From The New York Times, March 5, 2006 article on the AIPAC prosecution:

"Federal prosecutors are using the Espionage Act for the first time against Americans who are not government officials, do not have a security clearance and, by all indications, are not a part of a foreign spy operation."

The link to that article is provided in the post linked to in the first paragraph.

Shavit's article, read in its entirety, is not an antiwar column but rather a lament that Olmert has fought the war so indecisively -

I didn't say Shavit's article is "an antiwar column." What I said was this: "he heaped blame on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the grave harm that the war in Lebanon has imposed on Israel." And that's precisely what he did - throughout the entire column.

It's fine (although not terribly persuasive) to call someone "stupid or dishonet" for what they write. But it's rather odd to invent something they plainly didn't say, falsely attribute it to them, and then call them "stupid and dishonest" for it.

Your attempt to portray antiwar sentiment in Israel as more than fringe phenomenon is laughable, but typical for Salon.

I said nothing about the percentage of Israelis opposed to the war, so again, you are arguing against phantoms. What I did say was that more and more Israelis are openly acknowledging that this war has undermined, not enhanced, their security. As I said in the post, whether that's because the war was a bad idea to start with or because it has been waged so incompetently, the war has not enhanced Israeli security. And many Isrealis themselves are openly acknowledging that, even in the middle of the war.

SR said:

Go spend a hour or two at a liberal blog. I never knew that the US/Whitey/Republicans/Jews/Capitalists were solely responsible for every single event in human history that could not be called perfect.

Do you have any polling data confirming your claim that a significant number of people believe that "the US/Whitey/Republicans/Jews/Capitalists were solely responsible for every single even in human history that could not be called perfect"? Do you know of any liberal bloggers with any sort of sizeable audience who believe that?

I read a lot of blogs every day - conservative, liberal and everything in between - and while it is certainly true that a handful of extremists on the Far Left have a tendency to view America as the World's Sole Evil and will dishonestly whitewash the flaws of its enemies (solely because they are enemies of the U.S.) - the suggestion that this is any sort of mainstream view -- nearing, say, the 31% level of those who believe Saddam was personally involved in the 9/11 attacks -- is just baseless and wrong.

In any event, there is a significant difference -- actually a fundamental difference -- beteween (a) holding what you believe is a misguided opinion (of the sort you casually attribute to unnamed "liberal blogs") and (b) embracing patently false factual beliefs (such as believing that Saddam was personally involved in the 9/11 attacks).

That said I believe the Democratic Party leadership has been spotted walking a bird trail in the Berkshires, they promise to be home in time to save the day.

As I said on my blog, I think it might be time to issue an Amber Alert for Democrats. They have been missing for an alarmingly long period of time. I hope they're OK.

...none of these bills have been enacted as of yet, correct?

That's correct.

And if I am correct, then it's a little premature to condemn the Democrats for not stopping it, is it not?

The only way for the Democrats to stop these bills is through a filibuster in which virtually the entire Democratic caucas participates. To do that, they would have had to have been laying the groundwork for weeks, if not months, by loudly and jointly condeming torture, detention, and warrantless eavesdropping powers.

They've done nothing of the sort. They disappeared from the tortue debate and relied on Sen. McCain as their proxy. All signals from the Democratic leadership in Congress is that filibuster is not even on the table; it is not even an option being considered.

The Democrats' unwillingness to oppose these bills in any meaningful way is crystal clear at this point. Does the theoretical possibility exist that they will filibuster them? Sure, it exists. But in the real world, that isn't going to happen, so what is the benefit of pretending otherwise? I would like nothing more than to see Democrats take a principled stand here - which, in my view, would not only be the right thing to do, but the smart thing politically - but it's clear that they aren't.