I take this as a substitute for a motion to proceed to a matter, and I presume is outside of the category of items that can be handled via cloture (the debate upon any measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business …).

Once the matter is pending, Dodd could have objected to amendments, voting on final passage and so forth, but the initial step of getting something pending is different under the procedure of Rule X, compared with the usual “motion to proceed” coupled with cloture in the event there is objection to the motion to proceed.

One of the principal dilemmas of Big Dick’s regime is that having collected men virtually off the street for a few bucks each, and then tortured them thinking they were the “worst of the worst”, he must now keep them hostage lest the world recognize his war crimes. That would apply, frankly, even if these men had been what this administration claimed they were; since most of them are innocent, or petty players in the wrong place, Big Dick has an even bigger problem.

Adding to the dilemma to which Mr. Cheney has subjected this country is that none of the evidence obtained directly or indirectly via torture would be admissible in any legitimate civil or military court room. Hence, the serial JAG objections, and the attempt to muzzle them permanently by putting them under the political control of the DOD’s politically appointed general counsel, currently the reprehensible William Haynes, sock puppet of David Addington. (Honestly, these guys are criminal human illustrations of chaos theory: they exhibit the same charactersistics regardless of scale.)

For me, the bottom line is that regardless of the criminality of these men, after this length of incarceration and inhuman treatment, they deserve to be let free. Most of them with an abject apology and compensation. Worse for us all, the purposeful maltreatment of them all means that the few who deserve longer imprisonment cannot legally have it, because there is no or virtually no admissible evidence against them. Which means that far from making us safer, the present regime has made us far less safe across the board (except for the competence of those they inherited and couldn’t get rid of).

Clusterfuck got on teevee today to say that the economy sucks but that he isn’t sure what kind of tax cuts to use to fix it.

I thought they had been yelling about how great the Bush economy was for over a year now. So far as his Rich buddies, his Base are concerned, things are probably pretty good – unless they’re into mortgage lending.

He could try paying off some of our debt to at least provide cover for whomever the Republicans nominate. They’ll need to say they’re the party of fiscal discipline.

With all his pandering to the Rich I can’t possibly see how he’s going to fix things.

Consider this oddity: if you have a company and you sell a bunch of furniture, groceries, cars & stuff which cost you $1,000,000 (taxes, insurance, housing, labor, everything included) and you sell it for $1,500,000, then the question is whether the economy is doing $1.5M of economic activity (GDP stuff)? It’s been assumed that if someone is willing to pay that price, then that’s a valid economic activity. But, cash is supposed to reflect reality in some way. Over time many companies do the same and the ‘profits’ pile up. They don’t reflect the goods & services, just excess cash charged. What is that cash worth? Doesn’t it just become inflated worthless paper if there’s too much of it chasing goods & services?

Now, consider the American economy with all our cash floating around the world and the inflated .com boom (and bust) and the housing boom (and bust). Isn’t there a correlation between how much inflation of prices forces bubbles & busts?

Somehow we’ve got to find a better way or we’ll continually suffer from boom & bust despite the Fed trying to control inflation.

I think Jane said earlier today they were having a “touch” of the DOS attack.

So you’re saying fdl had a bad case of DOS? Man, that’s nasty stuff. LOL

blogger reaction and activism may look like a bell weather.

started lobbying on this issue with fdl about 20 months ago – visited senators offices (multiple times) in support of feingold’s resolution to censure bush for the illegal warrantless spying. kerry finally did sign on. met prof foland, revdeb, kathryn in ma, scarecrow and a bunch of other ma fld commenters (that was before scarecrow went big time) in our lobbying efforts and then in going to ct to canvass for ned lamont. that’s were i met tim and matt (although i don’t know them) and jan and siun and trex and other fdlers (i’ve never been to a ykos though).

so yeah – i think we’re a bell weather. but it took us almost 2 years to get this far, on this issue.

just think where we’ll be in two more years!

What did Bill Nelson do/say? He’s the best senator I’ve got. I watched alot of C-SPAN today but I missed him.

Me neither. No explanation. And what about Mikulski? I thought she was a good guy.

i don’t know… confess i wasn’t always paying close attention to the floor statements if they didn’t grab me. will have to listen again.

The MSM have been dutiful, but blogger reaction and activism may look like a bell weather.

I wish we had taps on some phones today. Not sure how some of the big boy telco investors might be reacting. Particularly in light of the market. And how the telco’s E&O carriers might be seeing it. A lot of very angry customers acting immediately (boycotts, seeking alternatives, refusals to pay bills, etc) could be destabilizing. As could legal uncertainty about the constitutionality/effectiveness of such immunity legislation and the risk of a whistle blowing crescendo.

Also, some candidates may be assessing what a fight with the blogosphere will cost. Only thing certain is we got some insight into who is a statesman and who a political hack. I’m taking odds on how long Reid is going to keep his job..