So, as promised, Glenn Greenwald put up a post today about the new broad-based coalition forming a campaign to stop Steny Hoyer and his pack of mangy Blue Dogs from selling the Constitution down the river by granting retroactive immunity for the telecoms on potential (and nearly certain) FISA violations.
What happens? In the first hour alone, Greenwald’s post has raised over $20,000.
And yet Steny and Rahm and the rest of the DLC Democrats want to tell us that no one cares about this issue.
Right.
You know what to do. Go here and give.
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First
Go Glenn you da man
Immunity sucks and so does Steny
We’re well over $30,000 for the day. Let’s give until it hurts, folks.
Yeah, and after you give till it hurts (it DOES hurt, doesn’t it that he’d be a traitor and backstab his own party and people?) CALL HIS HOUSE SPEAKER OFFICE (someone is there answering the phone :D) and let him know what you think of this dirty backroom deal brokered with the criminals at the White House. Phone is 202.225.3130.
GO FOR IT. read glenn’s post first for talking points is my only advice. and let him know there are consequences for traitors.
Contributing now! Thanks David (and Glenn).
Donations: I’m in.
Rule of law — not just for the little people.
sorry I meant HOUSE LEADER office, I got confused because I just called steney AND nancy’s offices and let off a little steam… heh.
I gave.
Glenn is saying that there will be an alliance of current office holders and candidates joining the group. Anyone care to guess who will sign on? The easy first guesses are Chris Dodd, Russ Feingold and Ron Paul. I wonder who else will be there for us…
O/T
President Bush to ask congress to lift offshore drilling ban
motherfuckers
I wrote Senator Obama today, asking how a constitutional scholar could be so quiet at a time like this!
per MSNBC
Steny is getting all cozy with political sepuku master Rahm? Is that really Steny’s best course of action?
I know, I know, simple questions…
He needs to say something. It bothers me that he has remained silent
I knew it would happen as soon as Cheney
was caught lyingfigured out the Chinese weren’t already drilling there. /sDigg it and donate!
i don’t think this is about “Steny Hoyer and his pack of mangy Blue Dogs” – from what i can see that is a complete missread on the political environment.
the “blue dogs” are being used as cover so that the house leadership can vote “no” and pretend to be our allies while manipulating the procedures to make sure a bad bill passes. we have seen this again and again since last august.
and when i say house leadership – that includes speaker pelosi. why does she get a pass when she (along with conyers and reyes) have been complicit in every act of the kabuki?
I posted some great info with regards to offshore drilling here @ 71 & 72
Selise, do you know if the compromise only requires Senate passage, or both the House and Senate?
Wow.
per Glen:
KO needs to pick up on this story….KO????
I want my Constitution back
Neuro I did digg it! Ha it’s a race for the shovels:>)
I’ll match that, raise you by wanting my privacy back, too.
lol, you read the glenn piece, didn’t you ;)
i’m guessing here…. wouldn’t it depend on how it is presented. if it is a new bill, then yes. if it is a continuation of the bill last passed by the senate (with a substitution amendment) then i suppose it could go to conference after passage in the house.
but that would still require passage of the conference bill in the senate.
where is kagro x when we need him? *g*
Howie posted on this topic as well. If you are a DIGGer, would you please go there and do it? you might recognize the person who made the first comment.. *cough*
Oh, and I just KNOW steney’s phone boy would love to hear from you! Phone is 202.225.3130
Well Mr. Gore, I guess you were wrong last night.
Evidently elections DON’T MATTER!
Well I want our country back just the way it was before the government was stolen by the rethuglians. “Government of the people by the people for the people” Well I can dream can’t I?? I want it all!!
Glenn says that Hoyer is introducing the “compromise” new bill as his own although it was essentially written by Bond.
Wow! Jello Jay’s got nothing on Glennzilla. Didn’t JJ get a mere 10K?
You know what Congress is going to want to know? How do you get all that cash out of the toobz? Is it like a slot machine?
i agree with glenn – but this is something i’ve been saying for awhile (months – actually i think since last fall)… because i’ve been watching what the house leadership has been doing since august. maybe i should write up a comment summarizing their fuckery? can’t do it right now, but will try to put something together for later.
Jeez, that’s sleazy on a couple of different levels.
did you all see how brendancalling was lied to by Steny’s staff?
