The phone has been constantly busy, so I sent the following:

"I just want you to know that I am deeply, emphatically opposed to granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies who provided the Bush administration with unfettered access to customer data in violation of FISA.

Your amendment, while proposed with good intentions, removes the ability for the truth to be heard in a public forum. The FISA court, a secret body, will not allow for a vigorous cross-examination by the plaintiffs and is prone to rubber-stamp any arguments made by the telecoms and the government.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, should your proposed amendment fail to pass, it is imperative that you join Sen.s Dodd and Feingold in actively opposing complete retroactive immunity as set forth under the SIC amendment. Failure to do so would be to betray your constituents, the Constitution and the rule of law as implemented under our system of government."

farbie, sweetie - the content of your comment is superb, timely and appreciated, since I cannot access C-Span at work, but now I've got a headache from the all-caps.

All caps is extremely difficult to read. For emphasis, try the italic or bold tags.

Thanks, and keep on postin'!

"To note, I think you can also respect Sen. Byrd for his speeches on the Senate floor in the run up to the invasion in Iraq in 2003. While many serious Democrats faltered, Sen. Byrd seemed to understand quite clearly what was happening and warned Congress of the serious consequences."

I stand suitably and correctly admonished.

Will you send me a pony if I admit that I didn't vote for David Vitter?

f this debate were about national security. If it were about obtaining help from corporations reluctant to put cooperating with their government ahead of their duties to operate within the law and in the best interests of their shareholders. If it were about anything but a coerced protection racket, then these bills would include multiple conditions, quid pro quos, you do this and I’ll do that, you don’t do that and you risk me doing this.

Those conditions would include full cooperation by telecoms in government investigations of past and future illegal activity, including misuse of properly authorized taps. It would include limitations on what the government could do with the info, how long it could be kept, and tight restrictions on the use of info obtained by private non-governmental parties.

All those conditions are about the rights and security - broadly defined - of private Americans. They ought to be the heart and soul of any negotiations among Congress, the administration and private parties on this topic. These bills include none of them.

In part, that’s because this government wants no limits on how much info it collects or what it does with it. Which includes selling or making it available to private parties who can then use it for their own, unrestricted purposes. And in part, because this bill is about protecting Cheney and the next generation of Cheney-like power brokers. Which, presumably includes the next generation of Jello Jays and Harry Reids. Protecting Americans? Not so much.

I'm on my way to a meeting with some execs from Verizon so I want to make sure that they are as solvent as possible, so not having to worry about nuts like Glenn trying to bring them down is good for the telecom employees and those of us who work with them.

By the way, Bush isn't the enemy.

Why was not Jebbie born in West Virginian wild-open territory? There are good people THERE but no virgins or wise men, it's theories?

I just got back from West, Bye Gaudy, almost heaven, Virginia. Thus: As it's written on the license plates. Wild.

bamage. Oz is from a country they shoot felines on site. By the way, I did remove a sick cat from the barn two weeks ago. I'll deduct the cost from the Gold Star Salon premium membership next year, if there is a day after tomorrow? okay?

Is that fair? I tease. For the first time in my darn Life tho, I've gonna' say it in public. Whoever buries Jay, Dick, George, and all the other "cockiness" creeps in the Capital Hill cocktail club...Well, Wheresoever buries them...some one will need to bury whoever buries EVERYBODY in a grave, or whoever cremates THEM. I know it. That's kindergarten 101.

I flunked. And then got put back from the second grade to repeat the first grade.

I chewed led pencils?

You know that none come back from the dead to pronounce what's Che Pasa happening post-death, yet? Nope. gads.

If I had a pure-bred cat or something-or-other, and that sired feline in the Cat House on Capital Hill didn't scat...well, crap.

Who buries the dear barn cat will get barred one day too...ask YKW? Don't ask W.T.'s wife.

...and in a relatively short amount of time, we all go to the underground earth. Yep. so, eat and be merry, everybody. okay.

My son will soon wash horse manure off his hands. He will have debriefed me about the seed catalogue order. My open scar wound is oozing. My inner scar wound festers worst during days like this too...and darn those ...^&*%4's... dc whores! Scabs.

At the Selma Association of Cat Fanciers, or some other highly reputable outfit regarded by feline owners...BEWARE!

Oz don't like fat or skinny cats!

Oz is wise behind the Aussie curtain.

Oz cares about the bigger world we all share.

Oz ask 'us' to remain civil and purr. meow softly.

Oz begs us to carry a manure pitchfork and greasy soup spoon for it's time for lunch. yum. yum, yum, eat 'um up.

If we are not as cautious as a cow, a cat, a mule, a donkey, or a elephant...A killer case of pneumonia can temporarily put us in a sick bed by Nature's dame deign-damn-design?

Who knows? Maybe a rhino? No. So- Keep a humour body bone bare?

Drink a few beers?

Jump in a bed bare,

with a human lover.

West Virginia is for lovers?

Virginia and DC are diabolical?

LBJ's jail? I'd rather soar on a Halley's comet.