Attaching the bill to the funding bill is an even bigger reason to oppose the FISA capitulation. There’s two good reasons to vote against: exercising their Congressional imperative to fund (or not fund) war activities, and to defend the Constitution.

And with Obama simultaneously cutting a radio spot for a pro-warrantless-wiretapping Bushdog, we’re all Sister Souljahs today.

Not that it will do any good, but I just got off the phone with Hoyer’s office in DC.

I asked the poor soul who answered when Hoyer was going to go ahead and switch to the Republican Party since he damn sure wasn’t acting like a Democrat by totally caving on the immunity.

And I also passed the word that I would be doing whatever I could to help assure the folks in Hoyer’s district learn how un-Democratic he is.

If the bill goes to the Senate, Feingold or Leahy or Sanders or Dodd or any Senator with cojones SHOULD put a hold on it. And it couldn’t have been added -boy do I hope this isn’t true- to the ’supplemental’ without Pelosi’s support. She sure has made a liar out of herself based on what she said after the 2006 elections. And it sure makes the case that Nader has been speaking of.

Hate to say I told you so, but…We need alternatives, not money. Steny’s convention annointing him the Democrat nominee is probably in few weeks. I doubt you can mount a primary challenge by then. We have two choices in 2010 and 2012, a new political party or an organization ready to challenge Democrats we don’t like.

I’m worthless as a programmer, but we need something that turns “Myspace” into “Ourspace”, together with Facebook, and Wikipedia. We need to get organized. I don’t know what form the organization will take, but we should start talking about it, otherwise we will be screwed, blued and tatooed on any number of fronts.

I wonder how Cindy Sheehan’s campaign is doing. When I called Pelosi’s SF office, and later her Speakers voicemail (with instaerase feature) I said I was contributing to Cindy’s campaign, and I am.

FROST: So what in a sense, you’re saying is that there are certain situations…where the president can decide that it’s in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly.

And now, courtesy the House Seal of Approval, By Law.

A President, not a King
A Congress, not Courtiers
Equal Justice for All

Called and told the beleaguered phoner that I believe Hoyer is betraying the American people.

Talked with some poor tool who works for Steny. I told him we raised $207,000, because of Steny’s FISA abomination. I don’t think he had a clue.

I called Obama’s office earlier today and talked with a woman who took my info. I told her that McCain was already attacking Obama for hypocrisy for opting out of public funding (fine with me..McCain is worse) and now with Obama not speaking out on FISA/immunity they were handing him another issue to attack him for hypocrisy.

I then called my Rep., John Yarmuth. On the previous FISA bill Yarmuth voted against but both his D.C. and local office could not tell me if he was still against FISA. They said it depended on what was in the Bill. Now that we have Jane’s post we know what more is being added.

I feared this was in the offing but had hoped for better out of the puppet branch of the government. With so many unfortunate things that are in the works, and the general public’s lack of interest. All I can do is what I can do.

Hey, guys! I rushed over here as soon as I heard about this outrage. We have to make serious nuisances of ourselves, pulling out all the stops.

But I have a question — does anyone else have a serious problem getting Marcy’s page to load AT ALL?!? Is it possible she’s being sabotaged, as if SHE is the problem, not the traitors to the Constitution currently masquerading as ”responsible leadership” in Congress? Or is my tin foil wrapped too tightly?

It’s hard to load the FDL front page today, but not impossible. But the ”emptywheel” page spits out a strangely coded shell of its former self, when it spits out anything at all.

Please let me know if there’s a server problem here at the Lake, or if there are tube socks maliciously stuffed into these here toobz.

I want to throw myself wholeheartedly into phonecalling and faxing my outrage to the bastids’ offices, without simultaneously worrying in the back of my mind that some faceless ”they” are screwing with our ”home base” in online organization.

Haven’t been able to get into the site most of the day—Safari isn’t taking it. So I came over to Firefox.

Called Sestak’s office and talked to the nice scheduler I know there and she is passing along the message, but now with the bill tied to the war funding I think we are doomed.

Talked with a nice guy at Casey’s office and he appreciated the nice conversation we had. I asked if anyone had called wanting Casey to vote for FISA, he said no. Case closed.

Got shuffled to voice mail at Snarlin’s office.

Obama’s droid took the message and asked for zip code.

Stainy’s droid was pissed. They don’t like the attention he is getting on this methinks. We gotta keep it up.

Someone doesn’t have a clue. Steny’s going to be in Congress next year. We will have a war chest, but the battle may be over.

Yes, I couldn’t get it to load properly earlier today.

Always great to see on a thread!

major problems getting on both sites for me today. Firefox seems to be working now though. Didn’t before.

You’re right. This battle is over.

Steny, however, just started a war.

Just a side note this site is not being displayed properly in firefox or IE, and is very slow to load, I know there has to be more than 11 responses to this topic.

I think Comcast and Verizon are showing their muscle. Bastards.

steny’s droid at his majority leder office was bored but said he is keeping a tally.
OB needs to join the filibuster and do some leadership on this.
his phone answerer read me a position that said he opposes telcom immunity and supports a filibuster.
I asked if this was old–from the Dodd thing in Feb and he said no it was issued two (now three) hours ago.

I told him we are going to do everything we can to take Steny and the Blue Dogs down so that they don’t have the chance to do this to America ever again.

OK I’m with you. How do we fight it? I don’t think phone calls and faxes will do anything but keep us busy and ineffective.

You figure the Unions and the Black Caucus are going to follow a few liberals out of the Democratic party?

You won’t get a liberal candidate on the ballot for your LOCAL school board, much less get one elected to a state or national office.

Leahy Weighs In Against - per McJoan

”After months of negotiations, the legislation unveiled today to replace the so-called Protect America Act, which Republicans refused to extend, is not a bill I can support. I have said since the beginning of this debate that I would oppose a bill that did not provide accountability for this administration’s six years of illegal, warrantless wiretapping. This bill would dismiss ongoing cases against the telecommunications carriers that participated in that program without allowing a judicial review of the legality of the program.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....519/538493

Hi Mrs K8 !!!!

I’m having trouble with EW’s site even using Firefox.

I told Obama’s person that if truly wants to lead this country now is the time to start leading. Were he to stand up to this it would stop it.

“zip code please” was all she said.

Remember Valley Forge 1777 - 1778.

We were within a hair of knocking JoLie out of the Senate in the CT Democratic primary. If Lamont had won that by a slightly larger margin, he’d be in the Senate right now instead of JoLie.

We keep working to elect better Democrats. We keep the pressure up on the legacy media. It’s not like we’ve got a shortage of issues.

So what is he planning to do to try to stop it?

In MA they started something a while ago, the “Blue to Bluer” campaign. I can’t remember if it came out of something national or if it was theirs.

Anyway it works for me. Being a dem isn’t enough if you’re going to vote and act like a repig.

both fdl and digby have this problem of screwed up loading. it started at digby about a month ago.

we need leahy and OB to be on Feingold and others to filibuster this.

RevDeb,
62707 is my former zip in Springfield, IL for future ref

we need to call the OB campaign, not his Senate office.

Again I agree. Are you saying the situation’s hopeless? Eighty percent of the people don’t like our country’s direction, but there seems to be nothing they can do. The internet is a huge resource, but we’re not using it except to raise money and tell each other we are doing something when we are not. People would rather rail against Hoyer and his ilk then take arms against a sea of troubles. I’m not sure how we get around that.

RevDeb - don’t know enough about procedures to know if he can put ”a hold” on it -

Filibuster may be all the Noble Experiment has left

back to the phones for me

We don’t need no stinkin primary. Isn’t there a Puke running against him? Let’s put our support behind the Puke. Take the Dinos down one at a time, starting with Hoyer.

I wanted to reply individually to people’s posts, but the way the page is displaying here now (just like at emptywheel) makes it impossible to tell if I’m hitting the ”reply” button at the correct person’s post. Sigh. Thanks to all the answers from everyone concerning website problems. I still hope a mod can jump in at some point and let us know what the hangup is. I hope it’s not an attack of some sort, just a mundane server problem.

Rev — I use Firefox, and it’s all screwed up at least on my end. I hate the thought of trying Internet (gag!) Explorer.

Boo — Thank you, sweetie! Hugs to you, even in the midst of this travesty of ”democracy.” It’s our sense of community which will save us in the end….eventually. I hate that ”eventually” seems to keep receding further away into the distant horizon, though. Still, our duty is to wage the battle relentlessly for the return of a functioning constitutional system.

So that’s where I’m off now — to try and slay me some dragons. At least I know I’m in good company with all the Pupsters here.

Love to all the Firedogs!!! Fight on!

the folks at the campaign on the phone are volunteers, and they all agree with us. I have talked to several today. I warn them as a longtime dem that they should demand much and tell them I hope he doesnt break their hearts.

staffers are paid to have no opinions. the campaign is vulnerable and people led.

If the site is having this much trouble today, how’s it going to work tomorrow when we have both the floor shenanigans of this AND Scotty testifying?

Plan B?

There’s this or we could go into Gabbly mode or take it all over to Kos where Marcy went when the site went down during the trial. It matters not to me but we had better be ready with something!

Eh, this site looks different today.

Wouldn’t they still have to vote on this thing as an ammendment?
And has any one called Steny yet?
What’s his office response, hostile or businesslike?

i think it’s just the same problem the site had a couple of weeks ago. nothing is loading from http:/static1.firedoglake.com - and that includes the images, javascript and css. if you don’t already have them loaded in your browser’s cache, all you will see is the html and the ads (off site js is loading for analytics, but that is all i see).

here’s a trick - if you have recently saved a page from fdl to your desktop, open it in your browser and that will load alot (probably not all, depending on the browser you are using) of the javascript and css. that is what i have done and the site looks and functions almost normally now.

if anyone tries this, please let me know if it works - if the problems continue, i could always post one of my recent saves for downloading by folks who don’t have one of their own… just a thought..

mine was 60076 when I lived there, but I think my phone area code on caller ID would give it away.

Hapless Harry wasn’t exactly big on honoring holds placed by dems . . .

gotta go to a meeting. Keep up the good fight!

Agree.

I think of the Democratic party as just a big Tent within which we conduct our fights. Being a Democrat really doesn’t tell me much about a person.

RevDeb,
We have a mobile society and in this world of cell phones, who’s to say that you haven’t moved back to IL but still have a cell from Pa/MA (or in my case from TX)?

That’s a good idea, a really good idea. Could work with Pelosi too. Not enough to make the Dems lose control, but enough for them to know the times they are a changin’.

RevDeb and Firedogs - just got off the phone with Leahy’s office - (intern ?)

yes, they are getting tons of calls

no announced plan of attack wrt holds or filibuster

told the nice young man that tsk-tsk and outrage would not cut it

Dodd is next up - anyone heard anything from his office ???

No, the situation is very serious, but not hopeless. With me, it’s more tactical than ideological. Per my comment above to Rev Deb, I just see the Democratic party as a big Tent. The more liberals inside the Tent, the more leverage we have. If liberals start forming a third party, it gives blue dog Democrats tremendous leverage to keep us off ballots in local, state, and national elections.

We’ve got some muscle. Per your comment above, we’re not just raising money. We’re actively trying to get better Democrats to run and win. Yesterday’s post about Congresswoman Donna Edward’s victory is a real feather in our caps.

“FISA: Screwed, Blued and Tattooed”

Yet another reason Congress has an 11% approval rating.

i think a blogspot site with haloscan like windcatpond is the way to go. so long as some is around to keep putting up new posts whenever there are too many comments for dialup use.

Got through to Hoyer’s 202-225-4131 number on the first try. I didn’t have the patience or clarity of mind for diplomacy and dialogue, just invective.

yep. worse than bush.

FDL has been yet again hacked up, ’eh. This is unviewable. Sux.

11%. Is it really that high?

Yes but how to gain leverage? We all know that McCain agrees with Bush pretty much %100.

Nice catch as per usual.

Per Dodd’s Presidential website, he’s still trying to retire his campaign debt. Maybe that gives us some leverage?

you try hard refresh? seem to have leveled off.

Hey guys, just called Speier’s office. (they’re really nice). They told me the language is changing constantly so they cannot say for sure, but they did assure me that Speier is against telecom immunity. And given her speech at her inauguration, I don’t think war funding will change her mind on how to vote although I didn’t ask this specifically. I could be wrong. It IS Congress.

They also tell me they are getting quite a few calls on this issue.

yeah, seems to have leveled off in may

Anyone have a useful Obama number?

I told Steny’s office that we’ve raised over 200K in two days and it’s gonna be targeted at him. I told them I’m outraged, etc….they’ve been getting tons of calls…Obama’s office had a message on because they are swamped by calls….Pelosi’s office…switched right over to leave a message…I told them on the message I’d never vote Dem again…going independent…(drama..)

I have had problems loading FDL in the past but I believe it was due to FDL server problems? I am not having trouble today. Stay calm folks. It happens.

The Senate already passed a bill with immunity in it. The House passed a bill w/o Immunity.

Then you have to reconcile the two. So, Steny organized a capitulation and called it a compromise. He needs to be hounded out of office. Along with Nancy. I gave her mad props when the House voted down immunity.

Now I take it back. This could not happen without her consent

OT: Relieve supplies finally arrive in NOLA….3 years later…CNN

The year we must focus on more Democrats, but maybe one, Steny, can and should be sacrificed.

We still have several months until election day.

And we have two years until the next election day…better Democrats will be the rallying cry.

I’ve learned to my dismay [yes, I know I should have known before] that my Congressman in ND is cheerily part of the BlueDogs. No quarter, Earl.

The foundations of restoring democracy from the corrupt same ol’ same ol’ begins now…short term, and long term.

Edwards was right, this is an epic battle. But it is joined today.

Neuter the BlueDogs.

This Obama number has been circulating. It’s his campaign offices.
866-675-2008 option 6

OK, don’t shoot me, but why don’t we just send the money to Steny to buy his ####### vote? Seems to work for other people. If $10-20K is enough for Jello Jay, I bet six figures would get telecoms to trial maybe even a conviction.

Can I just take a stack of the money & slap his face with it? Cowardly freak.

Just sent faxes to all three Hoyer offices.

It would be interesting to know what the lobbyists are telling them and what the pressure is that they are getting from the White House.
Remember when I asked Reid if the lobbyists what the telecos were telling him?

He said he didn’t remember any meetings with THEM but with the CIA!
The pressure that they are getting is the pressure that they think matters. Our pressure must not be considered “serious” enough yet.

I asked for an Obama press conference denouncing this. Option 6 is getting swamped, but I think they are on our side.

Yup, he did.

This does several things:
1. Creates - for the first time - a broad spectrum of support for civil liberties that combines libertarians with ’lefties’. That may be the most damaging long-term effect for Hoyer and his leadership colleagues.
2. Makes the Dem leadership complicit in enabling corrupt Beltway corporate/lobbyist politics.
3. Caves to lawbreakers — even at the cost of protecting the lawlessness of Bush and Cheney.
4. Reveals Hoyer as a world-class hypocrite.
5. Increases distrust; doesn’t matter what Hoyer says from here on out, he’s sunk himself.

Hoyer totally miscalculated.

Can I just take a stack of the money & slap his face with it? Cowardly freak.

*recalling the fish dance from Monty Python*

Okay here’s Holy Joe’s response.

Thank you for contacting me to express your views regarding extending the Protect America Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-55), which was signed into law by the President on August 5, 2007. I welcome the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on this serious issue.
It has been neither an accident nor luck that America has not been attacked since that horrific day on September 11, 2001. As a result of the hard work of many in the intelligence community, those who would kill many more Americans have been thwarted in their attempts to attack us again. Nevertheless, as the recent National Intelligence Estimate stated, the terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland remains persistent and continues to evolve, especially as the terrorists become more proficient in their use of modern technology.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA; P.L. 95-511), which was signed into law in 1978, provided a framework for securing a judicially approved warrant for the electronic collection of foreign intelligence information. That framework provided that a warrant was not required for foreign intelligence surveillance of individuals outside the United States. However, since 1978, there have been many technological changes that have enabled those who are trying to do harm to America to communicate with one another. The 1978 FISA law failed to keep pace with the changes in technology. (Oooweee, really daddy?) This became apparent in May 2007 when the FISA court, which was created to approve applications for FISA warrants, issued a ruling that caused significant intelligence gaps in our collection of intelligence information from foreign terrorists overseas. As a result, the intelligence community was not able to capture a great deal of foreign intelligence information that it had been able to capture before the FISA court ruling without first obtaining a FISA warrant. (But Joe, doesn’t it seem the intelligence community has much intelligence anyways these days, perhaps a court could put more heads together? Maybe oversight is still needed, even to catch your your super techno terra-villains)
Congress addressed this technology issue when it passed, with my support, the Protect America Act last August. That law included a six-month sunset provision requiring Congress to take another look at the issue this year. On February 12, 2008, I voted for, and the Senate passed with a strong bipartisan vote of 68-29, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 (S. 2248) that was introduced by Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV). S. 2248 not only addressed the technological challenges facing the intelligence community, but also included safeguards to protect the civil liberties of the American people. For example, S. 2248 would require for the first time that a court order be obtained to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance of an American abroad. Historically, such surveillance has been conducted pursuant to Executive Branch procedures when, for instance, a U.S. citizen was acting as an agent of a foreign power, such as spying on behalf of a foreign government. Other provisions were also added clarifying that the government cannot ”reverse target” without a court order. In addition, S. 2248 increases the role of the FISA Court and of Congress in overseeing the acquisition of foreign intelligence information.
S. 2248 also included a provision that would grant legal protections to the telecommunications companies that assisted with foreign intelligence collection between September 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007. I supported that provision because those companies were asked to assist the intelligence community in defending the country, and they did so in good faith. Allowing those companies to be held liable for that assistance would be unfair and would serve as a grave disincentive for the private sector to partner with the government on issues of national security in the future. It is important to remember that the federal government itself does not have the capacity of its own telecommunications company and must rely on private providers in this instance. As the nature of the terrorist threat continues to evolve, we will need the assistance of everyone - the private sector and the general public - to keep us safe.

Unfortunately, the House did not pass a similar version of S. 2248; and the Protect America Act has expired. The intelligence community now must operate under the 1978 FISA law, which means it is hampered in its ability to collect the information it needs to do its job effectively. I strongly urge the House to follow the Senate’s lead and pass a law similar to S. 2248. An updated FISA law that includes a provision granting the telecommunications companies with legal liability protection is critical to our safety and security.
Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate continues to work with the U.S. House of Representatives to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill. I believe our national security is paramount, and please be assured of my commitment to maintaining the balance between the crucial need for tools to fight the war on terror and the equally important need to protect our civil liberties.
. . . (BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. This is the same letter you’ve been sending over and over again. We’re talking about Steny Hoyer and telcom amnesty?!?Remember?

