! - Hey, she’s our senator.”
He’s gonna be something when he gets to be nine. For that matter, in my humble and completely unbiased opinion, he already is.
And watch out for the littleprop, spreading that politically subversive cool music around. (Thanks for that story on the last thread, lhp!)
“Teach your parents well . . . and feed them on your dreams . . .”
Thanks again Mary. We definitely know where you stand. I respect your passion.
“What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? (Matt.16:26)”
That’s right.
Peterr @ 41
I’ve learned from experience to never underestimate the power of a smart child. I have a five-year-old niece who is an absolute firecracker, but I worry because she’s in Texas and my brother is not the most politically conscientious person in the world. Still, one can hope that she’s too smart for the Kool-Aid.
EvilDrPuma @
8
Two of the brightest stars in the firmament.
Just banged out another half-dozen customized versions of “Had Enough.” Every one we’ve done is either 30 or 60 seconds, and we have an hour’s worth.
Why volunteer for one candidate when you can volunteer for all? :)
AGH!!!!! As if I wasn’t already torqued off, blood pressure off the map!!!!
From the first set of emails in the Waxman folders (cripes, I haven’t even made it past page 5):
Great. Yet another Ledeen with their fingers in the pies. That makes Daddy, Mommy and Baby Ledeen all pulling the strings on our democracy.
Nice. Very nice. Just what I wanted, a patriotic Republican with an ass-kissing pimp of a husband on my payroll instead of a highly-qualified candidate who’d protect my country and its resources.
Whores and pimps, every single one of them. That’s what you get when you vote Republican.
Current CNN.com poll:
Do you believe President Bush has been frank with the nation about the situation in Iraq?
(Yes/No)
It hasn’t been up long enough to have results. One guess which way I voted.
Hey, here are some questions for the lawyers and other concerned and informaed citizens out there:
How many of the representatives and senators who voted for the torture are lawyers?
Where did they go to school?
How does their vote reflect on their education?
dab from CT @ 42
If, respectfully, I might say, for me anyway, it’s not only the ‘passion’. It’s the ideals too.
Link to CNN poll? - I can never find them when I go to the web site.
Dru @ 21– OMG!!! — what awful, terrible and impossible timing on that wapo article. I cannot believe it! Would it have changed the vote? Probably not (for shame) but it confirms what a lot of us here knew. ;(
The huffpo article I had read and it, too, is shameful, shameful, shameful. ;(
Grievous sins and crimes against humanity are being committed in our name!
SpaceCowboy @
28
yes. shame them, repeatedly. That’s what my family, NJ democrats, are doing today. Menendez is sitting in the catbird seat, and has to be voted despite his disgusting vote.
Lautenberg has no excuse, and my family is hammering him today. We are drafting a letter, signed by the entire family, telling him he’s a disgrace to the state and to the country. that his vote on torture trumped every other good thing he’s ever done and that we will never help him again in any way.
We’re considering including a SASE, because I KNOW my dad expects a response. He’s a member of the Atlantic County Democrats and has held fundraisers etc for the likes of Lautenberg.
Not anymore.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 49
I agree. Mary is our conscience.
But in terms of passion - I’d rather have Mary on my side than the other side.
Oooooh, Froomkin has a good one today. *g*
Heh. This is going to be a blast. There is SO much ammo in the Abramoff investigation emails.
This might be the thing they were trying to fend off and misdirect with the showboating yesterday.
What I really enjoy is the redaction; names and emails stripped out of headers, but stuff like Best regards, Chuck remains in the body of an email regarding “Chuck’s” possible role at EXIM Bank. Like we can’t figure that out.
Jeebus, I’m only on page 7.
clem @ 48
Oh, that’s good. Some letters to the various alumni publications might stir up some interesting reactions. “I was distressed to see that Sen ABC (class of ‘xx) voted to support the shredding of the Magna Carta. Why, I remember sitting in Prof. so-and-so’s great course, and marvelling at the wisdom of the document - and now a classmate has helped the US to disavow it!”
