You ask yourself over and over again--what are the Democrats afraid of?

What this vote, and the huge, unconditional (and borrowed against the incomes of our kids and grandkids) funding of the war proves, once again, is that the people have completely lost control of their government.

The Dems fear Fox News, Limbaugh, and the big money funders--they'll sell out their voters in a heartbeat. The public in general, and Democrats in particular, in poll after poll, want us out or Iraq. In a January poll, 57% of likely voters opposed immunity--so what do we get???

WE GET UNLIMITED, UNCONDITIONAL WAR FUNDING, AND WE GET WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING AND TELECOM IMMUNITY.

I don't know how long I can stay in a party, or vote for it, or donate to it, with gutless idiots like Pelosi in charge--have you listened to her lately? She seems as addled as Bush himself.

Its enough to make you dispair for the future of our country.

Is it hot out or is it just me?

I can't play favorites here so it's all the lovely and vivacious ladies out there. And it is hot out there today. It's the first day of summer. If I was a younger man the urge to flirt would have struck me a few months ago before spring time was over.

The lovely and vivacious Barbara Lee.

Alone on the Hill

Barbara Lee

News: Self-described 'Army brat' Barbara Lee explains why she cast Congress' only vote against giving the president a free hand to attack suspected terrorists.

By Bill Hogan

September 20, 2001

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2001/09/lee.html

From the kos. your not alone glen. But don't worry. It's not making it through the senate. I bet you they are talking now. How would hoyer and the other Aye's dem's look then?

"Senator Obama, Time to Lead

by mcjoan

Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 10:57:53 AM PDT

The ACLU on today's reprehensible House vote:

"It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote. The House just wrapped up some expensive gifts for the administration and their buddies at the phone companies. Watching the House fall to scare tactics and political maneuvering is especially infuriating given the way it stood up to pressure from the president on this same issue just months ago. In March we thought the House leadership had finally grown a backbone by rejecting the Senate’s FISA bill. Now we know they will not stand up for the Constitution.

"No matter how often the opposition calls this bill a ‘compromise,’ it is not a meaningful compromise, except of our constitutional rights. The bill allows for mass, untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming in to and out of the United States. The courts’ role is superficial at best, as the government can continue spying on our communications even after the FISA court has objected. Democratic leaders turned what should have been an easy FISA fix into the wholesale giveaway of our Fourth Amendment rights.

"More than two years after the president’s domestic spying was revealed in the pages of the New York Times, Congress’ fury and shock has dissipated to an obedient whimper. After scrambling for years to cover their tracks, the phone companies and the administration are almost there. This immunity provision will effectively destroy Americans’ chance to have their deserved day in court and will kill any possibility of learning the extent of the administration’s lawless actions. The House should be ashamed of itself. The fate of the Fourth Amendment is now in the Senate’s hands. We can only hope senators will show more courage than their colleagues in the House."

Senator Obama, spoil Bush's FISA Christmas celebration. Remind your colleagues that he is a lame duck with a sub 30 approval rating. Remind your colleagues that they are far more popular with Republicans than with their own party.

Remind your colleagues that, in your own words, "The stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same old Washington games with the same old Washington players."

Reject this bill and lead your Senate colleagues in upholding the Constitution.

"

Seriously, if you don't have anything to hide then you don't have anything to worry about do you?

I know there has to be some subtlety I am missing in this slogan because I can't figure out what the victims of the 9/11 attacks were hiding to deserve their fate.

Since this obviously makes no sense, we need to update the slogan. Let's try:

"If you don't have anything to hide from a government then you don't have anything to worry about do you?"

Since the 9/11 attackers were not associated with a government, we have at least eliminated the offensive idea that the victims of 9/11 were hiding something that resulted in their death.

We still have some problems to address. The idea that revealing US troop movements and plans to an enemy government is the best way to not have to worry about anything is pretty stupid. So we need to update our slogan again.

"If you don't have anything to hide from your government then you don't have anything to worry about do you?"

This slogan would suggest that the people of Iraq had nothing to worry about under Saddam, so we need another update.

"If you don't have anything to hide from the US government then you don't have anything to worry about do you?"

Now we are getting somewhere. We do need to account for spies, since obviously we wouldn't stop worrying about a member of Al Qaeda just because they infiltrated the US government. So...

"If you don't have anything to hide from the US government, as long as there are no spies in the government, then you don't have anything to worry about do you?"

We are getting much closer, but we still have a few holes to close. Since we are a democracy, we have to deal with the terrible fact that the people might actually elect to government someone who, through their sincere public policy pronouncements, should be considered a spy. In order to distinguish a covert spy from an overt spy we need another update.

"If you don't have anything to hide from the US government, as long as there are no enemies in the government, then you don't have anything to worry about do you?"

Much better. We now realize that purging enemies from the government is as important as having nothing to hide when it comes to having nothing to worry about. Our slogan still has a problem. It is a rather indirect way of making our point and the "something to hide" part is contingent upon there being no enemies in government. So....

"Until we purge the US government of enemies and spies, we should be worried about the information we give the US government."

Not nearly as catchy, but much closer to being accurate.