Letters to the Editor
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Little correction
The WaPo writer, an old acquaintance of my husband, is Joby Warrick, not Jody Warwick.
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but the most basic sense of personal pride and human dignity
Ironic that my last post on the old thread concerned the idea that the Republicans endanger themselves when they go TOO overboard on the negative campaigning. It would appear that excessive bullying in the Senate has also cost them tactically.
Certainly Harry Reid's abrupt change in tone was due in large part to the Republican move to quash amendments after he had already done what he thought was necessary to guarantee their failure.
http://www.giveemhellharry.com/
While many people who noted the link above, thought it was an example of Reid's dishonesty, I'm willing to hope that he found he had been pushed just exactly one step too far.
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The enduring mystery of our time
Historians will long wonder why the Democrat controlled congress, given that they were elected to combat Bush, and given his weakness and now-laughable transparent scare tactics, was so unwilling to challenge him. In hindsight, it will seem so obvious that they could have won that experts will be unable to fathom why it didn't happen. All sorts of conspiracy theories will rise up about Bush blackmailing Pelosi and Reid in an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Future panels will be convened just to study this one aspect of our times. Millions will be spent trying to understand the phenomenon, the abject failure of the Democrats to stop Bush when they held all the cards. I hope these future historians are able to answer the question of why it happened. I watch in astonishment as it unfolds before me. I simply cannot explain it. It goes beyond gutlessness or expediency - it is something we don't yet fully understand. Perhaps it will even get a label - like "group think," which was applied to the Kennedy group who dreamed up the Bay of Pigs disaster as a way of describing the particular dysfunction that led a whole group of people to think and act irrationally.
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FISA
Sen Kennedy on Friday made the exact same argument as you on the floor of the Senate. Sen. Whitehouse on Friday followed 2 glowing Republican speeches on bipartisanship and he attempted to offer a Amendment to the Protect American Act Authored by Arlen Specter only have it objected to. If it wasn't so sad to watch I would of been rolling on the floor laughing. The Media could of and should printed Sen. Kennedy and Whitehouses remarks for all to read, but they made way too much sense.
Kit Bond was fuming after Sen. Whitehouses remarks and made what I believe was a major breech in security from the look on his face, when he admitted that not the Pres. or AG had made the deals with the Telecoms, but that those deals had been made by the CIA and NSA. Here is a link to the statement made by Sen. Bond in the Congressional Record. the pertinent part starts at the bottom of the first coloum. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2008_record&page=S320&position=all
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Liveblogging? Where?
From here (UT)? Or, there (FDL)?
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gavbrown
Why are you astonished?
The Democrats rolled over for Bush 41's preemptive pardon of Caspar Weinberger.
That was fifteen years ago and the Dems have not gained in fortitude since then.
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It's all a game
of good cop vs bad cop. To democrats, the republican party is the bad cop and the democratic party is the good cop. To republicans the democratic party is the bad cop and the republican party is the good cop. In reality they both work for the same organization of wealth and power to keep us under control. The difference is an illusion necessary to maintain that control.
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A Different Viewpoint
Has anyone ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, the Dems in Congress haven't blocked Bush because they actually AGREE with his positions (or at least enough of them do)?
Nah, couldn't be that. We all know there are SIGNIFICANT differences between the two parties--just ask any pundit.
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In reality they both work for the same organization of wealth and power to keep us under control
Reality is a slippery concept. The uber-reality is that their efforts at control are fraying at the seams. Someone noted in a different discussion is that one of the reasons polls are going astray is that their ignoring large swaths of 20-somethings for whom their cel-phones are their only phones.
It isn't helpful to underestimate the power of outrage, especially when to do so would discourage direct action.
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Once more over to the fax machine...
No amnesty sounds so much like common sense, that I wonder why it is I won't be surprised if the Democratic-led Senate capitulates -- if not today, then a month or so from today? I think of them as Truman Capote thought of Kenneth Tynan: they have the morals of a baboon and the guts of a butterfly.
I visited The Politico to see if they had corrected the "FISA expires on Friday" line, but it still stands (with a not very clear clarification below that the Protect America Act expires on Feb. 1 -- making it sound like a few laws expire then). I couldn't read through the posts to find out whether the correction had been posted, not having a bottle of Pepto Bismal (or bourbon) handy.
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senorplaid
Has anyone ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, the Dems in Congress haven't blocked Bush because they actually AGREE with his positions (or at least enough of them do)?
No - that's a completely new point that nobody has made or considered ever before until your comment.
Why do you think you can talk about The Motive of "Dems in Congress" as though it's one big monolith. You're talking about hundreds of human beings -- some of whom oppose these powers explicitly, some of whom don't believe in them but vote for them out of fear, some of whom do believe in them.
What's the attraction in pretending that there's one simple theory that explains it all - "they believe in it as much as the GOP!!"
Nah, couldn't be that. We all know there are SIGNIFICANT differences between the two parties--just ask any pundit.
What percentage of Republicans in Congress voted for warrantless eavesdropping powers? What percentage of Democrats did? Which party is trying to water down the bill? Which party unanimously voted for telecom immunity and which party had most of its members vote against it?
You can say the differences between the parties are minor and insignificant. But it's just factually false to say there are no differences.