from sykopoet next thread…

Pelosi Rebukes Stark for Iraq Comments

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked a fellow San Francisco Bay-area liberal Friday for what she said were “inappropriate” comments about Iraq during a congressional debate.

During a debate on children’s health care Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark accused Republicans of sending troops to Iraq to “get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

Condemnations rolled in from Republican politicians, right-leaning bloggers had a field day, and a White House spokesman declined to “dignify those remarks” with a response.

Pelosi issued a statement Friday evening rapping Stark, who is in his 18th term representing the liberal East Bay. He’s California’s longest-serving House members.

“While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand — providing health care for America’s children,” Pelosi said.

i think we’re long past the point where it’s appropriate to keep making excuses for speaker pelosi.

Pelosi is all about keeping her GOP base happy.

This is utterly insane. How is it that we are stressing putting together a coalition of people willing to filibuster a bill (in a house of Congress that the DEMOCRATS CONTROL) that essentially gives the Bush administration complete freedom to make a permanent archive of all business that transpires on our telephones in the name of “keeping us safe”??? Especially after it has been revealed that this illegal program was initiated PRIOR to 911??? Excuse me, who can argue that this is necessary to “keep us safe” if they were already recording/keywording all of US phone conversations *prior* to the attacks and they *still* failed (either through negligence or WILLFUL INDIFFERENCE IN ORDER TO ADVANCE A POLICE STATE) to stop the attack? Are all of these people on crack, have they been bought, or are they about as smart as a box of rocks? I am completely fed up with this situation. These are supposed to be non-negotiable RIGHTS of CITIZENSHIP. Why is it a headline that *two* presidential candidates actually have the stones to object in a meaningful way to this precursor to fascism? We quickly need a national plan of grassroots education and protest before this thing comes up for a vote. We need a website to being organizing. We need to incorporate as many public interest organizations as possible into a coalition willing to take this issue to the streets. I give it a maximum of 5 years before this database of all of our telephone conversations and internet traffic becomes the death knell of our democracy.

Who among you doesn’t have skeletons in the closet regarding websites that you have visited, emails that you have sent or conversations that you have had on the telephone? The unitary executive is about to have de facto legal authority to put the screws on each and every one of you people who fancy yourselves armchair activists. Bush is *unilaterally* claiming the right to imprison people without charges indefinitely whom he independently deems to be aiding and abetting terrorism. The Justice department has already begun arresting people and charging them with federal crimes for reselling satellite subscriptions that include certain arab television channels! There will come a day, if this is allowed to continue, that anyone who rocks the boat will get a knock on the door telling them to toe the line, or else. That is the *whole point* of this. The executive and the telecom industry are not investing all of these resources into accruing these vast powers for themselves, only to not use them. We’re talking about people who blatantly lied us into a war that has lasted longer than WWII; who, as I type this message, are actively TORTURING people within the custody of this country, in violation of federal and international law. Yes, that is a WAR CRIME for which we hung people by the neck until dead after WWII. This isn’t a debate over a bridge to nowhere in the budget. This is about handing the most despised man in the world the keys to all of your inner thoughts, personal relationships, confidential business dealings and freedom to associate with people whom you choose. This is the endgame.

Right fucking on.

I gave money too Dodd today .

“I think it should be noted that what Dodd displayed here was leadership. L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P. “

i couldn’t agree more. even though i’ve struggled through unemployment for far too long, i dug deep and contributed to Senator Dodd’s campaign today … after writing a quick note of thanks yesterday.

Me too…..
I sent in 50 to him today. Dodd is the lead story at Swampland, as of 10pm Fri at least 150,000 went to his coffers.

Loo Hoo. @ 23

Maybe you guys already saw that Waxman is after Blackwater for TAKING IRAQI AIRCRAFT OUT OF THE COUNTRY and refusing to give it back.

SOBs

Can the aircraft (one or more?) carry nukes?

Who among you doesn’t have skeletons in the closet regarding websites that you have visited, emails that you have sent or conversations that you have had on the telephone? The unitary executive is about to have de facto legal authority to put the screws on each and every one of you people who fancy yourselves armchair activists. Bush is *unilaterally* claiming the right to imprison people without charges indefinitely whom he independently deems to be aiding and abetting terrorism. The Justice department has already begun arresting people and charging them with federal crimes for reselling satellite subscriptions that include certain arab television channels! There will come a day, if this is allowed to continue, that anyone who rocks the boat will get a knock on the door telling them to toe the line, or else. That is the *whole point* of this. The executive and the telecom industry are not investing all of these resources into accruing these vast powers for themselves, only to not use them. We’re talking about people who blatantly lied us into a war that has lasted longer than WWII; who, as I type this message, are actively TORTURING people within the custody of this country, in violation of federal and international law. Yes, that is a WAR CRIME for which we hung people by the neck until dead after WWII. This isn’t a debate over a bridge to nowhere in the budget. This is about handing the most despised man in the world the keys to all of your inner thoughts, personal relationships, confidential business dealings and freedom to associate with people whom you choose. This is the endgame.