(originally seen at the Treehouse)
Dugg it! The rest of you can just my link to Digg it
Do it! I know you’ve been a patient observer.
no way i think he can get it done without pelosi, conyers and reyes on board.
good cop / bad cop people. let’s not get suckered by the kabuki.
Perhaps the rumors are true that the Dems figure that Bush is going to have a false flag attack inside the U.S. so that the voters are scared enough to vote for McCain. Because of that they are afraid not to vote for FISA. It’s certainly gotten bad when you don’t believe either Party.
They have all earned my KABLAMO award (see yesterday’s thread). I’m tired of the trickery and dishonesty and bad faith.
I’ll support that. But our privacy is one of the rights our Constitution is supposed to guarantee to us.
I want the Bush Dogs held accountable. As well as the criminal telecom corporations and the criminal Bush administration.
It is certainly interesting that they would think Bush would be capable of such a thing.
Oh absolutely. It looks like they are all on board and are working on their “plausible deniability”, but I think Glenn and friends are doing a lot to blow that one up. I don’t think they are used to this level of scrutiny. It could be a very tough lesson for them to learn.
If this passes, I think we get a new verb. Our rights will have been
“stenyed”.
i don’t even this is about the $$$.
now i’m speculating (unlike above where i think there is a preponderance of evidence in support of my conclusion)….
i think this is most likely about political calculations, just as the iraq war vote was. the dem leadership thinks it’s a good idea to take the issue off the table before the election.
again, this bit is just speculation. but it’s consistent with what we’ve seen from the congressional dem leadership for YEARS.
.
And the hell of it is that all of us think that he is capable of such a thing which is why the Dems might be blowing smoke our way by using this or not?
When news of Dodd and Countrywide broke a few days ago.. I could not help but wonder if the timing wasn’t specifically designed to weaken him before this FISA fight.
I posted that very thought on the WaPo blog.
yes – glenn doesn’t say that this is about ” Steny Hoyer and his pack of mangy Blue Dogs”
… my impression from his writing is that he sees the problem as much bigger than that. but yesterday he included pelosi among the responsible and today she’s not on the target list.
why not?
Okay, now this pisses me off. KO is going to do the Curious George doll. WHY???
If someone were to ask him why he didn’t cover this, he could just say that it is beneath his viewers.
makes me want to “hoyer”.
Possibly, but spying on Americans without a warrant is somewhat different…it is a direct breach of the Constitution.
You can Digg Howie’s Steny Hoyer has betrayed America post right here
But I recommend you go there and read it as well
Go, Howie!
ok.
it seems like ground hog day. every time we shoot this narrative down with the evidence, a few weeks later it comes back as though the previous conversations and analysis never happened. frustrating as hell.
He did say this in the update:
There are reports from very reliable sources that Hoyer, after engineering this “compromise” and ensuring it has enough votes to pass, will then vote against it so he can claim it’s not his fault (as will Pelosi).
I think he believes she also is in the middle of this dance.
Wow! Good for Brendan! That post totally rocks. Too bad it leaves a sour taste, but he’s a fighter. Thanks for the link.
They are counting on us going away. Not.
So I just went over to contribute and it was up to almost $121 K. Is that from this campaign or does that include the 85K for Carney? Either way it is awesome!
But the Blue Dogs will put it over the top….
Easy now, LooHoo, KO did a nice job of condeming them…!
Just google your old FDL comments.. you have laid out a preponderance of evidence on that point in old comments..)
excellent! maybe he will be taken seriously even if i am not.
Instead of Hoyles rules it’s be Hoyer’s rules.
I’d love it, selise.
It’s on top of the Carney money. I think it could do amazing things if ACLU sends out an appeal tomorrow. Glenn says they are on board and will send out a press release, so I hope they also do their email list with an appeal for money.
hoyer and the blue dogs = bad cop.
pelosi, conyers, reyes,.. = good cop.
it’s a game they play to fool us.
let’s show we are not that stupid.
Are you serious? Google has’em all…? ;-)
Rule of Hoyrror or Hoyerror
I wonder if Dodd’s presidential campaign list is still operative
yeah. but i have a lot of bullshit comments to weed out. *g*
The Hoyer, the Hoyer…
Sure, if you know how to search.. (luddite here)
i wonder if dodd will live up to his earlier promise to filibuster.
