Senators will not vote on the FISA amendments until after they ride in Fourth of July parades back home. Perhaps you could give them a message as they ride by. After all, what could be more patriotic than celebrating the Fourth of July by standing up for the Constitution?

45 years ago, John F. Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin, urging those who do not understand freedom to come to Berlin. Steny Hoyer and his Democratic colleagues who are busy carrying water for BushCo’s warrantless wiretapping and telecom immunity might want to listen to what Kennedy had to say.

Don’t know why, but there was an awful lot of wankery today – even more than usual. But hey, when life hands you wankers, make wankerade! So, without further ado, let the wank-off begin!

Last Friday I had a total meltdown about the House passage of the deeply flawed FISA bill. Presumptive presidential nominee and newly minted leader of the Democratic party Obama’s statement in support of the bill broke my heart….Telcom immunity means we will never find out what happened in the PAST. OK, that’s bad. Cases that can’t be used as precedent can, over a long period of time, erode the legal system as we know it. That’s bad, too. But changing the definition of who can be surveilled under a basket warrant to remove any requirement that the surveillance subject be a spy or a terroist or any kind of bad guy–that’s way beyond bad.

It turns out that the bill is worse than I initially thought.

Apparently my hearing is worse than I thought.  When the House Democratic leadership refused to vote on the Senate’s terrible FISA bill in February, I thought they were saying, “We can’t vote for this because it’s an unconstitutional travesty.” But what they were really saying was, “We like the Senate bill okay, and all our cool telecom friends love it, but those crazy bloggers have our constituents all up in arms about telecom amnesty, and everyone hates The Phone Company.  We need something a little less… obvious.”

If John McCain can’t even figure out how to send an e-mail by himself, how in the hell am I supposed to have confidence in his ability to comprehend both the technological and constitutional issues involved in FISA? (YouTube) It’s like asking Ted Stevens for networking advice, isn’t it? Or Jack Abramoff for ethics opinions? Maybe McCain’s vast posse of telecom lobbyist cronies can help him out — because they’ve managed to flip yet another McCain position on an issue to their clients’ advantage….

Our Blue America television ads against Chris Carney and his support for retroactive telecom immunity, financed by reader donations to the tune of $80,000, are being rejected because they are critical of Comcast. Not all stations in the area rejected the ads, just those run by…wait for it…Comcast.

The week starts off with Main Core, Glen Fine’s much anticipated IG Report has been released, today is another state election (Kentucky) in the most hotly, and closely, contested primary that many of us can remember, and, now, the tragic and deflating news that Senator Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor.

This week Blue America begins an advertising campaign against Chris Carney (D-PA), one of five Democrats to vote for telecom immunity last month. Carney has accepted big contributions from the telecom industry, and has taken the lead in pushing to insure that the administration’s crimes are swept under the rug and that we are prevented from ever finding out the extent.