Forget whether or not these expanded surveillance powers are effective or necessary (something I wouldn't believe even if the ghost of George Smiley appeared and said so). Forget even the fact this blanket amnesty eliminates any meaningful accounting of the actors involved.

Why is the GOP so hell-bent on authorizing surveillance powers that can and likely will be turned on them in the near future?

Surely they aren't so naive to think they will be overlooked?

via regular snail mail ~. This: Yes.

A decade ago, the psychiatrist Peter Kramer published a book called 'Listening to Prozac'...

The claim was that as neurochemistry advances we should be able to design-and no doubt vary-our personalities according to our taste. Henceforth there would be no more angst. He based his prediction upon he case history of people given supposed wonder drugs who were to not just emerge from depression but emerge with new, improved personalities. NO!

Pills adds more misery or perplexity. The golden age of felicity has not arrived: No.

The promise of a pill for every age? No.

Then: Macbeth ask a physician:

`Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,

`Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

`Raze out written troubles of the brain,

`And sweet oblivious antidote,

`Cleanse the stuffed bosom of perilous stuff,

`Which weighs upon the heart?

No. The reply was laconic: A patient must minister to Self.

~

That's from Theodore Dalrymple. Why Shakespeare Is For All Times. Burning left foot calf? Yes. "Hello!" You know who.

I said that the bombing of an abortion clinic cannot be compared to 9/11, a coordinated, multiple attack by foreign insurgents that killed thousands of people and caused irreparable financial and psychological damage to this country.

No, the 9/11 attack did NOT do "irreparable financial harm and psychological damage to this country." There was virtually NO real financial damage done, in fact, it was FAR FAR less than NOLA after Katrina. It was FAR FAR less than the current damage from the midwest flooding. It was a pittance.

Psychological damage? Maybe to candyasses. I remember that day clearly. It made me angry and sad but it did NOT damage me at all. No more than the domestic terror attack in Oklahoma City by McVeigh, and I slept quite well after that too. Cowards and weaklings with no real love of liberty were damaged. The REAL damage that came from 9/11 was the Patriot Act, the Iraq criminal war, domestic illegal spying, murder of habeas corpus, indefinite detention, torture, secret gulags, etc. THAT was real damage. The 9/11 attack merely wiped out a few corporate building and killed less people than die in car accidents every year.

Don't splash ME with your wimpy, candy-assed, nonsense about psychological harm. Use the pencil brush to paint the criminals in Congress for overreacting again, and again, and again, and for the cowardly rightwing for overreacting and fanning the fires of hate, fear, and war. THAT is the harm, not the mere collapse of a building or a few thou dead, as tragic as that was. Hardly devastating in any real sense.

As always, it is the reaction TO the act that is devastating, not the act itself.

When Nancy Pelosi took office and declared "There will be no impeachment proceedings' thereby not only letting Dumbo off the hook for everything he had done up to that point,but everything he would do after that until he left office,(something she had no right to do!)I knew not to expect much more that the guttless slime the dems had been for the last two decades.

get all your friends to deluge the system but don't send a million yourself!

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

It's interesting that either the democrats want this and want to cover their asses or Hoyer is a Lieberman and wants to stab the democratic party in the back (on the way out of the democratic 'leadership' position).

FRIDAY: House Vote on Warrantless Wiretapping

First, I want to thank everyone who called their Representative on Thursday to oppose $165B more for Iraq. We lost, but we gained 9 anti-war votes since May. (Scroll down for our next effort to bring our troops safely home.)

Now I must ask you to pick up your phone again and call your Representative right now to demand a NO vote on warrantless wiretapping. The vote will be Friday around noon, but please call no matter what time you get this. (The Congressional switchboard is open 24x7x365 and each office has voicemail.)

Steny Hoyer's warrantless wiretapping bill is obscene because it gives complete immunity to the telcos that have spied on us illegally since 2001, as well as the Bush Administration officials who illegally asked them to break the law. And it lets them continue spying on us by creating Big Brother with a figleaf of meaningless "protections."

On May 14, Democrats defeated a similar immunity bill 213-197. There is absolutely no reason for any Democrat to change his or her vote now except corrupt greed for telco campaign cash.

So call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your House Representative (not Senators) by name, or find your House Representative's name and direct dial by entering your address on the right side:

http://usalone.com

After you call, share your Representative's response with your neighbors by logging in to Democrats.com. (If you've never created a Democrats.com login, be sure to provide your voting address so we can find your Congressional District.) Then click:

http://democrats.com/local

Look in the "Congressional District" section for a post on "Warrantless Wiretapping Vote." If you see that post title, click the link and add a comment about your call to your Representative. If you do not see that topic, please create a post with that title by clicking the [Post] link right next to "Congressional District."

While you're visiting http://democrats.com/local, we hope you'll get to know your progressive neighbors by clicking the [Neighbors] link. And if you'd like to keep up with posts by your neighbors, click the [RSS] link to subscribe through your favorite blog reader.

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

It sounds like total bullshit...

Is the democratic party taking a page out of the GOP rulebook by keeping the faithful agitated and at a slow boil?