Letters to the current deans/presidents/chancellors might get some interesting reactions, too . . . “Is this what you’re teaching these days? Perhaps my alumni donations ought to go elsewhere.”
Look at their undergraduate degrees too - especially if they went to a religious institution.
Look at where they gave commencement speeches last May and June - any of those school disapppointed now, given the votes yesterday?
Schools love famous alums and famous speakers, until they stand up and do something the school is completely opposed to.
Pressure, pressure, pressure . . .
“Just banged out another half-dozen customized versions of “Had Enough.” Every one we’ve done is either 30 or 60 seconds, and we have an hour’s worth.
Why volunteer for one candidate when you can volunteer for all? :)”
tommy yum, words can’t describe efforts like yours!!! One of those was for us, I believe. Can’t wait to run it!
Space cowboyy:
theatrics like the Lieberman Kiss Float work well too. Show up at Lautenberg events dressed like a detainee, with wires hanging from your clothes.
Write letters to the editor in his hometown paper decrying how someone who fougt in world war 2 could countenance blatantly nazi tactics.
Things like that. never let the issue drop either.
Menendez has a world of hurt coming at him when he runs for re-election, if he even wins, the corrupt little bastard.
Mary @ 38 — amen!
I posted on an earlier thread, this morning I called Sherrod Brown’s office (not to be confused with the excellent Charlie Brown!) — 1-800-587-4180 — to ask for my fifty dollars back. The cheerful intern who answered said someone would get back to me. We’ll see.
But I can see myself morphing into that paperboy hunting down John Cusack in that movie for his two dollars. Not that there is anything humerous in this.
I understand the desire to pretend it isn’t so and keep supporting torture pols because they at least aren’t Republicans. But I can’t do that. I don’t mean that in a smug, I’m-so-pure kind of way, because I’m not. It’s just that I feel physically sick thinking even one of my dollars — which represent my spiritual energy on this matter — could be in the coffers of a person who voted for torture.
I’m not ignoring habeus corpus — that would have been enough to put me over the edge. Oh, gah! Are we having this conversation???????
Anyway, Mary — and god, Christie too — I think my brain would stop functioning if I couldn’t come here and read your outrage. You both say it so much better than I do, but I say: Thank you for speaking out. Thank you for being here. Thank you for letting us know we are not alone, we are not crazy.
Yes — I got home last night, and started making donations. I am volunteering. They did this to keep themselves out of jail and motivate their base. They are also motivating ours!
I’m spending the weekend in Republican-land (town I grew up). I have found lately that the thoughtful ones are disgusted. I’ll remind the rest that they’re supporting torture.
dab from CT @ 50
dab, lower right-hand corner of the main page.
I hope we win in November. 2008 is even more important–these current abuses are at their heart a war powers issue. Thus, all we need to do is the stop that heart. But nothing will happen before 2008 under Reid and Pelosi.
So, I don’t want a knight in shining armor now or in 2008. I want a ruthless political infighter with a grudge against these thugs in power, who can smile in their faces and then knife them in the back. Sounds like a Clinton to me.
If our greatest fears are realized (as has been the suprising trend of late) and we are desending into facsism, then it is truly our test, and we will fight back. Our country needs us.
Politics is what it is. Perhaps like in poker, you should never show your hand for free.
dab from CT @ 50
They stash it in the bottom right corner of the front page.
Do you believe President Bush has been frank with the nation about the situation in Iraq?
Yes 20% 426 votes
No 80% 1686 votes
Total: 2112 votes
How are you feeling this morning, Shrub?
Just to let you know how depressing (or funny, or both, depending on how you look at it) following is a link to the front page story in my daily paper about the Democrat running for State Senate in my district. I’ve pulled out a few special quotes to give you the flavor. Gosh, don’t you wish he were running in YOUR district? I’m so proud to be a Democrat today…
http://new.savannahnow.com/node/146517
As of Wednesday, Traylor also was still registered to vote in South Carolina, where he still has an office and a family home and has long done business.
