RMP.... That's remarkable. Harry rewrites history, another thing he got from Bush. I can't believe he thinks anyone, least of all you, would swallow such horse puckey.

Kitt... Music, of one's own making, does have a lot of power. After childhood failure at piano, and later lackluster trumpet, I took up piano again at 40. Best move I ever made. Are you familiar with Robbie Fulks? V-roys? Both have great banjo stuff. Bring that thing to Austin.

I'm not familiar with Robbie Fulks. I just now had a listen though and enjoyed what I heard. V-Roys I'm familiar with. I like their sound quite well. My banjo playing is of the 'old-timey' style. But I learn from and enjoy listening to a variety of styles of music.

[Sen. Reid]:

Closing the debate on this bill now is wrong.

Thank you,

Harry Reid

Think we may have gotten through to him?

Way to go, folks, but DON'T LET DOWN on anyone!!!

Cheers,

Kitt... Try to find "South Richmond Girl," from Fulks' album, "South Mouth." It's very traditional, and quite mournful.

I've been missing this debate, and I am still missing it. All I've managed to do is write to my senators and read a small sampling of the excellent comments here. To those who are on the phones, getting out the letters, storming up the ideas -- I salute you.

I've been troubled by the article The Spymaster (New Yorker, Lawrence Wright) and by the recent catalogs, here and elsewhere, of the contorted legal opinions of the Yoos, Bradburys, Bybees, Addingtons, and all the others. Admiral McConnell makes clear in the article, as has been made clear before by John Poindexter, by others, that the goal is to listen to everything everyone everywhere says on the internet, down to the last little byte.

It's a cakewalk that the reason for the retroactive immunity is to protect the Bush administration lawbreaking from the light of day. Likewise that the continuation policies in the original bill and of the SSIC version are a cover for breaking the law and getting away with it long enough to build databases.

So if the goal is to listen to every last bit of the internet, why the fight over foreign to foreign calls routed to the United States?

I think Chris Dodd's language on the Senate floor today gives it up -- when added to the new White House offer to show members of Congress the legal opinions on which the warrantless surveillance program was based. You see, Chris Dodd spoke of foreign to foreign communications residing on U.S. computers.

Here on this blog comment thread, we are engaged in communication that resides on U.S. computers. There are people from Australia and Canada, and Germany, and elsewhere participating in this communication.

I believe the administration is hiding a legal brief that argues that the internet, like it argued Guantanamo Naval Base before it, is not "in the United States" and therefore is a foreign communication. I believe when the court found out that that was what they were arguing, the court balked. The court cited that the computers were under U.S. control (even if the blogsite was totally run from, let's say, Dubai, if it was on blogspot, it was under U.S. control). I believe that unlike when you, or I, or even Brit Hume talks about foreign communications passing through the U.S., they're talking about phone calls. But I believe there has been an Administration legal opinion in which the whole internet was argued to be eligible for surveillance without a warrant, because foreigners and U.S. citizens can mix freely on any given chat or comment site. Chris Dodd said it wasn't about immunity it was about hiding something. Isn't it fair to suspect, given that we know the program was based on legal opinions too secret for even the Congress to see, that the whole bit about foreign communications passing through U.S. machines is about hiding something too? Like an out of control legal brief -- again?

So I now believe the Administration sees this FISA amendment as legalizing vacuum cleaning the whole internet, every last byte, because the internet 'isn't in the U.S.' Just a very dark hunch.

Kitt.... I just played it, and it's guitar. Oops.

I sent that link you provided to Dodd's speech in video and print to all my e-mail friends. That speech contains everything anyone needs to know even if they were totally ignorant on FISA and what the Repugs are trying to do. Thanks kitt and thank you, thank you, thank you Chris Dodd.

How hard is this to figure out? No matter how you dress it up and walk it around it still comes down to the one thing: Do we want phone companies, or any other company, selling out our privacy to a nosy White House occupant who is hell-bent on usurping the U.S. Constitution? And should they be given immunity from breaking the law?

The quick answer is no. The long answer is no.

So, if Harry Reid will get some backbone - or get out of the way - and tell the rest of the Democratics masquerading as Republican-lites to crap or get off the Democratic pot - then maybe, the American people will be served.

In these parlous times, a little barrelhouse might be more the thing, doncha think? With all due respect to the old guy, he did put things like this to music:

Mein Leben hat kein ander Ziel,
Als daß ich möge seelig sterben
Und meines Glaubens Anteil erben

My life has no other aim
but that I might die in a state of grace
And receive the fruits of my belief

Not exactly something you can dance to, is it?

I've tried playing inventio xiii a few times myself, off and on for 40 years or so.

Here's a cocktail from Bach to the Future:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V4Yx4FNl94I

Or for unblended intensity, a wee dram of the other Glenn G.:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wpe3yTYpWKg

Cheers