No wonder Jay Rockefeller left the family business for politics. He can't add 2 and 2. On the one hand he trumpets the findings of manipulative deception in the (inexcusably delayed) Phase 2 report. On the other, he can't quit the sour chorus for warrantless surveillance and telecom immunity.

Is he too tone deaf to hear they're the exact same song? If so, he'd have flunked the first round of Name That Tune. Or does he think we are all too idiotic so hear this? In that case, he's the idiot's idiot.

Either way, who does he think he's kidding?

Eric Lichtblau needs an editor with enough sense of place to lose the "be afraid" meme and start putting this bombast under "there they go again." Or maybe it's not in human hands; maybe it's a software program. With all that's come to light you have to wonder.

"government and Congressional officials said in interviews that they saw [reversion to FISA] as a dangerous step backward" because "government lawyers, analysts and linguists would once again have to prepare individual warrants, potentially thousands of them, for surveillance of terrorism targets overseas."

"Thousands" of warrants? Just exactly how many terrorists do they think exist in the U.S.? Doesn't the American public deserve to be notified as to who all these "terrorists" are in our midst? And, without even having to seek the most cursory judicial review to obtain a warrant, how many more thousands of terrorists will they be spying on? In other words, how alarmed should Americans be that we're a nation crawling with terrorists?

Home of the Brave, huh?

@ 9:18. Poor Pedinska.

Was that dear porky-pine Lady?

Was she quoting Daphne or Chloe?

Maybe Caesar or Brutus? Whoever.

No melancholy.

No illusions.

Who is a idiot?

The tragic GOP!

Let's not forget that even if they do appease the Republicans and the President on this bill, the Republicans are going to still hammer them on being weak on national security.

It doesn't matter what they do, that's going to be the modus operandi against them. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

And to some extent the Republicans, as you suggest, may be right. If they can't stand up against their own countrymen, how the hell are they going to stand up to the next Khrushchev?

Unfortunately to get to Congress these guys have to sell their souls. The rest of their careers is just haggling for the price.

Bamage, you can contact the Obama campaign here:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

I posted under the "Other Thoughts and Questions" button.

WT - good point. I shouldn't be so singlemindedly focussed on gonads, especially at my age. I get sidetracked. Their constant posturing about how tough they are on the terr'ists, while at the same time imprisoning and torturing innocent and guilty alike irrespective of any laws that exist, has made the shriveling a systemic feature.

GC! - an outhouse with an ocean view? Wonderful solution for our "irritable bowel" syndrome. ;-}

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON & SENATORS NOW!

Dear Congressperson Eshoo and Senators Boxer and Feinstein:

I am gravely concerned that the FISA bill....

-- farbie

Don't you think it might be good to write your congresspersons in favor of the articles of impeachment that Kucinich listed yesterday?

Where is the urging of the UT "community" to begin a letter writing campaign in support of impeachment?

I send petitions to the people from my state in the Senate and the person from my district in the House (no, they are not MY Senators, and no, he is not MY Representative. I have no representation in Congress) on a regular basis. It does no good. They don't give two hoots in a whirlwind what I think.

I live in a red state and in the reddest district in the U. S.

Could you call me part of the liberal diaspora in this benighted land?

The same thing happened when I e-mailed Jay Rockefeller urging him to register Republican and make an honest man of himself--absolutely nothing.

I get frustrated, but I dare not let it get to me. These clowns (Liddy Dole, Richard Burr, and Patrick McHenry) are not worth it.

I sent them each a copy of the Constitution last year with a note attached: "Here is something you seem to have forgotten about." I didn't even get a reply from any of them.

But by the ghost of Thomas Jefferson I WILL exercise my right to vote in November, and I WILL keep pestering those who are voted into office then.

I will not surrender, even if Reid, Pelosi, Rockefeller, etc. do.

You might want to look at:

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478151

Not all sites accept all tags, however. For Salon, I find

(i)enclosed will be in italics(/i)

(strong)enclosed will be in bold font sytle(/strong)

(blockquote)indent a body of words(/blockquote)

works pretty well. Note I've used parentheses for illustrative purposes. You need to substitute the angle brackets <>...<> for parens to make the code work. There is a way to code the code so that the angle brackets and the words contained in them don't "disappear" but that's for someone like Arne (or, someone else) to illustrate.

The basic premise is to begin a section of text with a tag, and then close the tag at the end of the text you want to highlight.

A good place to "practice" is Firedog Lake. You can use their comment window, and "code buttons" to see what the code looks like as it is placed in the text. Seems to me John Cole has that feature built into his comments section at Balloon Juice, and the folks at Unqualified Offerings, as well. I'm guessing they'd forgive you if you inadvertently hit publish. ;-)

The NYT embarrassed itself plenty during the run up to the Iraq war, when millions of private citizens around the world knew that the Bush administration's case for going to war was a scam. Now, even after the Senate Intelligence Committee has agreed with Scott McClellan's claim that Bush and his cronies use deception, exaggeration, lies of omission, and inconclusive intelligence to push their agenda, all the while destroying the reputations and lives of any who attempt to set the record straight, the Times is doing it again. Why hasn't it sunk in yet: This administration cannot be trusted, period. Whatever Bush or Cheney has to say, the press and the electorate both should assume they are lying. Whether it has to do with national security, the economy, the environment, presidential prerogatives, their own private pasts--if Busy or Cheney says it, it is a bald-faced lie.