Traylor, who said Wednesday that he also has a house in Cape Town, South Africa, insisted Thursday that he still lives at 139 Nilsson Drive.
“It’s been the family home forever,” he said.
“He’s a pain in the ass,” he said concerning Johnson. (his opponent)
But Traylor refused to say when he last stayed there.
“I stay where I want to,” he said shortly before hanging up on a reporter. “I have a girlfriend. I’m not married. I don’t have to go home and clock in like Eric.”
Gack — Rita Cosby is on MSNBC! Shouldn’t she come with a warning announcment?
NV Congressman Jon Porter re-election campaign banner I just contributed.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 64
She looks like one of those life-size blowup dolls.
BobbyG at 66 — I’m not even going to ask you how on earth you would know that… *G*
I made a mistake yesterday and I wanted to comment on it. I had thought that the Military Commissions bill even after it had passed could still be stopped because it was a part of a larger piece of legislation HR 6061 The Secure Fence Act. The problem was that I had missed something crucial. I wanted to reconstruct the legislative as best I can and admitting in advance that there may be some mistakes and holes in it.
This history begins on Friday September 22, 2006 when Senator McConnell introduced two bills S 3929 and S 3930 on Military Commissions with two slightly different titles. Beyond the title difference I do not know if there were any substantial differences between them.
Over the weekend of September 23-24, I’m guessing the text of the Warner, McCain, Graham “compromise” was hammered out.
On Monday September 25, Frist put this compromise language into an amendment SA 5036 and attached it to HR 6061 The Secure Fence Act. He also submitted notifications for cloture votes on both which would then have occurred two days later on Wednesday. Frist may have done this because he thought attaching the Military Commissions Act to the Secure Fence Act he would make it more difficult for Democrats to vote against it, a sort of two for one in that the Democrats would be seen, he hoped, voting for terrorists and illegal immigrants just before the election.
Nevertheless, at this time, talks began between the Republican leader Frist and the Democratic leader Reid for a unanimous consent agreement on how the Military Commissions bill would be dealt with.
On Tuesday September 26, Senators submitted a series of amendments to SA 5036 on Military Commissions.
On Wednesday September 27, the unanimous consent agreement had been worked out and was announced. This is also where I missed something I should have caught. Frist submitted an amendment SA 5085 which was essentially SA 5036 and which was identical to the House version of the bill except for perhaps a minor technical detail. This amendment was to McConnell’s original bill S 3930 and substituted the language of S 5036 into it. In effect, SA 5036 through SA 5085 became S 3930. This meant that it stood on its own and was not longer attached to HR 6061 The Secure Fence Act. Frist could do this because in exchange for the consideration of 5 Democratic amendments:
Levin on a substitute
Specter on habeas corpus
Rockefeller on congressional oversight
Kennedy on interrogation techniques
Byrd on sunset
he was guaranteed that the bill would move directly to a final vote. There would be no filibuster.
As we saw yesterday, all of the amendments were defeated. The Democrats under Reid gave away the store and got the sidewalk in exchange.
There is one final piece of this story that I would like to relate and which you might find interesting but it involves a rather long quote and I will put it in a separate comment.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 67
groan…
Never owned one, BTW. LOL!!
Thought we coud all use a little humor today:
http://uspolitics.einnews.com/.....0928_3.gif
Woops, forgot to attribute that, as if I need to:
Get up, stand up… Bob Marley
I loved this part of the Froomkin piece…
“In fact, Bush is so sure that he supposedly told a group of Republicans gathered at the White House quote, ‘I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me’, unquote.
Jack Cafferty comments: “Apparently it doesn’t matter that almost two-thirds of Americans oppose the war in Iraq. That only a quarter of this country thinks we’re winning the war in Iraq. And that most Americans think the situation in Iraq has degenerated into a civil war, 65 percent, as long as Barney supports him.”
