Ron Paul speaks against having our navy in the Persian Gulf, Ron Paul is a racist idiot (referencing the newsletters), therefore anyone who agrees with Ron Paul about our navy is a racist idiot and we can ignore the argument about the role of our navy.

Does that sum up your argument, LWM?

Signed

Fascist Svensker

(because Jonah Goldberg says that liking health foods makes one a fascist)

Being ignored, along with Holly and Mooser...very nice. Couldn't ask for a nicer group. Thanks, LWM.

And I assume, LWM, since Glenn has posted non-derogatory comments about Ron Paul in the past, you will now be ignoring him as well?

(Holly, yes, I know that Saudi Arabia is affected by activities in the Persian Gulf, my point was that Saudi Arabia is third on the list of importers of oil to the U.S. Furthermore, with all that oil money plus subsidies from Uncle Sugar, why the hell can't Saudi Arabia protect its own dang oil?)

Crooks and Liars has a post up about it:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/15/dodd-facing-fight-within-his-caucus-on-fisa/

I've e-mailed Dodd a letter of support and signed a petition re FISA from the ACLU. Please send an e-mail to Dodd to give him some help on this.

Glenn, don't know if you and FDL are planning anything on this. Just a shout out.

Some have already noted some of these, but besides contacting your own Senators, you can sign petitions at:

http://www.pfaw.org/go/NoTelecomImmunity

http://action.aclu.org/reidpetition

And send Sen. Dodd a supportive e-mail:

http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3128&cat=Opinion

You can't e-mail Harry Reid unless you live in Nevada (as I recall) but you can certainly call and give him a piece of your mind -- boy, does his staff hate it, too.

Mona = Old Lefty.

Ha hah hahhhahhhahhhhahhah.

Needed a laugh after reading Michael Gordon and contemplating the Nikkei.

Bush certainly did create his own reality, didn't he? Unfortunately, it sucks real bad and it's about to bite us all in the ass.

Hey, shooter, if you're paying $60K in property taxes in NJ (where are you, Alpine? Franklin Lakes?), your house must be worth over $5million. Sure hope your mortgage isn't leveraged...

As for your other error, the figure was $30,000 in property tax, which in New Jersey will get you a very middle class home. It's one reason more people leave NJ, than arrive.

OK, $30,000 in property taxes, should come out to about a $3M home. So, Princeton? Franklin Lakes? Rolling hills of Hunterdon Co? I'm quite familiar with NJ property taxes.

Family home, $750K, taxes $13K

Friend's home, $900K, taxes $15K.

Maybe you're in Hoboken, where a $450K home had $12K taxes a few years ago. But don't know how you'd be golfing all the time in Hudson Co.

Perseverance isn't necessarily a good thing (See Windmills, Tilting At). Extremism in defense of dumb is still dumb.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

-- Aycharaych

Someone who comes to Glenn's blog to talk about politics, not theology.

Can someone please tell Jay Rockefeller that we don't actually live in a country where the President has the definitively dictatorial power to "compel" and "require" private actors to break the law by "ordering" them to do so?

In Jay Rockefeller's world, the President has that power. He's just trying to get the rest of us up to speed.

I am so ashamed of the government of my country.

Called this morning and got:

Menendez -- will definitely stand with Dodd

Brown -- ditto

Biden -- ditto

Harken, Cardin and Sanders all said they "might" (I told Cardin's staffer to tell Cardin to "put on his big boy underpants and get out there and do it")

Akaka's staffer didn't know!

Couldn't get through to Dodd, Feingold, Obama or Clinton -- phones too busy!

Here are the phone #s again

Feingold (202) 224-5323

Dodd (202) 224-2823

Obama (202) 224-2854

Sanders (202) 224-5141

Menendez (202) 224-4744

Biden (202) 224-5042

Brown (202) 224-2315

Harkin (202) 224-3254

Cardin (202) 224-4524

Clinton (202) 224-4451

Akaka (202) 224-6361

Webb (202) 224-4024

Kennedy (202) 224-4543

Boxer (202) 224-3553

Landrieu also voted "aye", along with Nelson (NE).

By my count, the "noes" have 45 -- cloture did not pass!

This has been another edition of Sh**ter having no idea what he's talking about.

Maybe he was the guy in the parking lot in Jersey the other day: friend gets out of his car wearing an Obama button. Middle-aged guy, wearing expensive business suit, gets out of a Mercedes, glares at my friend, then points at him and says (in a voice shaking with rage): "You're going to elect a Socialist! A Socialist! Do you know what you're doing?!!!!"

Maybe we can use those "refugee" camps that Halliburton's been building after all. Re-education or isolation -- maybe both.

Whoever installed a woman as ambassador to a Muslim nation was an idiot.

-- Aycharaych

Iraq was a secular state, peopled predominately by Muslims. GDub and the Neocons have converted it to an Islamic state. (Interesting that they're also trying to overthrow the Syrian government, which is also secular.)

At the time Glaspie told Saddam that the U.S. wouldn't get involved in Arab/Arab fights, she hadn't been informed that Saddam was off our "friends to whom we give WMD to" list and on the "countries to be bombed" list.

You, my friend, are being used.

-- shooter242

Talk about being used...I didn't realize a snot-filled Kleenex could still engage in projection.

In the meantime, supposing the new and very crappy FISA fixes pass, since the spying without a warrant will clearly be unconstitutional, how can it be brought in front of a court?

(And didn't Richard Clarke meant to say "flout the law" and not "flaunt the law"?)

Tomorrow is a big voting day on FISA and telecom immunity. Be sure to call your Senators and any other Senators you can think of (Daily Kos has a good list with #s) and tell them you expect them to vote against immunity, and for Feingold's amendments.