Hey!

Jus Cogens!

So what water works best, distilled, tap, or something out of bottle with a fancy French label?

Welcome AttAckerman!

Welcome Spencer!

Aloha, Spencer! Attack…! ;-)

Welcome Spencer !!

((((Jane))))

Don’t know how you do all this at once! You Go Grrrlll!

And pleast pat Kobe for me.

fwiw, C-Span 2 has music background of angry, frenetic piano concerto that should leave both instrument and artist in shreds by the end.

U guys think Brian means anything by that?

Oops! Gotta be Chopin. Without warning, all the clouds cleared & the piano’s like silk.

Translation: No one has any idea what the hey is going on, just that it’s complicated and folks reasonable one moment & screaming at eachother the next.

Lamb is a scamp. Reads the Senate like a master.

And Howdy Spencer! Your residence at the Lake is truly welcome.

Welcome to the Lake, Mr. Ackerman,
did you tat yourself?

now the music is strutting like a pompous a$$ for awhile.

now running around like an idiot who’s chasing a feather in a wind swirl.

More and more like the Senate. We don’t need to be listening to the words.

Gack.

I hear waterboarding gets reliable information.

Have the interrogator ask where OBL is, so we can get that nasty episode behind us.

Enjoy your sponge bath.

Enjoy it folks. IF we’re lucky, we may be listening to a droning filibuster for the next few days…

Nope.

FISA votes come tomorrow in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion on H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act, which means votes should take place Wednesday. A leading opponent of the measure, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) says he will not attempt a filibuster but instead settle for highlighting what he sees as the bill’s flaw…

The fix is in.

Reid up in Senate NOW, detailing debate rules on judicial nominees…

Hey Spencer and Jane, you can practice your backstroke here at the Lake!!

What’s a little torture once in awhile…44% polled in the US, think it’s fine.

http://rawstory.com/news08/200.....-suspects/

Hi Spencer, and I highly recommend the Independent for those who have yet to visit it.

The words “Leader” and “Reid” should never be used together.

Unf’ingbelievable.

shows how astute i is. erase my whole comment string. nice music tho, while it lasted.

So, is Reid worse than useless? or does it just feel like it?!

Lamb heard your comment. Listen to the music. heh

“Bourne Ultimatum” @10:19-

CIA Substation, London UK “...I have a hit on Echelon, keyword ‘Brackbriar.’ Repeat ‘Blackbriar.’ It appears to be a European signal…“

No longer fiction.

I think we should all chip in
and buy Mr. Ackerman
a “I survived The New Republic” tee shirt.

Is it true that Stephen Glass was fired for having too high ethical standards?

Since Mr. Ackerman isn’t here yet, I’ll go OT for a moment:

Tweety on Charlie Black - “hey here we all are, asking for politicians to tell the truth, and when one does, we jump all over him!”.

Also - “…remember before the last election, we got a communication from Obama headquarters - oh - I mean from Osama bin Laden…”

The fix is in…President McBush.

– Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion on H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act, which means votes should take place Wednesday. –

More particularly, he moved to proceed to H.R.6304, but was met with objection. In order to limit the time to debate whether or not to even proceed to FISA, he filed a cloture motion on Monday. If that cloture vote happens under timing prescribed by the rules, it will be conducted one hour after the Senate opens tomorrow.

Next, assume the Senate invokes cloture. What it means is they have agreed to 30 hours (or less) of debate on whether or not to take up the bill. They are NOT debating on final passage, they are debating whether to blow it off, or take it up.

30 hours from Wednesday 10-ish is 4:00 p.m. Thursday. At that moment, the Senate would vote on the motion to proceed. A majority will say “Aye,” and the Senate will then have the bill before it. The default position in the Senate is unlimited debate, so there won’t be “votes” (plural) on Thursday, unless all the Senators agree. The only vote guaranteed under the rules is “the question is on the motion to proceed to H.R.6304.”

You mean because of articles like this?

Roadmap to Torture

Bomb, bomb, Iran assisted.

Welcome Spencer

Well folks Senator Obama is set to arrive at the Dorthy Chandler Pavilion for the DNC fundraiser and speech at 4:00 pm (mom works in the area and was alerted to such). will be interesting if there will be any protestors.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) says he will not attempt a filibuster but instead settle for highlighting what he sees as the bill’s flaw

… plus a sternly worded letter.

The null hypothesis is that each and every Democrat is either
a) a Blue Dog,
b) bought and paid for by ATTComacastVerizon,
or
c) being blackmailed using ex-FISA taps.

Got any other explanation?

hey wobbly, have a great trip!

Got any other explanation?

general spinelessness? (jello-spine)
stupidity?
fear of losing that cushy seat/job?

fear of losing that cushy seat/job?

Given the polls, I don’t buy that.

(Forgive my denseness if you were joking.)

aww thanks Elliott. you all keep up the fight (i’ll be here in spirit. continue to hold those feet to the fire.

I remain confused by your description of what is going on…to much jargon. And I have a HS diploma.