Gonzales threatens Judges - don’t interfere
That’s pretty much how I take it.
**********
Then there’s this:
“Do you think Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?”
Yes No Unsure % % %
9/15-19/06 31 57 12
8/17-21/06 31 60 9
So with the on camera Bush response to “what did Hussein have to do with 9/11 - NOTHING!” only a few random Democrats have managed to work it into the conversation/ads and the people who think Hussein was NOT INVOLVED in the attacks has actualy dropped over the last month.
Message problem?
dab from CT @ 73
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Paraphrasing Lewis Lapham: “There are but two inhabitants of Bush’s world. It is a place wherein Bush the Actor need only please Bush the Audience.”
.
Hey, you guys. NPR is hiring a blogger. I should apply, don’t you think? I’ve been wanting to move to Washington.
TRex @ 76
Then you will become an insider and what would happen to the snark??? We’ve become addicted. We couldn’t go on without it…
***imagining Maura Liasson logging in to the official “TRex NPR blog”…***
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Okay, that was an amusing moment for me, TRex. *g*
Sounds just like you TRex! From your link:
all of it, but especially the bolded part :) (mine)
No, no!! I won’t sell out!! Not unless they offer me a WHOLE lot of money!
Come on, I want that job. Do I have to dress up as Catwoman (or better yet, Wonkette) and go on the Joan Rivers show?
Gonzales threatens Judges - don’t interfere
That’s pretty much how I take it.
—————-
Judges don’t take kindly to being threatened - do they? Are they easily cowed?
TRex @ 76
I hear they’re sticklers for pyjama tops and bottoms to match over there.
;>)
Youtube - Jimi Hendrix - Freedom
You got my pride
hanging out of my bed
You’re messin’ around with my life
So I bought my lead
You even messin’ with my children
And you’re screamin’ at my wife, baby
Get off my back,
if you wanna get outta here alive
TRex @ 76
Looks like you might qualify - from the position description: “. . . uses news judgment and a lively prose style to present a singular perspective; . . .”
Lively style?
Singular perspective?
Sounds like a certain 60 ft. snarkosaurus to me. . .
I’d send a resume right now, but it’s at home on my laptop. Damn, damn, damn.
TRex - just read the job description. It was definitely written for you!
Mary, I could only get about four paragraphs into that article you linked before I wanted to pick up my monitor and throw it across the room.
You know, as I do, that when the Dems get back the Oval Office (assuming we are still a country with elections by 2008), the first people to line up and demand an end to all this “war-time” power, the people who will be arguing that this is not a “real” war, will be Republicans.
My hope is that if we are able to have a say, that we will do the right thing and dial back the unitary executive crap that has taken over, and return to co-equal governance.
But, when I read articles like the one you cited, the hair stands up on the back of my neck, and goosebumps break out on my arms as I contemplate the fact that this president sees no limit to the extent of his power and is poking into every corner of government to make sure he gets every last bit of it. And it scares me that they will not want to cede one bit of that power. Ever.
TRex - Perhaps the Late Night folks could help write your letter of application.
Peterr @ 83
Yeah, but can you use naughty words or is the Post going to hide behind that “family newspaper” bullshit?
*g*
dab from CT @ 81
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Abu Gonzales is pathetic. [bleep] him.
_
Gawddamnitall. I can’t read any more of those Abramoff emails, I’m going to hurl.
I get the distinct feeling Ralston was more than hired help to Abramoff.
One of the first things this next Congress — assuming we get our heads out of our beers and kick some ass — needs to do is conduct an investigation of the DoI and its subsidiary OIA.
Top to bottom.
Tens of billions of dollars has gone missing, with roughly ten billion walking off through “mismanagement” of oil royalties, and billions more (maybe 100 billion plus) gone walking from Native Americans (thanks a lot, John McCain, for all the hot air and lip service).