You mean that it is designed to fail and they will say too bad, so sad? I hope so.
Heh, So am I…!
neuro, I’m so glad you and nahant post the Digg link!
I dugg it.
Hahahaha….Granholm’s shoe…Life of Brian…
Damm and Wow I didn’t know they parse all of our comments… You learn something every day! Thanks CT for that pointer:>)
Sorry, sorry…nevermind. Brainfart.
no. it is designed to pass.
so sad.
I’m happy to be of service, as is nahant, I’m sure :)
Three out of my Four critters are on board against Immunity, and I’m still working on the lone holdout… Sen. Inouye…!
i wish david was here so i could argue with him directly.
ES just enter your screen name and firedoglake and presto magic there are ALL of your comments for you to look back at…Actually kinda of big brotherish!!
Watch what you say as any one with a little smarts can and will find your comments.
ssshhhhhh….
no one is supposed to mention the fact that the presumptuous nominee is now the leader of the Democratic Party, and that none of this could be happening if he raised serious objections.
Right now, there is ONE person in the Democratic Party that matters, and his name is Barack Obama. If the
profauxgressive blogosphere wanted this thing stopped, they’d be directing their efforts at Obama. Instead, they aim their anger and bile at Dear Leaders minions, like Pelosi and Jello Jay, because Dear Leader must not be criticized.So who got a peek at Hoyer’s compromised legislation? Glenn say it vests “the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers.”
Nothing in comparison to the hoover vac set up in ATT’s SF offices and elsewhere…!
by the way, this post could use a lot more Digging…
I think he will, and I expect Feingold to join him. They put out a letter last week to leadership in both houses and ended with:
You have that right
Neuro! It is the least we can do to support the Lake, besides we have fun trying to out do each other with our digging:>)
Hoyer’s Horror House.
oh – this is good. from glenn:
my bold.
i was just speculating. glenn has sources.
That is not a vacuum it is a Xerox high speed copier…. Everything on those fibers gets copied. Works just like a splitter for cable TV!
excellent!!!
and they have the right list:
I’m so completely sick of the Terrorism meme. Anything that isn’t GOP is terror.
If I could Digg more than once I would… Well if I made more accounts there ..but that sure would make it difficult to keep track which Digg I was logged into… to messy… I can multi task BUT that would drive me crazy..
Wow. Brendan’s on fire!
Speaking of terror. I missed the zed.
Hey! Brainfart is my territory.
: )
I haven’t believed either of them for more years than I care to think about.
the reason i haven’t “dugg” it yet is that i don’t want to help spread what i think is a false narrative (re the problem is all about hoyer and the blue dogs).
but really, really support the fund raising and hope that the targets are not limited to hoyer and friends.
Well I do agree we should all be raising cane in his camp too.
amen.
Kagro is on fire about Chuck Todd’s pearl clutching. Nice to see him do justice to something beyond FISA.
Todd should stick to number crunching. It suits him better.
Not at all. There was a bunch of stuff about contacting Obama’s office and asking him to stand up on this issue..now, if he does…well that’s another question. Absolutely, he should stand up for the Constitution….we’ll see…I’m not optimistic, but I’d love to be surprised.
Heh, heh…;)
Eli’s upstairs…
Geez….”borderline using a baby like that”…an ad?? How about “using a baby like that” for corporate Neocon cannon fodder in the future….
Chuck Todd is a wimp.
well if that’s the case, and i don’t think so, then no one here got the message.
here’s an example:
The FISA Fix and Obama’s Profile In Courage Leadership Moment
jeebus.
Donated.
And no, I don’t believe we should be pounding on Obama on this; we should be holding the Blue Dogs’ feet to the fire because if Obama should lose to McCain (knock on wood, perish the thought), it would be absolutely essential to have a truly progressive majority in both houses of Congress to keep the presidency AND the SCOTUS in check. Frankly, it’s far more important to obtain a veto-proof Congress this coming election than the presidency.
We are facing a house cleaning of a magnitude we have not seen in our lifetimes or in our parents’ lifetimes, and we have to start now. If they’re going to vote like Republicans, then we kick their asses to the curb with Joey “Short Ride” Lieberman.
that only works if the problem isn’t the leadership using dems from conservative CDs to do their dirty work for them. we’ve got bigger problems than that.