A

Joseph I. Lieberman

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Sincerely,

In many states the petition deadline for non permanent third parties is later than for the permanent parties. An outsider/grass roots person makes up a party name and symbol, prints up petitions and vroom youre off to the races, assuming you can get enough signatures to qualify.

It may not be too late. In NY the regular party petitions are being carried now. The “make up your own party” petitions will get carried in a couple weeks.

disido

I remember reading how much money the telecos actually gave the Reps. What a BARGAIN! Of course those are just the HARD numbers they also give them lots of soft perks as well as help and support on “difficult decisions” like figuring out how to vote on complex bills…

I called earlier today and told the guy answering the phone that the blogs were full of comments that Dodd only was against FISA while he was a candidate and that he would not filibuster once he was not. I told him those of us defending Dodd wanted to know if he was going to filibuster and the guy rudely told me that he didn’t know but that Dodd had done all that he could.

Jello Jay just puked up some pablum…”blah,blah,blah,,will hold our government accountable…” Sorry about my language, all, but Jay, shut the fuck up.

I told them in a message to not let the Iraq supplemental go through unless they are sure FISA is not attached or in it somewhere, and also to make sure not to allow FISA as written to pass…and to make a public statement about it….and to “find” a Senator..to put a hold on the bill…blah, blah, blah.

I bet Hoyer’s got a lobby job offer cookin’ in this deal…

Can’t do that now; he’s not to be trusted.
And besides, it’s always better to work with people of principle. They’re tougher and they avoid bullshit.

Blue America PAC vs Retroactive Immunity up to $212,923, w00t!

I know you were kidding, but it would probably work. LOL.
Steny is such a cheap whore.

Okay, do we have any specifics on numbers, bills and ammendments. All I see is that it’s a deal, but we have no numbers to refer to or titles.

I immediately got through to this option. I spoke with a volunteer named Ryan Weinstock.

Just got off the phone with Dodd’s DC & CT offices - response

’No announced plan of action yet’

polite but firm response - ”well there better be something other than tsk-tsk”

btw - dawned on me about an hour ago - were they waiting for the Primary to be finished before the gave Mr Cheney his present ?!?!?

Besides calling Steny, Call OBAMA’s senate office:202 224-2857
(a human picked up the phone and took my message)
Urge him to speak out publicly against the bill.

Oh in addition, my call to speier including a jab at bushie saying that no one should break the law on the president’s say-so. like duh.

Shortly after speaking to somebody at Obama’s office, I received this email:

Thank you for contacting Obama for America about proposed legislation to give phone companies legal immunity for past wiretapping. Senator Obama has opposed this legislation and stood with Senator Dodd, cosponsoring his amendment to remove this special interest provision from the bill that came before the Senate.

Senator Obama believes strongly in accountability, and when he is President, there will be no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens; no more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime; no more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. Our Constitution works, and so does the FISA court. By working with Congress and respecting our courts, Senator Obama will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Wait a minute, Okay I am slow they can actually sneak a supplemental in without anyone having to vote on it accept when it comes time to vote on the big bill?!? There must be procedure to stop before it all comes to the floor? Is there?

Not any more. I got an automated message that said the person that I called has a voicemail box that has not been set up yet.

Obama’s folks are now ducking calls.

There are procedures but since the fix is in, unless we actually change the minds of Pelosi and Hoyer, they won’t use any such procedures

when he is President, there will be no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens;

fuck him.

congress is about to make it “legal” - he’s supposed to be the con law person. where does he stand on the 4th amendment?

i think we should call pelosi too - it’s hard to believe that the message that seems to be coming down from the top (to congress critters who are not inclined to support this clusterfuck) is not coming from pelosi too.

sure does seem like they have calculated that by caving now, they will take the issue off the table for november and that we will soon forget what the dems have done and be distracted by republicans and elections.

dc congressional office:
(202) 225-4965
(202) 225-8259 (fax)

sf office:
(415) 556-4862

speaker’s office:
(202) 225-0100

Jane and others - am starting to think the whole ” what is Steny up to” thingy was cover for the leadership all along (not that Steny isn’t the bottomfeeding whore we all know him to be) - but did they ask him to appear to be going it alone to cover their callous,traitorous asses ?!?!?

