I was watching the CBS morning show today when they ran a piece about the pregnant teenage girls who supposedly made a pact to all get pregnant. The piece showed the mayor of the city where this happened giving a press conference about the charges. According to the mayor, when they questioned the high school principal, who was the source for the original story, about what evidence he had to substantiate his charges he suddenly lost his memory. The CBS piece then went on to tell the viewers that TIME magazine was the one who originally broke this story using the principal as their source.

Heckuva Job there TIME for giving the public the fact free Pelosi/FISA story AND the fact free pregnancy pact story. Boy you guys are really on a roll.

Here's a NYT piece that gives the same info and advises that TIME has updated their story but it's pretty clear that the update is nothing but a CYA effort by TIME.:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/principals-claims-on-pregnancy-pact-disputed/?hp

Hoyer's not even a blue dog Democrat anymore, more of a red dog now. I had a friend in law school who had a great expression for stuff like this. He'd say, 'they're pouring muddy water on us and telling us it's raining!' My question is: what would Murtha do?

Plan Merida is not being reported on in Salon because your editor doesn't want the War on Drugs to become an election issue.

... will it just become the truth? The main stream media are certainly being as accomodating as possible to Pelosi / Hoyer.

plenty of head scratching among the Congressional leadership as to why the approval ratings for Congress are on a par with those for President Bush. Perhaps someone ought to clue them in that in 2002 and 2004, when the Democratic leadership tried to portray their caucus as GOP-lite, the Republicans held their ground and even scratched out some gains. In 2006, campaigning on clear -- and widening -- differences between the parties led to decisive victories. Now, in 2008, it seems as though finally achieving power has led the party to go beyond merely playing it safe, once again regressing to this concessionary strategy that helped no candidates and significantly diluted the party's brand.

Sounds like an overhaul of the leadership ranks is more than called for.

..of this is the fact it's now easier for Republicans to spy on Democrats.

Bush & Cheney have already made it clear that they think Democrats & liberals are "terrorist sympathizers."

Add to that Scott McClellan has told all willing to listen that Bush & his people are in constant campaign mode. What does a White House in constant campaign mode do? Easy: They spy on the opposition party as much as possible.

Hoyer & Pelosi, by agreeing to this bill, have now given Republicans carte blanche to do what the Republicans wanted to do via this bill in the first place: To legally wire-tap & spy on Democrats.

Like I said, Bush & his right wing extremists regard Democrats as terrorist threats. So the first logical step in this new & improved spying venture is to start spying on Democrats.

We need to urge every Democratic Senator to STRIP TELECOM IMMUNITY for actions taken before 9/11/01 in the Senate version of the FISA bill

The House bill provides immunity for actions taken after 9/11, not before.

That's totally off the subject

except that it isn't.

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-nature-engineers-suicidal-rat.html

I think the phrase "Engineering a suicidal rat" is approriate to this situation on multiple levels!

He .. well you know ... and tells us it is raining .. how insulting can one man be? I know it would need to be millions .. but I really wonder how much needs to be raised to defeat Hoyer in 2010 .. and if we can get a good candidate to take on this Herculean task

We need to urge every Democratic Senator to STRIP TELECOM IMMUNITY for actions taken before 9/11/01 in the Senate version of the FISA bill.

THIS IS OUR ONLY HOPE AS A NATION to retain the rule of law and our Constitutional rights. My hope is that when Democrats do this, some or all of the pending lawsuits against the telecoms can retain their standing. This would allow the discovery portion of these lawsuits to provide the testimony to unearth President Bush’s willing violations of the Constitution prior to his presumed powers in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Senate has the power to undo a tremendously unpopular betrayal by House Democrats Friday in caving in to Bush, the GOP, and the telecoms which are throwing money around left and right to insure their desired result. But by stripping pre-9/11 telecom immunity Democrats can turn the tables on the Republo-Fascists controlling the GOP. This simple change CANNOT BE FOUGHT without forcing opponents to directly side with corporations and against the Constitution. ANY OPPOSITION TO THIS CHANGE CAN AND SHOULD BE USED TO DEFEAT any vulnerable Senators this fall.

This act CAN AND SHOULD BE THE TRUMP CARD THAT caring Democrats should play this week when they craft their version of the House bill.