I have been wracking my brain all weekend in an effort to come up with a Plan to convince Congressional Democrats that it is in their best interest to oppose the rape of our constitution by Bush's Gang.

The first thing that must be done, is get the attention of the American public. We need to do something which will force the press to cover the event and also something which will entice the average American TeeVee viewer to watch...and learn.

On July 12, the 29th Annual Mooning of Amtrak will take place in orange County (of all places), California. Simultaneously, the 3rd Annual Mooning of Metrolink will also take place.

Think about that. For 29 years, people have been gathering to show their heinies to a trainful of passengers. One must get a reservation months in advance to ride Amtrak just for the priviledge of being able to look at nekid tuchies.

I propose that we advertise in the Washington Post that a Festival of Moons® will take place on the steps of Congress when they return to work following their summerlong recess (ooops, District Work Period).

Think of it! Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of American citizens lining all the available space on the steps of Congress, all bent over baring their butts in a massive show of their disgust. We can't miss getting a red light on The Drudge Report with that show of ummmmmm, solidarity! Coverage by the Washington Times will be automatic because those loons will think we're honoring their founder, Sun Myung Moon. We can enlist Glenn Greenwald to be the keynote speaker and follow him with various and assorted candidates who are running against incumbant Blue Dog Democrats. We can even have a "Circumcize Joe Leiberman" contest, using blindfolds and meat cleavers furnished by Emeril LaGasse!

Simultaneous to the Festival of Moons®, we can also have a Half Moon at the Supreme Court! I'm sure Mona will be glad to lead that one and her presence alone (complete with merkin) will generate almost as much interest (at least from Clarence Thomas) as the Full Moon at Congress.

No one is encouraged to moon the White House. We don't want Dick Cheney to feel loved.

So, my friend, what say you? Will you come down to Sodom on the Potomic and lead our demonstration?

It's too early in the day for that shit, Chris. Hold off on your LWM crap until at least 10pm EDT or you'll drive off left coast readers.

Thanks.

As someone I suspect I would agree with in many areas, I'd appreciate it if you -- or anyone here -- could explain to me just why you feel "[t]he general concept of FISA in itself is O.K." As opposed to, you know, the Fourth Amendment.

FISA is an outgrowth of the Nixonian excesses of the 70s. Basically, Nixon was using "National Defense" as an excuse to spy on Americans, domestically. As a result, Congress, (Google - 'Church Committee') passed what is now known as the FISA law to both acknowledge the necessity for domestic surveilance and place parameters on it. In short, FISA is a mechanism with which the administration can legally spy on Americans as long as they can convince a judge that their activities are necessary for national security reasons. Prior to FISA, the administration was the sole determiner. Nixon took advantage of that to do his political dirty work under the guise of "national security".

Now, it would appear that we are returning to those days when an administration will be allowed to spy on us with no Judicial oversight.

Shooter's explanation is bogus, simplistic and designed to confuse the issue.

He said: "That's a pretty broad question, but essentially the Constitution doesn't apply outside the country."

The Constitution most assuredly DOES apply outside the country when it concerns the acts of our government against US citizens. It does not, of course, apply to the acts of other governments but it does apply to ours.

For example, Shooter, if agents of the US government were to pick your slimey ass up in a whorehouse in Kowloon and imprison you in some dark hellhole, your rights under the constitution would certainly come into play (as of last week). If agents of another government were to do the same thing, your rights under our constitution would be non-existant.

Similarly, under the current FISA law, to spy on you while you are overseas, the government must convince a FISA judge that there are national security concerns which warrant such surveilance. Under the "New and Improved"™ FISA, all it will take to spy on you is a piece of paper from the President or his designee. As long as they use "The Program"™ which has been approved by a judge, they can spy to their heart's content and there isn't a damned thing you can do about it. That's the way it was prior to FISA being enacted, PDA, and that's why we have (had) FISA protections.

Does Iran want a nuke? Does Iran even have a program to develop nuclear weapons?

Here's what ElBaradei actually said:

"If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year."

Maybe you should start your own blog. We've got enough professional trolls here and we don't need amateurs such as yourself.

Toodles.