The new head of our Party need only say NO! and this goes away

Capitulation We Can Believe In . . .

cover for the leadership all along

ding. ding. ding.

no way he’s doing this on his own.

Wexler speaks out on FISA “compromise”:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....539/538481

When he is President, there will be no more illegal wiretapping…

But the license will remain.

Thanks LHP, I am reading back and it’s really hard with this er pace and format. Seems like things took a turn for the worse since yesterday.

Commenter “sailmaker” posted this on emptywheel’s thread:

I think this is a much larger immunity bill than it appears. In the definitions of ‘intelligence community’ the bill points one to the National Security Act of 1947 (noted on page 5 of the bill). which refers to:

(4) The term “intelligence community” includes -
(A) the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, which shall include the Office of the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, the National Intelligence Council (as provided for in section 105(b)(3)), and such other offices as the Director may designate;

(B) the Central Intelligence Agency;

(C) the National Security Agency;

(D) the Defense Intelligence Agency;

(F) the National Reconnaissance Office;

(G) other offices within the Department of Defense for the collection of specialized national intelligence through reconnaissance programs;

(H) the intelligence elements of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Energy, and the Coast Guard;

(I) the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State;

(J) the elements of the Department of Homeland Security concerned with the analyses of foreign intelligence information; and

(K) such other elements of any other department or agency as may be designated by the President, or designated jointly by the Director of Central Intelligence and the head of the department or agency concerned, as an element of the intelligence community.

Is torture an ‘intelligence gathering technique’? Which the President said was ‘legal’?

I sent faxes:

http://www.hoyer.house.gov/contact/

FAX numbers
Local offices:
(301) 843-1331
(301) 474-4697
NO immunity for telecom companies
DC office
(202) 225-4300

Which I’ll better really are shuttled to electronic boxes. I doubt they shoot our paper anymore. I like how they say at the bottom, due to security procedures mail may take three weeks. HELLO? I guess that ol’ Anthrax did have an impact after all.

rec’d!

we knew it . . .but that whole lone wolf thingy Kagro X, Christy and others were scratching their heads over . . .my, my, my

Capitulation We Can Believe In !

Strange you can change a cats mind by dangling some chow or a fish or catnip over its head. What to dangle over Hoyer and Pelosi? Hmmm

it’s political theater and everyone has their part to play.

Eisenhower attacked North Africa first, then Europe.

See SUN TZU ON THE ART OF WAR

Jane’s playing this exactly right.

Doesn’t get much more fundamental than this, and what do the Democrats do?

1) Let Bush off the hook
2) Support the rights of giant corporations over the rights of the citizens of this country (think about that!)
3) Screw us all out of our right to privacy

My middle finger is permanently raised to the folks in Congress who let this happen.

I’m registering Independent on Friday.

I made my calls earlier today, based on ReddHead’s post this morning. I called my senators [Lautenberg and Menendez], my rep [Pallone, D-NJ06], all to say that the FISA bill is a huge giveaway to the telecoms, the Bush-Cheney war criminals, and all of the rightwing nutjobs who would trade away the 4th Amendment to establish a police state.

Thanks to the many places in the Left Blogosphere that posted contact numbers, I’ve also called the offices of Steny Hoyer [DINO-MD], Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, expressing my dismay at this capitulation to the administration.

Money’s tight this month, but I’m going to kick into the pot as soon as I get home tonight. Dems who would negotiate a bill that allows warrantless wiretapping and telecom immunity should be targeted [yes, Steny, that means you]. Dems who allow such bills to go forward should be ashamed [yes, Nancy, that’s you]. And Dems who vote for it should be penalized.

huh?

how is she “playing” it? and why do you think it’s “just right”?