Well, if we can’t waterboard Spencer, who CAN we waterboard?

{btw, Feinstein’s local office says no statement yet regarding telecom immunity filibuster, but keep an eye on her website, as any statement will go up there when (if) it is issued.}

I had a congregation once that smorgasborded me. I was fine until they brought out the lutefisk . . .

Welcome, Spencer!

A sliver of hope:

Dodd, Feingold, Wyden and Boxer to Oppose Cloture on FISA Bill

Spencer, you really don’t need to do this. You had us at hello!

Looks like the FISA bill in the Senate is really in play now. Hard to say which way it will go, the wind seems to be changing by the minute. I’m faxing like he11

Spencer - I’ve been reading you at TP for a long time - welcome to FDL.

(Keep hands and feet inside the car please - it’s gonna be a helluva ride.)

mcjoan is following the Senate tapdancing.
Harry the weak Reid is now saying he’ll support the motion to strip immunity.

I’ll believe that when he does it.

– I remain confused by your description of what is going on –

Think of it like dinner. The first question is “Should we eat out?” The second one is “What should we order from the menu?” Right now, the Senate is on the first question.

In parliamentary process, the first question is “Should we take up THIS bill?” (Yes or no?) That is called “I move to proceed to the bill.”

If (and only if) the answer to that is “Yes,” does it make sense to debate the bill itself. Just like it doesn’t makes sense to look at the menu, if you’ve decided to eat at home.

Now, unlike deciding “eat out or in,” the Senate can take a long time to decide whether or not to pick up a bill. In fact, it can take as long as it wants, there is no time limit for deciding that question. But Reid didn’t want to wait “forever,” so he got 17 to use their right to demand the Senate to say whether or not it would agree to limit it’s deliberation to 30 hours. But even THAT question isn’t answered right away - the question “Will you limit your time to 30 hours” was asked Monday. The answer to that is due tomorrow. If the senate says “Yeah, we can make up our mind in 30 hours,” they’ll be on the question of whether or not to take up FISA - in the restaurant parallel, whether to eat out, or eat in.

They’ll have to vote on HR 6304 by close of Friday, right? Or kick the can down the road once again past recess, in the face of McChimpy’s ever louder Terrah Terrah Terra Boggah Boogah Boogah?

Peterboy,

The vote and debate this week is a vote about whether to even take up the matter. It is not a vote on the bill itself.

Personally, I think Feingold et al. (I sure hope there is an et al. there) should fight this one every procedural step of the way. We’ll see what happens.

BC

Key word: suspected.

-G

Ian’s upstairs
with a bright shining depression

[Link repaired by moderator]

– They’ll have to vote on HR 6304 by close of Friday, right? –

No. They can work Saturday, Sunday, etc.

But they won’t.

There are fewer than 40 Senators who have objection to the extent they would reject the bill.

Ian upstairs with some depressing information

McCain is hoping to coordinate things with Bush’s crony Osama bin Laden.

Might want to fix that link. It goes to the Washington Independent’s story on torture.

oopsie

– Harry the weak Reid is now saying he’ll support the motion to strip immunity. –

Promises to “vote against cloture” (Wyden) and to support the motion to strip immunity, and others to “filibuster” (which is indefinite, but usually means “vote against cloture”) represent flaccid resistance.

“Use all the parliamentary rules to delay or prevent passage,” now THAT’s a filibuster.

Attackerman!!!

Welcome to the Lake-gee, it’s getting crowded in here but it is all way good.

It’s rather cool to be able to say that one of your co-workers is getting waterboarded.

Knowing, of course, that he’s not been otherwise tortured before waterboarding, and that it’s being done with consent.

The downside is knowing that Spencer’s setting a bad example; any of the rest of us on the team might get subjected to waterboarding if we don’t turn in our administrative reports on time.

Hmmm.

Good luck, Spencer.

ya going to Brazil? keep i touch,go to my site,babies are there

http://shaggydogfarms.com/

Welcome, Spencer. I remember reading and enjoying your articles at the American Prospect; I think that’s where I first read your work. Glad you’re here!

what the hell can you do with these traitorous prix?

who?

I don’t think what we’re looking at there is waterboarding. Liquorboarding, more like it, and not forced. And not in a reclining position. I’m suspicious…but welcome!

Big event in the Senate. Reid is holding FISA hostage to the Housing Bill.

uncloaking (or am I supposed to say unlurking?):

As a consumer of insurance products, and a some-time herder of non-profit cats, and a lawyer who is always trying to avoid creating lawyer-client relationships, I just wanted to be on record (even though hours late), to say this Attackerman intro was the most hilarious thing I have seen at the Lake in a long time.

cboldt, you seem to be at war with yourself. You are often so gloomy about our chances to make any progress, but then you post a brilliant instructional simile/metaphor like yourself @ 44 with your *Zagat’s* restaurant guide to “how a bill goes through Congress.”

So, let’s just hope & pray that the Senators lost their appetite to be screwed up the ass embarrassed in the restaurant bathroom by the hustlers from the White House one more time.

Yes, exactly.

Yes