How truly sad that Bush and his enablers are poised yet again to succeed with their all-too-transparent formula for getting just what they want on the FISA revision.

Just for a quick review, remember FISA came into being because of abuses by the government in surveillance. Changes have been made over time as technology has evolved since original passage in 1978, that is, until Bush came on the scene.

We know for a fact (as disclosed by the NYTimes,, after sitting on the information during the 2004 election) that Bush decided FISA was too restrictive and simply chose to ignore it with widespread warrantless spying on citizens. Most telecommunications companies were forced to cooperate. One refused to go along and the CEO wound up in jail. A court has ruled that these companies all had to know that they were breaking the law.

To revise and extend FISA last fall, Bush sent McConnell out to tell everyone just how imminent an attack was, and so PAA was passed in August. Many of us saw through this transparent manipulation, but were powerless to stop it because we could not rely on our representatives in Congress to do their jobs.

Now, after extending the seriously flawed PAA for 15 days, McConnell again is telling us just how vulnerable we will be on February 17. Republican maneuvers in the Senate are helping this ploy, by extending the debate until the Senate will be forced to pass another flawed bill with too little time to reconcile it with the vastly better bill passed by the House. Faced with the fear-mongering, the worse Senate bill will be sent for signature.

This is just as transparent as the previous time. Why are they doing it? Simply because they can. Many years ago, when playing junior high football, our coach would call the same simple play, with the tailback running behind the fullback over the right tackle spot, over and over until the other team finally stopped it. Not very inventive, and everyone knew what was coming, especially the spectators. They could yell and scream at those kids all they wanted, but the play continued to succeed much longer than it should have.

We are those spectators. We can yell and scream at our congresspeople all we want, but we can't stop the play. Only when the congresspeople out there on the field understand just how well they have to play their positions will they stop the play and force the other team to try another one.

Keep yelling, keep coaching and tell those poor congresscritters what is coming at them. Someday, the 50 pound weakling will be in the right place at the right time and grab the ball carrier by the shoelace. After all, the Giants finally did it.

But... I see good old Focus on the Fanatic Mr. Dobson, via dailykos, saying that McCain is on his own because he doesn't stand for what Dobson does. Seems his intolerance isn't for sale. Integrity, even if it is the creepy crawly kind, is kind of refreshing these days.

It's about time that some jello-legged democrats got the same message, that when they are not representing the people that elected them, when they stand and speak for their corporate sponsors instead, they are on their own.

McConnell's hideous shill work will be mindlessly parroted to the mainstream media. The American public, by now mostly wise to the scam, will ignore the mainstream media. Nothing will happen. Congress, figuring no news is good news, will assume the American public either has been fooled again - or is asleep. The telecom get-out-of-justice-free card will be approved.

Down the road, at first sign rational thought is again fashionable, the mainstream media will blame this whole affair on "public apathy."

One mystery: Why are there so few media correspondents who PACK THE WAD to challenge this miserable, disgraceful administration on this insulting ruses? Isn't there one Gen-X or "Millennial" out there willing to become his generation's Edward R. Murrow? Forget about the Boomers - we're the PROBLEM, now. But what about you kids? And your BALLS?

I struggled with this one. Appalling is the feeling about what is being done. I thought appallous, appalledness, appallization,... Then I thought, there is a name for that emotion when the government does what should not be done, when they sow fear to manipulate, when they murder and torture in our name.

I think it's called righteous indignation.

I think it's defined as that feeling you get, when in the course of human events...

I'm so pooped/tired I cane home after working a brief while like the proverbial "dog" or "ox" and I'm gonna take a nap.

I'll look under the mattress 'haystack' and if the coast is clear...I'll sleep with a metal pitchfork and hoe to ward off

stray dog beagle terriers. O, and scary poodles.

The weatherman is crazy. It's a hot 62 degrees.

The gop-creeps must mingle with truth & flowers.

The seeds in the greenhouse sprout.

The gop~sedition is darn ridiculous.

...

...

Before I forget what I was about to say,

Io's done did forget what Ia's was to say?

P.S. Ondelette did write a great letter.

Arne L's web-site was much appreciated.

Arne Langstrom @ leastdangerousbranch.

Cheers,

cheese.

crackers.

I heard on the radio that Michael Haydon (Hayden?) admitted in Congress today that we had waterboarded three "terrorists", but it was a "long time ago", they were "bad people" and we were "scared". So it's OK that we did it.

God, these people make me sick.

If these liars pretend to believe we are about to be attacked shouldn't we have our National Guard and Reserves here to protect us? The Commission on the National Guard and Reserves published last Thursday, warns that our non-professional soldiers--the ones shouldering much of the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan--are stretched to the breaking point.

Until Iraq the Guard and Reserves were long considered a "backup" force, a sort of safety valve that could be pulled in the event of an emergency. Remember Katrina, that kind.

Why does it seem everyone is careful not to note this Vietnam comparison---no draft. No uproar on college campuses. Seems like the one smart(from their viewpoint) thing Bush and Chaney ever did. No Draft and they have gotten away with hundred of thousands of murders, with minor uproar.

Of course they have destroyed our home protection, while taking such good care of us.

Blackwater, their private army we pay for, may come home to make sure we are behaving as we are told.