When our legislators see that every vote they make exposes them to the risk of thousands of dollars and thousands of votes being marshaled against them in a matter of hours, the way it used to be with the unions, then the sway of authoritarianism will dry up practically overnight.

Unlikely. The Powers That Be seem to be able to get to anybody, including Obama.

What we do not see are the coercive techniques used behind the scenes, but there seem to be no practical restictions on the use of any of them and they appear to be quite effective. So attempting to replace Blue Dogs and other totalitarians with liberals or moderates may be wasted effort and wasted resources.

Still, doing something is better than doing nothing.

The truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Just how wrong and how terrible we cannot know, although we can guess, and can speculate on the basis of news of various abominations leaking out past the edges of the walls of secrecy. What lies behind those walls is therefore likely to be horrific and we are entitled to assume the worst with little risk of overestimation.

Ugly seems to be just getting started. Weird ugly comes later.

We can still stop this thing? Get Chris Dodd to filibuster, take over the airwaves, bring this thing to a halt?

It's not too late, right?

Steny Hoyer FISA Ad To Run in Washington Post
By: Jane Hamsher Friday June 20, 2008 12:01 pm

Go Jane, Go Glenn, Go Color of Change!

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/steny-hoyer-fisa-ad-to-run-in-washington-post/

Senate Office: (202) 224-2854

Campaign Headquarters: (866) 675-2008

Call and demand that he takes leadership of the Party on this issue to prevent it from passing the Senate.

John

... those who are otherwise sympathetic should consider starting to give their money to the Nader campaign. As a first step, we need to make sure that Nader gets on the ballot in states that are critical to Obama, and that he gets included in the presidential debates.

If there are bonus points awarded for responses to comments

Wonder how they define what qualifies as a "response", other than actually using a troll's handle, I mean, to call them out on an issue.

More fertile minds than mine can probably speculate on what they get to use their "brownie" points for. ;-}

As for supporting progressive candidates, there aren't many that actually voted properly today.

This is a list compiled by selise at Firedoglake:

dems who voted no, or did not vote on the PAA extension in feb are listed. i’ve cross referenced them with the blue dog coalition (BD), with the progressive caucus (P) and with “NO” votes (N) on today’s fisa bill.

Jason Altmire

Dan Boren - BD

Leonard Boswell - BD

Michael Capuano - P - N

Jerry Costello - N

Lincoln Davis - BD

Peter DeFazio - P - N

Lloyd Doggett - N

Bob Filner - P - N

John Hall - P - N

Maurice Hinchey - P - N

Rush Holt - *** - N

Dennis Kucinich - P - N

Barbara Lee - P - N

John Lewis - P - N

Tim Mahoney - BD

James Moran - N

Patrick Murphy - BD

Christopher Murphy - N

Frank Pallone - N

Bill Pascrell - N

Donald Payne - P - N

Collin Peterson - BD

Steven Rothman - N

Loretta Sanchez - BD - N

John Sarbanes - N

Jan Schakowsky - P - N

Jose Serrano - P - N

Tom Udall - P - N

Timothy Walz - N

Maxine Waters - P - N

Melvin Watt - P - N

Lynn Woolsey - P - N

David Wu - N

no vote:

Ruben Hinojosa -

Mike Honda - P - N

Nita Lowey -

Solomon Ortiz -

Dutch Ruppersberger -

Edolphus Towns - N

There you have it. The sum total of barely acceptable to acceptable Democraps in Congress. Those with an "N" next to their name are the acceptables. Those without a "Blue Dog" marker and no letter next to their name are barely acceptable because they failed to vote for whatever reason. Those with a "Blue Dog" marker are unacceptable. Period. Regardless of their vote on the FISA bill because it was merely an ass-covering exercise - a vote given only when they KNEW the bill would pass without their vote.

Not much of a list and that is all there is out of all the Dems in the House.

Quote them this off his front page:

"I am asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours."

-Barack Obama.com Front Page

Senator Obama - make us believe you can bring about Change In Washington *now*.

John

My spineless "representative," Eliot Engel, from New York just voted for this POS bill. I'm not just angry, I'm plotting revenge.

Thanks, Mr. Greenwald, for leading the way. It's past time to remove all the Democratic jellyfish from our government.

Not that they'll actually do anything...but they are the Senators I was unfortunate to be given.

I told them it was not enough to simply vote no. They must take a leadership position on STOPPING this travesty, either through leading a filibuster or supporting a filibuster being led by another Senator. We'll see.

But I also had a nice conversation with the rep at Cantwell's office. I told her that while I was disappointed in the House vote today, I was a Democrat and needed perspective. Could she perhaps point me to a place that outlined the top 5 accomplishments since the Democrats took control in 2006? Knowing that the Democratic controlled Congress had accomplished other things important to me might take the sting out of tlecom immunity.

Silence....placed on hold....silence...."No sir, we do not have a list anywhere of our accomplishments since 2006. But that sure is a good idea."

I asked if she could think of any off the top of her head. She replied no. She offered to point me to Maria Cantwell's positions which are documented in detail on her website. But she could not tell me what the Democratic controlled Congress had accomplished in the past year and half.

Sad. So very sad.

-m