Below is the text of a message I just sent to the Obama campaign. I mean it: if he doesn't do ALL in his power to oppose this crime against the 4th Amendment, I'm DONE contributing to him. And he needs my contributions, considering the way he's chosen to finance the remainder of his campaign:

To the Obama campaign:

You guys have been continuously asking me for cash since I sent the first $100.

Now hear this: if candidate Obama does not IMMEDIATELY take the lead in opposing the "compromise" (what a laugh) FISA "update," you will not receive ANOTHER DIME from me for the duration of the campaign.

I like Senator Obama's rhetoric, but he IS, after all, a US Senator with considerable power in that body. He has the ability to help derail this awful bill, but has been absent from the discussion about it. It is NOT ENOUGH, considering his current status, to simply vote against the bill. He must act DECISIVELY, NOW, to make sure this obviously unconstitutional, odious capitulation to the Republicans and the Bush administration never becomes law.

Randy Fritz

randyfritz@mac.com

Thanks for alerting me to Horton's article (this is the second Horton article you referenced, no?). I have no doubt that al Qaeda is trying to use citizens of all nations on their own soil. Point well taken.

Then I put it to you that investing in a new/third political party will pay far greater dividends (and far quicker, too) than further investment in one of the two established parties. It is seriously open to question whether democracy can work in a two-party state, most especially in an imperial state.

adnoto is not as crazy, nor as solution-less, as some of you would like to pretend.

Just my three cents.

You sit there and bitch up a storm about how the system is rigged and gamed and compromised and corrupt and beyond fixing, and then advocate the rise of the Green Party to solve the problem?

In case you haven't noticed, the system you so vehemently deride has a cornucopia of very purposeful and effective obstacles set up to prevent any type of serious third party challenges from ever gaining enough momentum to have any real effect.

If you don't believe it, just go and look at how successful Ron Paul ended up being. Knowing better than to actually call himself a Libertarian, he is and ran as a Republican, and raised $25 million+ with ease, and yet was barely a blip on the radar when it came down to it, partly because of the system you so loudly deride, and partly because the MSM is a corrupt tool of the established power grid.

And you think the Green Party is going to fare better?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

You're brilliant, man. Brilliant.

Just my three cents.

-- The Reality Kid

The Green Party has been in existence since, I believe, 1991 or so. What have they accomplished?

What about getting the coalition that has formed up because of this outrage to do everything we can to get Cindy Sheehan elected in place of Pelosi? Sheehan will be on the ballot in November, and we won't be asking the people of San Francisco to vote for a republican. Cindy managed to get 10% of the primary vote without any outside help, so there are some San Franciscans who are ready to part ways with Pelosi.

I think this would be a better use of the money raised so far, because I don't think taking out advertisements slapping Hoyer on the wrist will have any meaningful effect. It's obvious Hoyer and company know full well that the public is against this, yet they do it anyway.

Thoughts?

Look, I grow weary of having politicians stand before me and lie.

We need to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so that politicians can finally come clean. We need to make a clean slate, start fresh and move forward with truth as the basis for our government, as it always should have been.

This is not a bill to provide immunity for telecom providers. This is a bill to provide immunity for politicians who were/are complicit in requesting that those telecom companies break the law. This was a Republican program that Democrats - at some level - supported and enabled.

The Republican Party is almost unanimously committed to covering up this illegal activity. The Democratic Party is split, with those who are complicit seeking immunity, while those who were out of the loop are still bent on pursuing justice.

The American people are always committed to justice, but we cannot have any while the participants in this action are still attempting to cover their butts.

I just watched Jane Harmon stand in support of this bill on CSPAN - even as she acknowledged that her constituents were asking for just the opposite. It pains me to watch people - whom I assume are good people at heart, all (although John Boener is trying my faith in that last phrase) - stand before the public and provide these carefully worded cover statements.

But nothing is going to happen in that way and nothing substantial is going to change unless and until you make the vast, unwashed masses understand very clearly how this affects them, their families, their ability to make a living, etc., on a substantial, personal, daily basis.

Most people are so entangled in the minutia of their day-to-day lives that a clear, personal, jolt to their way of life is about all that will work.

I'm not completely convinced that targeting specific congressmen and women is going to have a great effect, because it will be seen largely as just another political ad by yet another special interest group.

But perhaps showing them actual examples of gov't abuses of average people like them, via TV ad, radio, a play, school functions, parades, what the hell ever, is probably going to be more effective at rallying widespread support that might eventually lead to a third party than simply starting out by supporting candidates who are so underfunded they don't have a prayer.

It's something that has to get into the daily life of someone, and make it easy for them to see how bad the effect really is.

$4/gallon gas seems to be having that kind of effect, although putrid coverage by the MSM on the causes of it isn't leading people in the right direction as far as learning why it has come to that.

Which brings us back to GG's battle with the corrupt MSM and their destructive influence on this country.

See, he really is on the right track about a lot of these things....;-)