Amen and pass the broom. Or better yet, a shovel.
I e-mailed Obama and asked him to step forward on the telecom situation.
thank you!
If Obama could kill the Terror meme and use FISA to do it, it’d put me squarely in his camp.
i really don’t like obama.
but Boumediene v Bush has already put me in his camp.
he is no progressive. so it will be extremely important for us to hold his feet to the fire. starting yesterday.
We start by taking their toys away, selise. If the leadership are using Blue Dogs, remove the Blue Dogs and replace with real progressives.
The problem with going after leadership is that they are typically from states/districts which won’t vote them out — so we go after the Blue Dogs that are generally weaker, from states/districts that are leaners.
I was thinking cattle prods and tasers — if they don’t work, we move to incendiary devices, followed by fire hoses.
I’m so over these toxic dust bunnies in Congress, let alone the critters embedded across government agencies after 8 years under fascists.
Saw today at Salon that some vendor in Texas is selling buttons that say “If Obama is elected will we still call it the White House” – these people are pigs and we need to go after them. Every elected Democrat in Congress who is silent on this type of thing is abetting it and should be called out.
er, left unsaid is how this accountability is supposed to occur?
recruit and fund a candidate to run against Steny as an Independent?
all in for that – I’ll even cough up dough and do free media.
recruit and fund a candidate to run against Steny in a primary, where they are unlikely to get 20% of the vote?
not completely a waste of time, but not the real way to send a message that enough is enough.
I don’t dislike him, yet.
If he can undo the constitutional crisis and focus attention away from the security industry. I’ll like him.
Maybe an appraoch would be to focus message on the climate crisis would work? If done well it’d displace terrorism as the transformative issue of the day. It is constructive rather than repressive.
I have concluded that in his heart, Steny Hoyer must be a Republican.
i have no desire to belong to a party that will not hold their leadership accountable.
i don’t just think it’s wrong, i think it’s stupid. the blue dog districts are purple. it is much harder to get real progressives elected in those districts than in the bluer CDs.
sure – there are lots of good things obama could do. he just hasn’t shown any sign of actually, you know, doing any of them.
i hope to be pleasantly surprised. but i’m not counting on it.
for background: see item #12 on hugh’s list of bush scandals
I know and it makes the whole 9-11/terror argument for FISA ridiculous.
The Hoyer, the Hoyer
The Hoser, The Hoser
Call Call Call
1 (800) 828 – 0498
1 (800) 459 – 1887
1 (800) 614 – 2803
1 (866) 340 – 9281
1 (866) 338 – 1015
1 (877) 851 – 6437
agreed. but if there is another attack you know who is going to get blamed. :(
i don’t buy it.
To be fair to Obama, he’s from Illinois, which has as its western border a river that’s been acting up recently. From an e-mail sent out by the campaign this morning (similar to one sent out a few days ago for Quincy and other locations):
I’m not saying we don’t hold the leadership accountable. We should be giving them a chronic pain in the ass.
But it’s easier to seat a new progressive in a purple district than it is to remove an incumbent in a very blue district. Who would you get to run against Reid or Pelosi? who’d put up the money? can you get the votes for whomever it is you’d run? (Hell, it’s easier to put up a progressive in some red districts with Republicans at this point than field a primary candidate against one of these leaders.) Granted, grassroots people should try this to make a point, but they have to be willing to throw money at this realizing it will likely yield little.
It’s faster to take away the very tools that give them their power. Remove the Blue Dogs, give them nothing but progressives, and you are going to force them to play ball.
A comment on a blog about this:
Glenn has updates to his blog on the FISA bill and the NYT has a great editorial on the Hoyer end run on FISA.
June 18, 2008
Editorial
Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights
In the waning months of his tenure, President Bush and his allies are once again trying to scare Congress into expanding the president’s powers to spy on Americans without a court order.
This week, the White House and Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill hope to announce a “compromise” on a domestic spying bill. If they do, it will be presented as an indispensable tool for protecting the nation’s security that still safeguards our civil liberties. The White House will paint opponents as weak-kneed liberals who do not understand and cannot stand up to the threat of terrorism.
The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06…..ef=opinion
i must have misunderstood you when you wrote: