Letters to the Editor
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Fair Assessment
in my opinion, and I'd add that along with the Act Blues and Blue Americas and MoveOn, I receved a call last night from ACLU on this very topic, asking for additional funds.
Someone had given them a shot at a large matching grant that would effectively double any gift, and I assume all this is related to the upcoming FISA "battle", if that term can even be considered accurate.
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Thanks for this, Glenn
I'm getting the word out to our people, with your 9/19 FISA piece as talking-points material to use when chatting up our congresscritters.
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And the Candidates are Silent Too
It is becoming increasingly clear that non-rich liberals and right-wingers are in the same basket. Both groups are promised things they will never get, while they endure a bipartisan machine that is grinding up our Constitution and letting corporations pick our bones.
But as long as we regular folks sling arrows at each other about abortion and gay rights, we feel like we are in the middle of a vibrant political system.
(NOTE: I fully support abortion rights and gay rights -- I think these issues are pushed on the right-wing voters by a handful of zealous people and calculating Republicans. I would bet that most poor GOP voters would rather take on the banks that are screwing them than abortion, if given the option. No one gives them the option.)
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Yep....
This morning Joe Scarborough spent a large amount of time ridiculing people who opposed FISA. At least Mika seems sane.
The worm will turn. The worm will turn. Once Hillary gets in there, she damn well better clean this rot out. Watch all the Republicans suddenly become freedom and principle proponents of checks on the administration....
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Another Thank You
I was very depressed this morning listening to Young Turks and browsing the article. I would imagine that this will hopefully help fire up the troops though. It's time we made some of our Dem more afraid of us than the Republicans.
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I spy on you but...
Why do we claim unlimited right to spy on foreigners? We do not like it when people spy on us. Is it possible we could do a better job of learning about terrorists if we respected others enough so that they might cooperate with us? Surely the US government could start by showing that it respects its own citizens.
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Amendments to follow
Unfortunately, I do not think that HRC will "clean-up" or "rout out" anything. As Glenn references, much of her and her husband's team has been involved in fighting for retroactive immunity for the telecoms.
The bill may have been introduced with many charming and helpful attributes but it will be amended significantly in committee, on the floor of both chambers and in conference. Trust that there is more than sufficient bipartisan love for AT&T to make sure immunity is in. I suspect there is also sufficient love for warrantless eavesdropping to make sure those provisions ultimately meet the current administration's needs - and I suspect the likely Democratic nominee will either sit silent on this issue or offer soundbytes that appear to be pro-civil liberties, "we need to be sure that we protect the civil liberties of all Americans while enabling our intelligence agencies to track terrorist activities, that's what I support," while doing nothing to actually get us there.
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Speaking of Telecoms
I think this company would likely fit in the telecom niche. A disturbing story re: the surveillance "industry":
Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets
Firm Says Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007; Page A01
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
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"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.
Full WaPo story linked to name below
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One example of GOP voter...
I've talk to a union worker that is a staunch Republican. Please note that the union is not tied to any Federal Government jobs, so there is no worry about loosing a job if one were to vote for the Democrats (unions tied to Federal Government jobs are more likely to vote for Republicans due to pressure from the top that the jobs might disappear under Democratic rule).
This person will never vote Democrat. Even though Republicans are union busters and that several Republican officials have been shown to be extremely corrupt, he can't vote for anyone that advocates gay rights, abortion, etc. He does not care to get screwed by the Republicans on other issues as long as the offer to defend "Christian" values. Even after pointing out that a lot of Republicans don't care about these values, they talk the talk but do not walk the walk, he still could not vote for a Democrat that stands behind gay rights, abortion, free checks to the poor (his view - he grew up poor and made it without help and so should others), etc.
Now what? It looks like there is a base that rather gets screwed over by a Republican the vote for a Democrat. So Republicans do have an ear w/their messages. This might be the core of "poor" people that they are talking to (even though their "base" are the rich).
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Democrats are Sadly Mistaken
If democrats expect support from their base on this, they are sadly mistaken. Their greedy look to 08 elections, unwilling to do anything to chance a huge pickup, has left them ineffective and enabling the criminal behavior of the whitehouse.
The consequences they need to think about is alienating the force that put them in the majority. I for one have withheld the money I've allocated for campaigns. The money is one more outrage from going to an advocacy group.
Keep up this cowardice, and 08 might not be the "lovefest" you anticipate.