A new strategy is called for, one that states as clearly as possible, that expanding warfare and consolidating executive power (as McCain and his cohorts would do) is wrong. The word to use is WRONG. It's "Morally Bankrupt." It's "Foolish." It's "Anti-American." It's "Shameful." It's "Contemptuous." It may well be "Corrupt."

And it is fair to say that those terms apply equally to every single Republican in office who serves the Regime directly or who votes in Congress to do so, and it applies to every single Democratic Congressperson or candidate who approves and enables expanding warfare and consolidation of executive power. - Che Pasa

Well said, C.P.

As Glenn indicates, every day that goes by without the truth being told on the campaign trail, on the public airwaves, or in Congress, about what we are really doing in Iraq, gives credence and ammunition to McCain's expected fall campaign. [Short version of that unspoken truth: The surge in Iraq "succeeds" simply be being - it changed the subject away from our deliberate semi-permanent occupation and determined dismantling of the former nation of Iraq. Mission accomplished, if our underlying policy is quietly allowed to stand, as so far it has been by the Democratic Congress, which loves to scold and wax indignant about the "government" of Iraq - a fraudulent facade of an executive arm of Iraqi government that is dominated and manipulated at will by Iraq's (American) military occupiers.]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/dreyfuss

Yet the two remaining Democratic presidential contenders are two of those who have idled away an entire year in Congress by letting the Pentagon's fabrications about our efforts and mission in Iraq become conventional wisdom, unchallenged.

Congressional "oversight" hearings have become little more than PR appearances for the Executive Branch, providing convenient, impressive-looking venues for the roll-out of the latest Executive Branch propaganda offensive. No threat of serious questioning exists thanks to the self-imposed 5-minute-muzzle rules of Congressional questioners. Lower-ranking career employees never seem to be called for their nuts and bolts testimony about facts on the ground. And perish the thought that Iraqis themselves might ever be called to give an accounting of "their" country's condition today, or of its people's now-fading hopes and dreams for "their" nation. Just another of the many, many sins of omission from this "Democratic" Congress under the Constitution-hostile control of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. "Just Politics" is now our nation's defining creed, apparently, at least according to the politicians now warming the seats our Constitution created.

Meanwhile, an authoritarian imperialist like Senator John D. Rockefeller IV - almost certainly barely computer literate himself - has decided he knows better than some of the world's most respected communications network security experts from Sun Microsystems, SRI International, and leading universities:

[T]he 2007 US Protect America Act introduces fundamental technical vulnerabilities into the nation's communications infrastructure. These risks should worry law enforcement and the national security community at least as much as they worry civil liberties advocates. - Matt Blaze, one of those (groundbreaking) security experts

Http://www.crypto.com/blog/wiretap_risks/

So say the real technical experts about the stunningly-powerful and horrifyingly-invasive digital domestic surveillance bill Jay Rockefeller is bullying Harry Reid to force through the Senate as permanent "law." Where was the congressional hearing featuring these technical communications experts? When did the oh-so-secretly-in-the-know Senate Intelligence Committee (or any other Congressional committee) listen to these computer security experts anytime in the six months since the PAA went into effect? Nowhere and never, that's where and when. Why has Nancy Pelosi left an unexpected Democratic opening on the House Intelligence Committee - a vital committee already woefully understaffed as to competent, diligent membership - vacant, at this critical juncture in the intelligence arena, for months? Due diligence? What a sick joke.

Just 41 Senators - out of the 100 in office - who believe in America - in our Constitution, including its Fourth Amendment, and the rule of law as put into effect by three, separate, co-equal branches of government - are needed this Tuesday to vote no on cloture for a FISA bill destined to contain Rockefeller's lawbreaking pass for his pals at some of America's largest corporations. Start counting, America. Here are twelve Senators who have recently demonstrated that their allegiance to our nation's founding principles is in doubt, and whose votes on Tuesday will either significantly dismantle our Constitution (Aye on FISA-with-immunity cloture), or proudly defend and protect it (Nay on FISA-with-immunity cloture):

Evan Bayh, Thomas Carper, Dianne Feinstein, Daniel Inouye, Tim Johnson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Benjamin Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, John D. Rockefeller IV, Ken Salazar

No Republicans in the Senate will stand up for America on Tuesday to defeat cloture on FISA (unless by some miracle the final bill doesn't contain corporate lawbreaking immunity). That's a given. Which means that at least one political party in America today is willing to surrender and override our Constitution in the name of power. Where are we if the other political party won't unite to stop such destructive, coordinated attacks on our Constitution, and in turn, on the inalienable human rights it's designed to protect from abuses of our government's (secret) military and police powers?