My understanding is that all court action is currently blocked because the telcos are not allowed ("top secret") by the government to present to the court the orders they received from the administration.

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One of our StrangeBedFellows reminds us that Boumediene is not enough.

Hold the Champagne on Habeas Corpus

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/bacon5.html

(or click on my signature)

e.g.

According to Human Rights Watch, US military authorities were as of May 12, 2008 holding 513 Iraqi children as “imperative threats to security,” without due process, and have transferred an unknown number of other children to Iraqi custody.

The reasons to vote for a Democrat for President are named as follows:

Alito

Roberts

Scalia

Thomas

With a Republican President we will definitely also lose the third branch of government. With a Democratic President, we'll have at least one out of three on our side.

Yes, the warrantless wiretapping is going to look petty and trivial compared to the policy of torture.

At least shooter242 and Elephantman are happy!

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I called my rep. Rush Holt's office; the person who answered the phone was unable to tell me what Holt plans to do. I said as an author of the RESTORE Act, Holt needs to seriously oppose the Democratic leadership.

Sigh......

...Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay are more honest then Hoyer/Reid/Pelosi. With the Republicans it seems what you see is what you get.

With the Democrats we have worms masquerading as people.

As far as I remember, Newt, et. al. never pretended to be nice. It was always clear they wanted power for power's sake.

1. Change back my voter registration from Democratic to Independent.

2. No more money for Democrats (or Repubs.) Henceforth, only for specific issue-based orgs, like GG's civil liberties coalition.

3. I'll vote for a Democratic President in the Nov 2008 elections. No other Democrat, and no Republican. My vote is available to 3rd parties; we desperately need a viable 3rd party.

Only when we voters can triangulate 3 parties against each other will we voters matter to the parties. Right now, they have the attitude - just what are you going to do? Not vote Democratic?

I wish Dodd and Feingold will quit the Democratic Party and become Independents.

The Jim Jeffords model.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/16129/7150/432/538572

Hey, Blue Dogs! Nancy Boyda, one of the biggest surprise winners in 2006, is extremely popular in her very conservative district. She has a 68% approval, and is polling 17 points better than her leading Republican opponent.

Here's what she had to say when the Kansas Republicans took after her on FISA.

[youtube video]

So all those ads the Frontiers of Freedom ran against her on her FISA position made a big difference, huh. She stood up to them and is more popular than ever. All that "concern" about how the Republicans would be mean to Blue Dogs in tough districts on this issue as their excuse to throw over the Constitution to protect AT&T doesn't work so much as an excuse any more, does it.

On the other hand, the group who really does care about this issue is us. A whole cadre of potential funders, door knockers, phone callers, and envelope stuffers, not to mention voters, who are ready and willing to help re-elect Democrats, particularly those in tough races.

Good luck getting any help from us, folks. And even better luck in 2010 in your primaries.

All Dems, all of them deserve criticism for this bill. All of them deserve to be targeted as part of primary races where and when feasible. And all of them still deserve our vote and our advocacy. And if you don't agree with that, then I challenge you to explain why all of the Supreme Court votes that have gone 5-4 where the liberal/sane justices were in the minority somehow don't matter.

No, I'm willing to settle for a Democratic President and mixed control of the Senate and House (I oscillate between wanting to dethrone Reid and to dethrone Pelosi). Or if Democratic candidates to Congress take a pledge to not back Pelosi as speaker of the next House....

Please Digg

http://www.thestrangebedfellows.com/

(go there and hit the Digg button)

Link in sig.

He's a bit busy, what with trying to save the world and all by winning the Presidency, so it may take a day for him to get into gear.

That is the **everyday** life of the President. Crises don't arrive on a schedule. Are you saying that Obama can't handle it?

But that comfort is tempered by the worry that there's been a structural change in the country's ability to right itself.

Precisely.

One could argue that our slow slide down this slope is part of the problem. Like the slow boiled frog, each little descent meets little resistance. Perhaps the best thing that could happen as far as raising up counter-forces is a severe jolt to the country. Which means things have to go from bad to worse really rapidly; but not so bad that they cannot (eventually) be righted.

It is not that I'm optimistic that this action will contribute to any change; just sheer rage needs a constructive outlet.

Probably here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91724115

click on sig

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91724115