...is on display here. help me break the law, and you'll never do time.

it's a family heirloom. bush 41 did it for his buds caspar weinberger and george shultz (causing lawrence walsh's head to explode along the way); bush 43 has done it for scooter libby and a cast of hundreds. extending it to corporations? there's your W legacy.

the saddest part of this is how equal a partner the democrats are in this. there's never been more clear evidence that our "representative" government only represents the interests of the sociopaths at the top and their corporate allies. and if that makes me sound like a flaming loon, so be it. these days, reality has a well-known flaming-loon bias.

lomecdutex: Why will you vote for someone who voted present 130 time's as a state Rep in Illinois? what can you expect of a loser with a record like that?We just don't have anyone running who is qualified to be president. Obama is just a big mouth with no substance and Old Man McCain is George Bush the 3rd. What a sorry state this once great country is in when the young people who have a maxed out credit card drive a car that isn't paid for and if they have a house they owe more than it's worth which shows not only bad judgment but bad management vote for an empty suit and get him nominated it doesn't get much worse than that but it will because one of these losers will be the next president. What a shame

...Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay are more honest then Hoyer/Reid/Pelosi. With the Republicans it seems what you see is what you get.

With the Democrats we have worms masquerading as people.

Senator Dodd and the filibuster action are only part of the Senate, this bill is currently under consideration in the House where there is no filibuster. The Senate has this notion of unlimited debate, which these days seem to be a way for the 100 members to stand up and give speeches that none of the other 99 members listen to.

What I do not know is if this bill is similar enough to the previously passed Senate bill that it can go directly to the President, if it has to go to conference to iron out the differences (where even more changes could happen), or if the Senate would have to take up this bill as well.

There's no need to go that far. Newt, etc, are just as manipulative and opaque, they are just blowing the smoke from a different direction.

If they pass this authoritarian gibberish, voting against Obama is precisely the right thing to do. We will have to actively campaign against the Democratic party and ensure that they are defeated on every front this year. Of course, this does not mean that we should vote for McCain. It means that we should vote for someone who is willing to stand up against the authoritarianism that is about to come into full bloom in this country. I myself have been recommending Nader, but there may be others. And if there aren't any candidates who are unaffiliated with the Republican or Democratic adversaries of freedom, we must not cast a vote at all. The worst outcome would be to end up with an authoritarian consensus among both major parties under a Democratic president. We can't allow that to happen. We would then live in a country in which liberty will be treated as a quaint sort of concern on the margins, and the protection of fundamental rights will be given about as much passing consideration as, say, the issue of labeling requirements for genetically modified foods.

Defeating the Democrats in the presidential election is the only way to go if they pass this legislation. Congratulations on this insight, and on having it at a time at which it is not yet too late. Many people will no doubt come to realize this only after the November elections and wish they had been more vigilant when there still was time to act.

From http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Which experienced a DoS attack yesterday. You can read about it at the link.

Obama 344 McCain 194

That's as high, if not higher, as Hillary ever got in a match up with McCain. It may be higher.

Some of you who are angry and threatening to vote McCain... I'm really getting tired of trying to talk you out of it. So I'm not going to bother anymore. I suspect you are an angry minority and I doubt you will have any real effect on the race. Go ahead. Vote for McCain with my blessing.

I'm sure glad we elected a Democratic Congress. Otherwise we would be seeing rubberstamping of Bush Administraion all over the place.

@Tempus

Well Tempus, you say you won't vote for Obama, and you'll vote 3rd party libertarian, green, etc. Well that's pretty much the same as voting for McCain. If you don't vote for Obama, you are voting for McCain regardless if you do it directly or indirectly. Like those dumb asses in 2000 that voted for Nader and cost Gore the election, saying there was no difference between Bush and Gore. -- conservativeslayer

Oh, jeebus...go screw will ya? Just because you are too dense to see what Tempus now sees.. I am so sick and tired of you establishment enabling ninnies crying about Nader and constantly whining due to your abject fear. You didn't get your boy Gore. SO? How in the hell do you know what he would or would not have done? You are seeing the next great "hope" and what is he doing? That's right - playing the game.

Forget about Gore and Nader! Instead of focusing your anger at Tempus, why don't you look at yourself? You haven't done shit to stop any of this. None of us have done enough. Stop crying and vote for who you want to vote for and let the man alone already.

As far as I remember, Newt, et. al. never pretended to be nice. It was always clear they wanted power for power's sake.