Second question is to Tempus. What do you think you will accomplish by voting for McCain this year?

What will I accomplish by voting for Democraps!? They do NOTHING differently than the GOP did or would do...and DON'T say "abortion!" At this point, that particular item is WAY down the list. I care a f*ckload more about every single word in the Bill of Rights. I care a f*ckload more about the Constitution and the Rule of Law than I do about that particular item right now. There is NOTHING the Dems have done, or will do, that is any different than what has happened already. THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT! The Naderites and the Ron Paul people pretty much said that to much derision, but guess what? THEY WERE RIGHT! There is NO F*CKING DIFFERENCE between a Democrap and a Rethuglican. None.

I will accomplish NOTHING by voting for the criminals and monsters in the Democrapic party...and besides, who said anything about voting for McSame? There is ALWAYS more than just a Rethug and a Democrap on the ballot. Any libertarian, socialist, communist, or Green on the ballot will get my vote. Period. Same down the ballot.

I used to vote straight party ticket, top to bottom, since I could first vote in 1985. No more. I will actively vote anti-Democrat. The end.

I want my liberty back, goddamnit, and Democraps wont be the ones to give it back anymore than the Rethugs are.

When Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert and the Republicans held the majority, a bill--any bill--was not brought to the House floor unless it had a 2/3 majority of GOP caucus. Note--not 2/3 of the House, but 2/3 of the GOP caucus. The GOP leadership held an iron fist over what could even come to the floor for debate, let alone for a vote.

This meant that even bills with strong bipartisan support that would have easily passed if voted on--were simply not brought to the floor because 2/3 of the republican caucus weren't for it.

This is the degree of power that the majority party wields in the House, and more specifically the majority leadership, and that power was used day in and day out by the DeLay and Hastert--for years.

All this is simply to underscore what has already been said in Greenwald's piece. There is simply no way in Hell that this bill can not see the light of day without the explicit support of the Democratic leadership of the House.

But don't get a coronary on this. There is no way the Judicial Branch will agree that they MUST dismiss a case, unconditionally, just because the AG/Executive signs a piece of paper telling them to do so.

Bullcrap. This is the Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia (pro torture, pro "unitary executive dictator" court scared of brown people, ie, "terrorists"). They will allow this to pass and the lawsuits WILL be terminated as soon as the bill is signed by dictator Idiot Bush.

Are. You. Mad?

Are you angry?

"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

I vote we hang the bastards!

FYI for anyone who still hasn't called Obama.

I just called Obama's office and spoke to a woman named Fay (very nice person). I let her know that I've been following the FISA/immunity issue and couldn't believe that Hoyer, Rockefeller and the other Dems. were selling out the American people.

I also told her that I just saw on MSNBC where Chris Cilliza was asked how the public would react to Obama's announcement about dropping public financing. Cilliza said that the public really won't care about how he funds his campaign but they do care about hypocrisy and that the McCain camp is already jumping on the issue from that angle (Obama will do or say anything to get elected). So if Obama is going to take a hit for hypocrisy on public financing why is he risking another hit for hypocrisy on FISA? Obama has stated that he is against telecom immunity yet he isn't leading on this issue. He is supposed to be a new kind of politician so he needs to show it on FISA.

I said a bunch of other things including a reference to Nader. She said that she just came on duty and her last two calls were also about this issue. She took my email address and thanked me for calling.

By the way when Icalled the nunmber listed in Glenn's column I had to dial 6 then dial 0. But then there was a recorded that told me that I couldn't leave a message but to dial 0 to speak to someone.

I'm so mad I'm missing the second S in congressional! Damn I'm mad!

All this is simply to underscore what has already been said in Greenwald's piece. There is simply no way in Hell that this bill can not see the light of day without the explicit support of the Democratic leadership of the House.

-- casual_observer

All the more bizarre and infuriating since it didn't happen during the GOP controlled congress, as per Glenn's update.

Tempus,

I just meant to remind you not to make important decisions when you are angry. You have every right to be angry.

Telling me how he's opted out of Public financing, and urging me to help.

You've got to be kidding me. Timing is everything.

That's really stunning. And damning. Any background on how that went?

I wrote about it a lot at the time. Rove's plan in September 2006 was to make Congress vote on a torture bill and a FISA bill and then run on Democratic weakeness to Terrorism (even though Democrats weren't going to stand in the way of either bill).

They got the torture bill passed (Military Commissions Act) but only the House voted to legalize warrantless eavsdropping; the Senate never did. And even people like Heather Wilson were balking at some provisions that the White House wanted, so it didn't include everything they wanted, including amnesty.

ActBlue just jumped to over $320,000.