jay was in on the dealio. he's covering his ass. perhaps reid was as well.

What would really help, is if prominent and influential house Democrats vowed not to endorse any conference bill including tel-co immunity.

That would bolster the few brave warriors in the Senate.

So where is Reyes, Rangel, Pelosi, Slaughter and the Progressive Caucus?

Think of concentric lines of defence. The enemy will go for the weakest point in the line, and that is usually where there is no reinforcement. If the netroots can't move 40 senators to vote against cloture, then move 150 representatives to vote against the conference bill.

Let's see if Pelosi wants to have the optics of passing the conference bill with 200 republicans plus some Bush Dogs.

I'm gonna fill an application to be a 18-wheeler pig hauler.

I'll pick up GOP hitchhikers during the summer depression?

Yep.

Yes.

GOP's can pick out the cutest little pig in the big truck.

GOP's can pick out and bawl or make out for free with the sow piglets. heh.

They'd probably pick the ugliest hog to snuggle up to and swoosh.

Called this morning and got:

Menendez -- will definitely stand with Dodd

Brown -- ditto

Biden -- ditto

Harken, Cardin and Sanders all said they "might" (I told Cardin's staffer to tell Cardin to "put on his big boy underpants and get out there and do it")

Akaka's staffer didn't know!

Couldn't get through to Dodd, Feingold, Obama or Clinton -- phones too busy!

Here are the phone #s again

Feingold (202) 224-5323

Dodd (202) 224-2823

Obama (202) 224-2854

Sanders (202) 224-5141

Menendez (202) 224-4744

Biden (202) 224-5042

Brown (202) 224-2315

Harkin (202) 224-3254

Cardin (202) 224-4524

Clinton (202) 224-4451

Akaka (202) 224-6361

Webb (202) 224-4024

Kennedy (202) 224-4543

Boxer (202) 224-3553

While this is extremely depressing, there is absolutely no way I will vote for any Republican or Independent in the presidential election. I do believe in electing better Democrats and supporting primary opponents to many of these horrible Democrats in congress who have been there way to long and don't know how to govern. I just cannot support any non-democrat for president after seeing how they govern.

With that said, I really can't get over "we will prevail". That maybe the quote of the still early year. "We will prevail" , what kind of senator of the supposedly opposition party says things like this for something a historically unliked president wants? They are not even trying to dress this one up, like attaching minimum wage or something else to the bill, just capitulation and nothing else.

If anyone thinks the interests of the people of this country are being served by the Democratic majority in congress then they must be Republicans. Because those are the only people the Democrats care to serve. It's time to purge congress. It's time to purge the entire government. Get out the pitchforks and torches, let's go to DC!!!

This is just an attaboy. Thanks for all you do, Glenn.

Great piece.

I'll dial each number. Holy MSG!

We need some mono-sodium glutamate ~ : 'umami'...

By next autumn we can pour salty, sour, sweet, and bitter MSG on unsavory Capital Hill meat they serve up?

Let's have seaweed broth for brunch today?

The MSG umami-enhanced food taste better with wines, ketchup, soy sauce, and Parmesan cheese. No Lie.

Cheers.

Cheese.

Throw into the soup some old wax Crayolas for good luck.

Blaise Pascal was dazzled by the night starry skies.

Immanuel Kant had a non-umami experience by 'speaking' against the lies. hint MSM.

If we all roar together in one accord, maybe Glenn can be the Hasidic teacher who sings and pleads with humble choir. He may shout, "Now, sing it one more time but a little louder with gusto and real feelings?"

And maybe we can get a free blessing?

And who don't plead for a dose of non-Lie?

But No-MSG! heh.

wow- apologies to M.E.M.

Forgive me? Please do not eat MSG umami!

The GOPS are very unsavory.

There is only one real explanation for why everyone in the elite power structure is cooperating to grant immunity to both BushCorp and the Telecoms, it is because the Government (which is not you and I, though it should be) has a larger agenda to enact that has everything to do with creating an unbreakable dominion over our every thought, emotion and action. I ask my fellow citizens to gaze into the near future, there you will see a World completely planned and censored, inwhich whatever freedom you once thought you had is just a shimmering memory eclipsed by a total nightmare. As I've heard it put quite recently, "There are not two political parties, there is one party with two factions." I ask what happens when the two factions no longer even fain that they oppose eachother (as is now clearly the case)? Once it was exclaimed we must "Rage against the dying of the light", now we must exclaim "The light is out, it must be reignited using the corpses of the dead and the reeking gas of rot.

The dream is truly dead.

(Sorry for being so graphic and negative, it is just that the time for naive optimism and placid acceptance is long past. Comedy will not save us anymore. Seriously, things are not going our way.)

He gave an impassioned speech last December, but still voted for cloture. Contact:

email: http://whitehouse.senate.gov/...

202-224-2921 phone

202-228-6362 fax

Speech: http://whitehouse.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=288537

Christy Hardin Smith and the crew at FDL are virtually live-blogging the FISA discussion in the Senate now.

(at sig)

That should be his required introduction from now on.

Kit Bond arguing that the troops in theater are at risk because of FISA limits.

C-span 2 live streaming

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan2_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS2

Democratic Senators Clinton and Obama are apparently sitting this one out. Democratic Committee chairs Rockefeller and Leahy are on the side of dictatorship.

Among presidential hopefuls, only John Edwards has spoken out.

What evidence supports a belief that any of this will get better next January?

And I want to keep hammering at this: the framing is wrong, wrong wrong.

Rove's way:

"Do they or do they not want our intelligence agencies to be listening in on conversations between terrorists in the Middle East who may be plotting to hurt America?" Rove asked.

The right way:

We don't need new laws to allow the CIA and FBI to listen when al Qaeda is on the phone. In 2001 they legally intercepted plenty of al Qaeda messages. What we need is a law requiring George Bush to listen when the intelligence community tries to tell him about those messages -- remember "bin Laden determined to attack in U.S."?