But the terrists hate us for our freeeeedoms!

Seriously, I remember when the US was an example for the world when it came to human rights, when a statement like that out of the State Department might have at least a little moral weight behind it. Granted, there was never a time when we really lived up to our ideals, but at least we arguably still had ideals.

Absolutely unbelievable.

Using the examples of Russia and Zimbabwe in your Hoyer-pointed ads with regard to the FISA/telecom amnesty legislation might be a good way for citizens to start realizing the real danger and radicalism going on here. Sure would make for an easy "creative design" phase of the ad campaign. Pictures of Mugabe, Putin, and a few images of civilians being detained and internet and phone images might have a greater effect than just straight-up bitching about Hoyer to the constituency.

It is remarkable, and sad, how little credibility the US has left to criticize dictatorships. Warrantless spying, unfortunately, is just a part of it. I have read similar condemnations of torture, censorship, show trials, imprisonment of political rivals, theft of taxpayer money by well-connected officials, soberly condemned by Human Rights Watch, and shuddered with embarrassment.

Worse, I have heard Condi Rice denounce all these same things, with all the conviction she was able to muster when she said, "No one could have imagined ____________."

Americans should be deeply ashamed.

They just keep trying and trying to gut the law and the Constitution, refusing to accept that the People say NO NO NO NO!

There is only one way to stop this: Hoyer, Pelosi, Rockefeller, and the rest of the criminals in Congress need to be removed. They must not be rewarded with phonecalls, emails, faxes and letters that EVER tell them they are doing a good job, because they NEVER do. They must be berated, attacked, and always put on the defensive for their every breath.

The only way to end this nonsense is to end their political careers.

We are hearing all sorts of reasons why we need warrentless surveillance - just as we heard all sorts of reasons why we needed to invade Iraq.

They are all lies.

Perhaps they have an ulterior motive or master plan, or perhaps they just want it because they want it, but all the reasons they give for eavesdropping are nothing but balloon juice, designed to mollify enough of the populace to make it into the next news cycle.

The next couple of months do not worry me as much as the prospect of the next four years as Obama's policies are derided and derailed by the Blue Dogs and Congressional leadership, both of which are in the Republican/neo-con camp.

Then a new Neo-con will be swept into power over the now disgraced Clin sorry, Obama.

...how the Dems seem to find it so easy to become complicit in the most ill-considered sorts of legislation. I mean, there's gray areas, and then there's just plain right and wrong.

Why is it so patently obvious to the some people that warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of habeas corpus, the expansion of executive privilege, etc. (each one of those disturbing in its own right) all add up to paint a grim picture of the future of this country...but others just don't get it, even when confronted with the stark and glaring hypocrisies these policies produce?

I would be happier to see MoveOn and other groups drop plans to help Obama get elected and simply focus on attacking Pelosi, Hoyer, Rockefeller, Landrieu, Bayh, and all the rest of the criminal anti-Constitution cabal in the Dem party. They should have to spend all their time trying to answer legitimate charges that they are violating their oaths of office and, thus, are unfit for office.

For the record, while China announced last year that they were going to lift their ban, they have not yet done so. I just got an application for a visa to go there later this year, and they still ask you whether you have HIV and, I am told by people who have recently been through the process, if you answer "yes" your visa is denied.

Also, for the record, let's not forget that it was Bill Clinton who signed the HIV ban into law. There were many things I admired about Clinton, and he was obviously light years ahead of our current President, but I'll never quite forgive him for this one (or for DOMA).

I thought we had this legislation stopped until next year. Is there nothing organized that we can do to stop this horrific law? By the way, if retroactive immunity is passed are the courts able to knock it down as unconstitutional?

Moscow on the Schuylkill: Philly cops bust activists...for what?

When Mayor Nutter announced late last year that he was hiring D.C. Charles Ramsey as his police commissioner, I said I would keep an open mind but I was dismayed at his treatment of anti-war protesters and his frequent clashes there over civil rights. So far, I've been mostly impressed with Ramsey -- murders have dropped slightly while he's taken a tough line on police brutality.

That said, I find the detainment of four community activists in the Francisville neighborhood to be more than a little alarming. The only thing that's clear from what's come out so far is that the four oppose police surveillance cameras. What's not clear is what laws they allegedly violated -- they ultimately were not charged with anything:

Four young residents of a North Philadelphia house who circulated petitions questioning police-surveillance cameras were rousted from their home Friday and detained 12 hours without charges while police searched their house.

Daniel Moffat, 28, a co-owner of the house, said police had no warrant when they entered. The house was examined by officials from several government agencies and then shuttered by the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections.

"This leaves me homeless, without access to things I need. My whole life is disrupted," Moffat said yesterday.

The raid on the property on Ridge Avenue near Parrish Street was led by 9th District Police Capt. Dennis Wilson, who was quoted in an online story by the City Paper as saying of the residents: "They're a hate group. We're trying to drum up charges against them, but unfortunately we'll probably have to let them go."

My friend Dave Davies -- who worked hard to make sense of this complicated story -- reached Wilson, who didn't comment. Hopefully, if Commissioner Ramsey and Mayor Nutter are as serious about civil rights as they claim to be, they'll ask Internal Affairs to investigate what looks like, based on everything that's come out so far, an alarming abuse of power by the police -- the kind of thing you might expect to see, to use a popular phrase, in a Stalinist regime.

In fact, I happen to disagree with these activists; I think that police cameras -- when placed in public locations and aimed at public property -- are a legitimate way to help the undermanned cops patrol the city. But it's also a valid public issue, and those who feel the cameras are an invasion of privacy certainly have a right to express their opinion.

Or, in a free society, they're supposed to. This search and detainment is outrageous.

Ramsey needs to set the tone. When he was commissioner in Washington, that city paid out at least $14 million in scores of civil rights lawsuits, money that should have been spent fighting thugs on the street.

It's a matter of life and death that history doesn't repeat itself in Philadelphia.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Moscow_on_the_Schuylkill_Cops_bust_anti-camera_activists.html