Chris Dodd for Senate Majority leader.

Who else agrees?

Nope. We get nada. Zip. Nothing, in exchange for the most expensive get out of jail free card in the Bush Monopoly deck. It seems that Democrats are working overtime to make sure that there really aren’t consequences to elections after all.

How long does it take you to spell Telco Lobbyist law firms write this bill?

Russell Shaw Converging worlds of IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband Subscribe Alerts Bio Mobile

Rockerfeller’s contributions from Telco’s to buy immunity have exponentially climbed off the wall since Spring 2007.

The list of Verizon’s law firms lobbying for immunity alone is staggering and among them are the largest law firms in any major US city.

Senate Bill Gets Telcos Legal Immunity and Lets NSA Wiretap In U.S. Without Court Approval

I don’t see Hillary or Barack or Colbert or Richardson or Edwards’ profile or any other Democratic candidate (I understand Steven Cobert’s petitions are for both parties) impacting Telco Immunity anywhere on the horizon.

They are worried about tiptoing among their big money contributors.

Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash

Former Clinton officials lobby for amnesty for FISA lawbreaking

I know what the tired old clowns the Republicans are running think–they want the scenario in Orwell’s 1984 exponentially intensified.

So if Telco Immunity is being framed in a fillibuster there are a few points to keep in mind:

1) It takes 60 votes to stop the fillibuster or in Senatespeak to “invoke cloture.”

2) It would take 67 votes to overcome the inevitable Lil Bushie Veto that would follow a bill that maintained Telco Immunity–what we all want to happen but what I personally would be shocked to see happen given the lack of backbone in Democrats and the lockstep rubberstamp Senate and House Republicans have given to Bushie on every major vote I’ve seen in the last few years.

3) Also I think more people should be bothered by these two points the way this is unfolding:

No one in the House or Senate considers you important enough to know anything about the substance of information given to Senate Intelligence Committee members that the Senate Judiciary members are complaining they haven’t seen. I predict an inevitable cave-in of Democrats as to cloture. I predict a Bush rubber stamping of Republicans if Telco immunity were included and then 67 votes would be needed to overcome the inevitable Bush veto.

We know nothing about what’s being marked up right now–but it’s pretty obvious that Telco immunity is in there thanks to spineless Rockerfeller. He can always be counted on to cave as can his fellow Intelligence Committee members with the exception of Russ Feingold.

None of them will tell you anything about what’s being marked up, nor anything substantive about what they’ve been able to review as far as classified documents. I know they’re classified, but let’s get real–You’ve never had the door shut on you as a voter more firmly than now.

You aren’t given any real indication about the markups in Senate Intelligence or Senate Judiciary and you aren’t given a clue about what the classified documents show but I’ll give you one: It’s worse than you can immagine.

Billions of your tax dollars are spent on gathering all of your information from every source with all kinds of alphabet subagencie communications centers you’ve never heard of and never will–your email, your searches, your phone calls, and your medical records and your Democratic Senators and House Members are poised to extend it.

Again Fillibuster–60 Votes and you’re talking Cavocrats here–they cave each and every time–I’d say the chances of invoking cloture look awfully good right now. I couldn’t be more happy that Dodd and Biden are at least the first ones to promise to fillibuster. Right on.

Veto–67 Votes and you’re talking Bush Rubber Stamps here on both sides of the aisle unfortunately.

Conference Committee–Secret and forget about help once it gets there.

That Georgie Orwell had it down when he wrote that little book in 1948.

The latest comment I’ve seen from Russ Feingold about what they’ve been shown (none of which they are sharing with you the voters is this from NYT):

“The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Bond, worked out an agreement with the administration giving committee and staff members access to the documents in exchange for scheduling Thursday’s review of the bill. But just what those documents showed was a matter of intense dispute.

Mr. Feingold, who had a staff member review the classified documents at a secure location earlier in the week, came away with a different impression. Mr. Feingold said, “The documents made available by the White House for the first time this week only further demonstrate that the program was illegal and that there is no basis for granting retroactive immunity to those who allegedly cooperated.”

Chris Dodd and Joe Biden are giving me a lot to think about.