Dear rmp,

The US global AIDS, TB and Malaria bill (PEPFAR) is again moving through the Senate thanks to the hard work of PHR members and our allies. However, our work to pass this bill is still not over.

Opponents of PEPFAR are already mobilizing. We expect there will be attempts to block the bill and cut the overall funding level. If PEPFAR does not pass now, it would be a huge step backward in the fight against AIDS, and will leave millions of the most vulnerable without access to treatment, preventions and care.

As we get close to a Senate vote, we need your help to ensure this bill comes to a vote.

Call Your Senators TODAY!

Dial: 202-224-3121 and asked to be connected to your Senator's Office

· Ask to speak with the legislative staff member who handles AIDS and global health issues. (leave a message if no one is available)

· Clearly state your name, affiliation and town of residence.

· Explain briefly why you are calling. (Suggested language below)

I am very concerned that the Senate is playing politics with PEPFAR, a deeply important global health and AIDS program that saves millions of lives. I want Senator_________ to oppose any attempt to stop PEPFAR and ensure that a robust $50 billion bill is passed. The lives of millions depend on it.

We can definitely win this fight, if we show enough public support for a robust and rights-based bill. We need your powerful voice as a health professional to bring this closer to a reality.

Please email me at jratevosai@phrusa.org or call me at 617-301-4212 to ask me any questions or to let me know what you hear back from the Senate offices.

Very many thanks,

Jirair Ratevosian, MPH, US Field Coordinator , Health Action AIDS Campaign

No? Not everyone believed the system we have is "of the gods".

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." ~ Winston Churchill

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" ~ Benjamin Franklin, leader of the American Revolution

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." ~ Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

"The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived." ~ John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States

"Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few." --George Bernard Shaw

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You can find quotes by famous people that "prove" almost anything, of course. But the FISA vote and the Democratic Party's role in the mess is just one more data point supporting the hypothesis that democracy in the country is broken beyond repair. Both parties are full of waring special interest groups who seek to use the power of the empire to wipe out their foes and force people to "do as they should do". But what should people do? Each special group has the answer, "do as we say!"

It is as it ever has been.

How was the honeymoon?

Pedinska is to drop a big blueberry into a bucket.

You decide: Way too delicious and plump to share.

You pop the berry into the mouth without any guilt.

That's been known to happen a time or two at chez Pedinska. It's hard to resist the really plump ones. ;-}

DailyKos is a factory for Obamabots.

I have been engaged in a dozen flame wars there over the past two weeks over this FISA debacle.

At that site, the Man can do no wrong. It's really sort of depressing.

Your title....It was Democracy in action me lads ...

You know we live in a representative republic right?

incest in a hacksaw.

jail birds do saw bars.

make wine. steal sugar.

bum fruit. invite rare yeast.

ask: maggots, fruit-flies, to scratch fleas.

Politico's, whatever a label, are like a cartographer.

And worst. The Capital Hill crew are lost and refuse advice.

Those who provide directions are ridiculed and called, "liberals"..

That can be a compliment. Latin? open-up.

A tree has a root. Words derive from a family of original meaning.

...through the comment thread over at Joan Walsh's latest post.

It was amusing to see that bernbart and rufus have relocated their blind Obama worship/FISA disinformation campaigns there.

I guess they're allergic to the rigorous thinking that goes on over here.

It was disheartening to read all of the St. Obama will fix this when he is our daddy, I mean president, sentiment. The "who cares about the constitution" vibe was very strong as well. Not to mention rediculous fawning over Kos' FISA apologist post.

PS - Thank you, GG, for sending Lt Col Rick Noriega a check from the FISA PAC. Senator Cornyn is one of the worst of the lot in the Senate and we here in Texas are working hard to bring him down. Cornyn has eight times the money, but Noriega is polling within two percentage points. Noriega is poised to break the one million dollar mark over at Act Blue. (He's almost to 994k overall)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#25613182

Feingold on Countdown

He counseled not yet losing hope in Obama. Feingold was unable to articulate just why the Democrats voted the way they did.

That is why it occurred to me that if the Democrats declare that the President committed one to thirty felonies, they're faced with the question - what next? Even you don't think impeachment is a viable option. When Congress is unable to enforce a subpoena, and there is no groundswell of support from the public for any kind of action, then the lesser danger may be to paper over the President's actions and fix it later. To make a non-frivolous, almost certainly true charge and then being unable to make it stick might be the worse precedent to set.

I strongly suggest after the money bomb, to engage with the most trustable Democrats - e.g., Feingold, Dodd - for you to do so in private if necessary - and find out what really the thinking is, and then chart a future course accordingly. (This is of course where you may veer from being a journalist to being an activist.)

a. There can be legitimate reasons for doing things that cannot be stated in public.

b. We really need to know who our allies will be.

Obviously do so without compromising your, our independence.