Hmm.. You consider freedom to be pointless?

Not even close. Leaders lead.

Reid and Pelosi both seem to regard power as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end.

I predict Aycharaych will demand that everyone drop whatever they're doing and immediately respond to his posts.

If they do not, they are obviously afraid to engage him in debate, and they Hate Freedom™ to boot.

It must be exhausting being the center of the universe.

Aycharaych is right about one thing. We do tend to put the wrong people in jail. Drugs are often the excuse, but if we were as candid about the real reasons as the Soviets were, we would simply call the people we lock up anti-social elements and be done with it.

In the Soviet state, this category included pretty much everyone thought to be a nuisance, from wife-beaters to people who turned up somewhere the surveillance apparatchiks hadn't expected them to be, from black marketeers to ideological enemies of the state. It was the grand catch-all of Soviet jurisprudence, much as the dime bag is for us.

Someone on an earlier thread about mentioned the phrase surplus population, and I remembered that Sartre (or perhaps it was Foucault?) once said that societies are distinguished by the sieve they employ to select their surplus population. Race, poverty, and the common euphemism employed in official circles to refer to them these days -- drugs -- seem to be ours.

Leaving aside the very real ideological struggle now consuming the Congress, I suspect that this is at least part of the reason why the media simply can't bring itself to consider the collusion of the telecommunications companies in GWB's usurpations to be a crime. A crime is only a crime when someone who already belongs to our surplus population commits it. If we approached the question any other way, the walls of Jericho really would crumble.

And, of course, we can't have that -- not, at least, until we're finally forced to call all of our assumptions into question. Jefferson would have understood this; I wouldn't be surprised, actually, if his shade weren't resting quietly under one of bebop's trees somewhere, waiting for us to do exactly that. If so, I'll bet he's smiling -- ruefully, but not without hope that harmony will eventually be restored.

Go Chris. -Ben

I just went back to Chris Dodd's website (after receiving an email) and made another $25 donation.

Even if you can't do that (or don't want to), please still visit his site, and read the blog if nothing else, where you can see how the Firefighters are organizing themselves for a victory for Dodd. (They did it for Kerry in 2004.)

There were also some posts about the FISA coverage in Iowa, and a few other things...

The email:

Hey -

Because of your support, we've been able to go up on the air with another television advertisement.

It's my closing argument, and I think it makes a compelling case that will cause Iowans to take another look at my candidacy.

Now that the ad is made, your $25 contribution will help to keep it on the air through Caucus night.

Will you watch the ad and contribute $25 right now?

http://chrisdodd.com/together

You should see the size and enthusiasm of the crowds I'm encountering since returning to Iowa after stopping retroactive immunity.

People care about leadership that delivers results, and that's why we are poised to earn one of the tickets out of Iowa and the road to the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Your $25 will keep our newest ad on the television screens of thousands of Iowans.

Will you watch the ad and help keep it on the air, right now?

http://chrisdodd.com/together

We have a holiday party in Iowa City with my wife, Jackie, later tonight, and I'd love to announce we hit our latest fund raising goal.

You can make it happen with your contribution.

Thanks again for all of your support,

Chris Dodd

Of course, you may contribute more than $25...

Isn't that how the senate works? I find it hard to see any kind of genuine democratic representation outside of those deemed fringe or unserious. The will of the people, the rules of the Constitution, the conditions of the Bill of Rights, are largely obstacles or challenges that need to be sufficiently managed but aren't really the motivating forces behind policy development or decision making. It's the natural application of a system where capital and mass communication largely determine the acceptable list of candidates for election and then asks the public, usually, which one they want for president (or senator).

It's capitalism before democracy. There were bound to be conflicts between the two. And for the past 27 years, the former has been edging out the latter bit by bit.

And the pundit class can massage the political classes, and subsequently the public, into accepting far less than the letter of the law and virtually the opposite to the spirit of the law. That's the game, and Harry Reid plays it.

And yet, for all this corruption and chicanery, at some point don't you have to look at the citizenry itself and wonder what opiates facilitate such a relinquishing of representation, of good government, of the pursuit of happiness?

In a Representative Democracy we elect "Representatives" not leaders. They are supposed to represent their constituents’ desires and not "lead" them to their own.

Most of us are now aware of who congress actually represents.

Like John Edwards says, to really change things will take a war (actually just the continuation of our country's long history of battling those who would pervert the Constitution and take the power it guarantees American citizens..

As Glenn pointed out, the supreme leader said:

"They have a duty to give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the American people. The bill should include liability protection for companies that are facing multi-billion-dollar lawsuits..."

It's absolutely amazing, in just a few words, he's managed to reduce the discussion from being an important issue of the rule of law to being simply about money! Wow. You have to give them credit.

Which leads to the question: What planet am I living on?