Letters to the Editor
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Meanwhile: "We're looking at our options"
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0328188520070804
Bush urges House to pass spy bill
Sat Aug 4, 2007 3:40PM EDT
By Thomas FerraroWASHINGTON (Reuters) - [...] But it was not immediately clear if the Democratic-led House would approve the Senate measure or try again to pass a bill rejected by Republicans on Friday. The Democratic bill would have expanded the electronic surveillance program, but also required greater court scrutiny. "We're looking at our options," a Democratic aide said. Another said, "Likely we will pass it (the Senate bill)," [...]
[...] "Protecting America is our most solemn obligation," said Bush, whose administration has stepped up warnings in recent weeks of threats against the United States. [...]
[...] Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who broke ranks with many fellow Democrats to vote for the measure, said: "The intelligence community is deeply concerned that chatter among suspected terrorist networks is up."
"I am concerned as well," Feinstein said. "We are living in a period of heightened vulnerability and must give the intelligence community the tools they need."
- - Reuters
What Senator Feinstein didn't explain is why increased chatter among suspected terrorists networks would suddenly create a need for warrantless wiretapping of people who aren't suspected of ties to terrorism. But maybe she's not being deliberately dishonest. Maybe she simply didn't know what she was voting for.
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DON'T TREAD ON ME
When Ralph Nader told us way back in 2000 that the Democrats and Republicans were but two sides of the same coin, he and those of us who supported him were vilified. Now, good Democrats (and Republicans of conscience) are shocked to learn the awful truth of the matter.
The only possible course I see available to us is to defend the Constitution of the United States of America from the bottom up. This can be done on a local and state level by, for example, working to declare your school, municipality -- or entire state -- a "free speech zone". Many other ideas come to mind but the point is, defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be something virtually every citizen can get behind, irrespective of party affiliation. I would emphasize that this be done peacefully. As to methods, Ghandi has shown us the way.
The apparatus of the Federal Government and the MSM may be under the control of the enemies of the Constitution, but we can beat them from the ground up. Indeed, it must be apparent that attempts to beat them solely from the top down will have limited success, at best. However, such valiant efforts should continue -- a "pincer movement", if you will.
Whether we live as free Americans under the Constitution or become oppressed subjects of an increasingly totalitarian government is up to us. Waiting passively for any politican to save us is surely tantamount to personal complicity in the destruction of our beloved country.
We now must save ourselves.
God bless us all.
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Good one, John Manning!
Maybe the outrageous demonization of Nader can stop NOW.
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@ bebop-o
I know the book; my ex-wife gave it to me. :-(
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Pawnhaus is p.h.a.t.
I agree.
Fatten up.
Eat road kills. More lard. Link sausage for William! No worry about cholesterol. Drink tap water and get a daily supply of birth-control pills or Valium via the tap. Want a dose of Viagra? Go to dee-CEO's and ask Pelosi to turn on the dripping faucet.
Bring ya'own Styrofoam cup! okay. A good idea. okay Hosea!
HOE-ever, if you are on the Congressional (intramural-staff) soft-ball girls all-stars team, it is wise to wear something more hard for the groin area's protection. If you like catching behind home plate, or needing a Viagra pill or not, a lady still needs to protect a vagina?
Is "lady-jock" that bad to say?
I hope, male and females, that Capital Hill will no-get-hit by a foul-groin-ball?
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3rd Party
I see the appeal, but if anyone who remotely might have voted for Nader had done so, he might have had 20-25%, Gore 30-35% of the vote and the whole Florida debacle wouldn't have happened. Bush would have won fairly.
I think we need to target the entrenched Dino's and take control of the Democratic party. Frankly, if the vocal Christian Right can make the R's stand up and listen or feel their wrath at the polls, we (a stronger majority) should be able to do the same to our party.
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Not only awful policy but awful strategy
The worst thing about this is that each time the Democrats roll over they are shooting themselves in the foot.
It's going to be very hard for them to attack Republicans and Bush when they helped them every step in the way. Already it is difficult for them to attack the Iraq War, given that they voted to authorize it. They attack the credibility of the AG while granting him *more* power. They are cutting off the leg they have to stand on in debates.
In addition they look weak, indecisive and without any agenda of their own. They aren't leaders, they aren't tough, they aren't "manly", they aren't people of action.
And finally plenty of people who would vote Democratic as the lesser of two evils are going to be so disgruntled they'll just stay home. Already we see that sort of sentiment in this thread, with people talking about how Democrats and Republicans are the same.
Nobody likes a weakling and a loser.
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"Netroots" Far Too Wedded to Democratic Party
What Glenn writes here...
There are many mythologies about what are the defining beliefs and motivations of bloggers and their readers and the attendees at Yearly Kos. One of the principal myths is that it is all driven by a familiar and easily defined ideological agenda and/or a partisan attachment to the Democratic Party. That is all false.
The common, defining political principle here -- what resonates far more powerfully than any other idea -- is a fervent and passionate belief in our country's constitutional framework, the core liberties it secures, and the checks and balances it offers as a safeguard against tyrannical power.
...may accurately describe the motivation of some individual bloggers. But it is simply not an accurate description of the institutions that make up the most important "progressive" blogs. Read the mission statements of the largest blogs on the so-called left of the blogosphere. They are, one and all, institutionally committed to the Democratic Party.
The largest progressive blog of all makes this abundantly clear. Here's the way Daily Kos describes itself in its FAQ, quoting site founder Markos Moulitsas:
This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions.
The purpose of DailyKos is partisanship, plain-and-simple. Anyone with a "D" after his or her name deserves support, regardless of his or her ideology, even if he or she supports torture and the destruction of the constitution.
These close institutional ties to the Democratic Party have even been explicitly praised by bloggers Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers in their 2005 report for the New Politics Institute "The Emergence of the Progressive Blogophere."
While I agree with Glenn that, as individuals, most progressive bloggers are deeply committed to the Constitution, their willingness to sell their political soul to the Democratic Party, right or wrong, has helped create space for the destruction of our Constitutional system of government.
The progressive blogosphere badly needs to grow up and realize that the Democratic Party is only as useful as its ideology, which at this point is nearly as harmful to the republic as that of the GOP. Progressives, online and off, need to be able to build institutions of power outside of the major party duopoly.