Very nice letter.

About time someone stood up for the rule of law. Chris Dodd 2008!

"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

I don't know where you've been for the last decade or so, but the courts are packed with Republitard judges. Don't bet the ranch on the courts doing the right thing. Besides, since when had the Cheney-Bush Junta obeyed the courts?

It's just when ya's start naming: Ya's forget Gary Tennis, Tom Grieve, etc., and Alladin, Pedinska, and Mustapha the tired poor 's' tailor.

Caliph, saouy, Noureddin, and so many more. How about the wiser, quiet, readers out there. They are doing the noble service more quietly.

I got to get. Yellow Dog! Woof you.

O, Oz- my thanks. I was supposed to go to meet those R&R gals in Australia. Any still around? No.

"The more you share with us the very valid reasons for your demons, the more resolved we become in restoring the dreams of America that you and I pledged to defend." --RMP

In a previous thread

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/05/dodd_interview/index.html

some/a lot of folks thought that Dodd was evasive/not really answering the questions posed by Glenn and it seemed to be that Dodd was "weak" (my words. Please note that not ALL posts were negative). Because of his actions today, have any of you changed your opinion about Dodd?

...and I'm playing catch up on the thread so my apologies if someone's already posted this:

Dodd sent an e-mail announcing he'll block the new FISA bill, which would extend amnesty to telecommunications firms that provided information on customers to the federal government without a court order. -- Joan Walsh (posted at 15:20EST)

I'm headed to Dodd's website to contribute and comment! He just leapfrogged the entire Democratic field IMO.

I asked the Clown that lives in my butt, and she said her and the 8 other clowns up there are voting for Ron Paul.

-- Ktwdawg

My crowded Colon Clowns are voting for Colbert.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/arts/television/18colb.html?ref=arts

According to this, looks like Feingold would have voted against this Bill..

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/white-house-spy.html

The man from Connecticut with the largest nutmegs in the Senate.

And I've become rather stingy with my contributions lately. I also sent notice to several other people--which I rarely ever do because it quickly becomes a nuisance thing if you forward too many petitions too often.

This is the sort of action that will earn my support. Not an endless stream of emails from cheerleaders encouraging me do give more, more, more, and for me to convince others to give more, more, more. Do something first guys, then I'll contribute and pass the word.

So Dianne Feinstein supports the bill because "it's a bipartisan bill." What a load of crap. Bipartisan means "a bill most of the Republicans and a handful of Democrats support." Any bill that gets near unanimous support from Democrats gets torpedoed by the Republicans as a matter of course.

...and put my money where my mouth is too.

Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold

On the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Consideration of FISA Legislation

October 18, 2007

“As a member of the SSCI, I will strongly oppose any FISA legislation that fails to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, overseas and here at home. When the Committee considers this legislation today, I will also fight to reject immunity for anyone alleged to have cooperated with the Administration’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The documents made available by the White House for the first time this week only further demonstrate that the program was illegal and that there is no basis for granting retroactive immunity to those who allegedly cooperated. The one silver lining of the flawed FISA bill passed in August was that it had a 6-month expiration date. It would be shameful to miss this opportunity to fix the law. It is time for Congress to stand up for the rights of Americans and to defend the Constitution and the rule of law.”"

I am a proud Progressive Patriot. http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/

But today my money went to Chris Dodd.

I reposted the question at the new thread

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/18/dodd/index.html

Thank you, Senator Dodd, for showing outstanding leadership on this issue.

I can only hope that your fine example will inspire other legislators to do the same.

SOMEONE needed to take a stand...I hope the voting public is paying attention....

has a bill, with Amy Klobuchar, to make the evil cell providers... what, be forced to unlock their phones? No, prorate their fees for taking another provider. Will they demand that all phones be sold unlocked? Uh, no. Will they demand an end to roaming? Will they want interoperability? Will they demand high-speed wireless data? No, no, and no. And coinkindinkly, AT&T announces that prorating your early quitting fees is now THEIR policy!!! Huzzah for... reform!!!

Rockefeller is too rich to be knuckling under to the monopolists, irony of ironies. I guess he just has a case of family nostalgia.

Extremism meet Extremism

I said it before and I’ll say it again, only an extreme form of civil (financial) disobedience will get their attention. They fail to fulfill their oath to defend the constitution, we reciprocate in kind.

I think we all agree there is tremendous frustration amongst progressives that we can’t get our ideas implemented by our elected representatives, and that increasingly we feel powerless.

I think there’s a way to shock the system that will bring about the changes we desire. A way to get them to see we are serious and we want things changed!

The way most things get done politically is through leverage, and the greatest leverage we possess as American citizens is not our vote (although that is important). I believe it is via our consuming. After all, about 70% of US GDP is consumer spending.

How can we leverage our roles as consumers to change this country? By non-violent, financial protest. And I don’t mean by stopping our consuming, at least not at first. I’m talking about something much more shocking (extreme) that is commensurate with the anger and frustration we all feel.

I’m suggesting we start acting like a labor union and call a strike. And the form of the strike is to stop making payments on our primary debts (i.e. house, cars, and credit cards). American consumers working in union could cripple the financial apparatus that funds the military-industrial complex.

It’s not illegal to miss payments on many of our debts (if it is then pay them, i.e. insurance policies required by law). Of course it will damage our credit rating temporarily, but it’s a small price to pay compared to the price we will pay if our constitution is further eroded, and the price our children will pay for the corrupted, hateful policies of our current governmental system.

I’m not suggesting wholesale default on our debts, I’m suggesting clogging up the system to the degree required to get our elected representatives to enact policies that stop harming our nation.

It can be implemented in stages. Stage 1 is a consumer strike of one month of no payments made. If the people’s representatives are still unresponsive after a couple of months, Stage 2 is a three month strike. Rinse and repeat until it matters.

If you think the recent sub-prime morass is causing problems in our “system”, it would be brought to a halt by these actions. They would be forced to take action. How can they accuse us of failing to fulfill a promissory note when they fail to fulfill their promise to uphold the constitution?? Who wants to enable an economic/political “system” that is corrupt anyway??