after I had already contacted the DNC's office and told them that I wasn't going to donate any money to the Dem's if this thing went through.

Thank ghod for one decent person in the Senate - my gal Di Fi stinks to high heaven on this one....

are swarming as we rejoice. Make sure you do whatever you can to help Dodd keep his shields up. Comment and donate even a little if you can. Let's not act like Poppy Bush when the Kurds rose up against Saddam. Dodd will need some backup to swat down the monkeys.

"And in the process -- for good measure -- they have ensured that there will never be any judicial ruling as to whether our Government and the telecom industry broke the law in how they spied on us for years without warrants." -Glenn Greenwald in this blog entry

Even if they grant "amnesty" it will (or should) be thrown out by any court hearing the EFF case as an unconstitutional law. Congress still has to obey the Constitution. They can not grant immunity for an unconstitutional action. That in itself is unconstitutional. They didn't write the Constitution or declare it as law -- the People did when they invested congress with certain limited powers to be held temporarily, so long as they are applied in good faith. Besides, privacy rights are Common Law rights and precede the American Republic and were adopted by it. In fact, the Constitution is a Common Law document (Law of Contracts). The True Substance of all our Law is the Declaration of Independence and the Common Law, part of which (that part deemed most easily eroded by dishonest politicians) is redundantly secured by the Constitution.

bebop-o - Dumb ox I am, but not for forgetting myself who I goad, remember & consider far too often.

Dumb ox I am for forgetting: Arne Langestmo, David Rauh, D. Baker, lupercus, JBin Mo...I should keep a permanent expanding list of all the writers here I admire.

Holly McLachlan - Sorry if the (!) alarmed you. It was intended as belated thanks for past empathy & unnecessary defense (from Kitt, who is inarguably smart, persistently male, father of daughters, brother of an Oklahoman fundamentalist & an occaisionally irritating dick :-))

You wanna-git frigged?

I tease. To cry would be a trap-door.

If ya's begin to cry like a baby in war.

Remember: You make drop out. No be a mental basket case like the GOP's. But if we are lucky, the GG gang of salt-shakers here at the Salon courtyard will keep reminding the neocons the people who literally stole the White House Palace are reputation assassins also: They kill anybody who opposes then and take refuge all-hunkered down with sandbags around. Just keep smoking them out. Don't be like the Backwater swat teams they employ: Say: Hands up in the air. First, tighten, natch up. Put another hole in the belt. None wish to get grossed out witnessing the pants belt and suspenders. Fix 'um things or we will surely know yer all yellow naked on T.V.

None deserve to observe the little curly-thing between the thighs. Put aTello-all Bell Pepper OVER the dupe first for extra national security, just in case. We can't listen to that furry mice squeak anymore. No show us 'it' either. RMP- No use a wood and metal mouse trap on neocons. It Springs. O, ouch. Practice non-violence. RMP. You teach them to wee-wee on the back porch, okay. No touch jalapenos first, tho.

RMP- No jump on a live frag. Or a frog. No frag Retired Military Parakeets. Feed them shit-on-shingle, butt-soggy, like in military basic training. Burn toast- eat '3' times a day at San Quitting Prison. okay. O, Dodd? O, somebody. Holy mother, brown reddish Mercurochrome iodine salt is good for any wounds. foe-neo-cons.

Get ready for the Swift Boating. Get ready for "Dodd endangers American lives." Get ready for Mighty Wurlitzer to go into action. And get ready for spineless democrats to leave Chris twisting in the wind.

Is it too much to expect that the democrats would get Dodd's back? Too much to expect that they would push back against the Swift Boating even if they are peeved about Dodd's hold? Will Hillary and Barack and Biden stand tall?

There is a major test coming for Senate democrats. I wish I could be more optimistic about their reaction. But a failure to stand firm with Dodd on this could turn a very heartening act of leadership on Dodd's part into another scathing indictment of Senate democrats.

My letter to Obama (via Joe Trippi):

Mr. Obama, get up on the Senate floor and denounce the "deal" on FISA that the Washington Post is announcing. It was done behind closed doors, it reeks of corruption, and it strips me of my 4th amendment rights. No retroactive immunity, no basket warrants, no surveillance of Americans! Denounce this deal today, tomorrow, on every campaign stop, until justice is served, and prove you want for all Americans what real presidents wanted -- a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, and a government of the people, for the people, and by the people that does not perish from these shores. That comes first, before all the marketing managers, campaign handlers, corporate funders or corrupt party hacks.

That's what it currently takes to get so much as a dime out of me. I've never been more serious in my life. And while you're there on the Senate floor, tell Senator Feinstein that I've downloaded the California Secretary of State's documents on filing recall petitions. I've had enough of Republicans and Democrats in Washington stripping this nation of its Constitutional birthrights and enough of corporate corruption. The Senate is morally bankrupt, and I'm ashamed of them. Get We the People what is rightfully ours, or GET OUT OF THE WAY.

...(from Kitt, who is inarguably smart, persistently male, father of daughters, brother of an Oklahoman fundamentalist & an occaisionally irritating dick :-))

-- DanJoaquinOz

Can't argue with any of that. ;o)