"WTF Salon?

Forgive me if someone has already pointed this out in this here forum, but why is this story buried on Salon's front page? This should be the lead story. Instead, we have a review of another Mike Myers movie about dick jokes.

WHAT THE FUCK????

What, Joan, too busy looking for sexism in every single political story to show how very progressive you are to miss how the Constitution is being gutted or do you truly not give a shit?

-- senorplaid "

The brilliance of the current crop of Authoritarians in government and the media was to simply ignore protest, and when protest could not be ignored, to mock it.

I disagree completely. For one thing, nothing the right-wing troglodytes currently occupying Washington have done is in any way unusual or clever for them. All they've done is the same stupid, inane crap their kind has been doing for over a century.

The difference is that lately it's been working. Granted, it stands to reason that we should ask why.

But the thing that is different is that there's nobody fighting them, and with a few exceptions there really hasn't been for a generation now.

Let's put it this way — suppose your neighborhood is plagued with thieves, and you decide to start leaving your door unlocked and wide open whenever you're not at home. When your house is inevitably looted, does it make any sense to conclude that the thieves were therefore somehow suddenly possessed of dazzling brilliance?

The kind of movement that's sprung up around opposition to telecom amnesty is a ghost, a shadow, a pale imitation of the kind of citizen advocacy that should be commonplace in our society, but is totally, utterly absent. There's nothing but empty streets, creaking saloon doors, and tumbleweed in Liberaltown.

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.

Forgive me if someone has already pointed this out in this here forum, but why is this story buried on Salon's front page? This should be the lead story.

It was the lead story - i.e,. the cover story -- on the front page of Salon all day yesterday. It is the most-read article on Salon as well, as the front page indicates. Should the vote be more prominently featured again today? You could certainly make that argument, but it got a lot more attention at Salon than it did at most other media outlets in the country. I doubt there's another paid writer in the u.S. who has written about it as much as I have right here at Salon.

...but after what happened today? It just got a little easier.

AP just posted: "The Senate was expected to pass the bill with a large majority, perhaps as soon as next week, before Congress takes a break during the week of the Fourth of July."

What an ugly, bitter irony - "during the week" we celebrate our Independence. Not much I can add to that and it's a good thing 'cuz the bile's rising up in my throat, making it impossible to talk. (Oh, and last week Peolsi was "predicting" that it would be passed "before the Fourth of July break.")

If we're going to vote these people into office to represent and protect us, then at some point you need to trust them enough to actually do it.

Do you remember Reagan's mantra about "trust but verify"? You seem quite willing to trust the government to do the right thing. The past has clearly shown that when people in power get access to this kind of information, the temptation to use it to secure and expand their own power is irresistible. Secondly, you seem to assume that the information that's been collected to date has both been a) used to protect us, and b) not used for nefarious purposes.

If your assumptions were correct, why is the government so furiously blocking all efforts to verify these assumptions? It gets to the threshold issue which is, if the government's need for this information is compelling, why can't it convince the ever-compliant FISA court of that?

Forgive me if someone has already pointed this out in this here forum, but why is this story buried on Salon's front page? This should be the lead story. Instead, we have a review of another Mike Myers movie about dick jokes.

WHAT THE FUCK????

What, Joan, too busy looking for sexism in every single political story to show how very progressive you are to miss how the Constitution is being gutted or do you truly not give a shit?

I hadn't seen that. S'okay though, I'm through. He can't even make a coherent point. Kinda like his obermeister (sp?).

Really makes me look forward to the debates in the general. ;-}

Yes, actually there are. They're called objective sources. Factcheck.org is a good start.

So while this is a major caplation, it's not over yet. Now we're stepping into Senator obama's house. :)

We'll see if his colleues are more scared of him (and their future in the democratic party) or the gop. :)

It's not over yet. dont' coutn your chickens gop. I want my settlement, from the gov for spying on me. :)

Just kidding. It's not over until it's over, a wise man once said. Keep up the pressure. Call your senate representaives in dem districts. I'm in reno, so I can't help ya. Reid is a mormon republcain.

I think we have to face the fact that Pelosi & Hoyer are coconspirators in President Bush’s crimes against the Constitution.

I have a strong feeling that one day we will learn that both Pelosi & Hoyer were briefed on Torture and Warrantless wiretaps from the beginning… and they approved and supported these decisions.

The sad fact is that our Democratic Leadership are traitors and war criminals just like Bush.