Spy vs. spy vs. spy

Well George Bush has finally become the uniter he promised he would be.

He's united Congressional Republican and the ACLU in opposition to a new executive order about uniting the 16 spy agencies in the federal government. Yes, that's right 16. I dare you to name half of them (and UNCLE is not one).

Congressional Republicans are angry because the huge order was delivered 40 minutes before the approval vote was to be taken.

The ACLU is angry because the executive order shifts the focus of agencies like the CIA onto American shores.

Everything you think can and will be used against you.

Stung by lack of funds

I've been lulled into a sense of complacency by the buzz in my garden, though I found out recently that Connecticut's bees have not been deeply affected, so far, by the strange malady called Colony Collapse Disorder.

The problem made it to Congress last week where scientists bemoaned the lack of research, and the lack of money to do research, to find out the causes. This year a third of all commercial hives have been lost to the rampaging disease which empties hives of honeybees.

A mathematical projection in yesterday's New York Times is inconclusive, but frightening, nonetheless.

Whether it's the transport of tired colonies to West Coast almond farms, and the resulting intermingling of distant hives, or navigational interruptions due to cell phones, or its a opportunistic virus which was waiting for its time to come, the answer hasn't been found, and that's not comforting to anyone who like a little fruit with their honey.

BTW, honey is one of the few foods that will not spoil. Put a couple of gallons away so your unborn grandchildren will know what it tastes like.

Still pushing for telecom immunity

The New York Times gets it right. Save the renewal of the FISA bill for the next president.

George Bush is still pushing Congressional Republicans to deliver him a bill that provides unassailable rights to spy on Americans, and to protect telecom companies that helped Bush to spy. Of course, a bill that protects telecom companies from prosecution, protects Bush as well.

This president hasn't done much right, but he's done a lot. He's a lame duck, and Congress should be willing to stand up to him, even as we enter the critical months before a presidential election. Unfortunately, Congressional elections take place at the same time, and congressional delegates still seem to lack the backbone to stand for their convictions.

Loss of vertebrae

Just when Congressional Democrats ought to be standing up straight in defiance of the faltering Bush administration, they appear to be ready to cave on telecom immunity.

It's up to us to remind our representatives that we're still watching.

Lobbyists, si. Constituents, no.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees the irony in the fact that our elected representatives will set everything aside to see lobbyists, even lobbyists from states they do not represent, and will barely give the time of day to constituents.

Ever called or written a Senator or Congressperson?  Ever talk to that person, or get a real, considered response that was not boilerplate?  Ever had an aide answer the phone and tell you that the Senator or Congressperson had not made their mind up on the particular issue you were talking about?

I know that if I called my Senator or Congressperson and told them I was the president of a large manufacturing company, or the head of an influential lobbying group, they'd take my call quickly, or call back as soon as they could.

Here's a story about a group of Maine voters who petitioned their Senator Susan Collins.  She couldn't be bothered to see them, so they hung around, got arrested, and eventually won their case on a Constitutional argument.

BTW, Susan Collins, BFF of Creepy Joe™ Lieberman.

Mukasey - justice, Bush style

Michael Mukasey won't honor house contempt charges against White House aides Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten because ignoring the Congressional subpoenas did not "constitute a crime."

Interesting choice of words, Mr. Mukasey. The Constitution is derived from the word "constitute," as in the basis for all law. And it's the Constitution which the Bush administration has chosen to ignore again and again. And now Mr. Mukasey, you are among those who conspire to keep the President and his minions above the law.

In the kind of circular logic which has become a hallmark of all White House and Justice Department arguments, Mukasey and the Justice Department won't prosecute the contempt charges because Miers and Bolten were acting on advice from...the Justice Department. In other words, if the Justice Department gives advice which is criminal, it can't pursue prosecution against itself.

It goes hand in hand with the kind of logic which says, we can't investigate administration officials who secretly broke the law in the name of the fight against terrorism, because if we did, we'd have to break the secrecy that allowed them to break the law in the first place.

Down the rabbit hole we go.

Of course, if Congress never approved Mukasey, this imbroglio might have been avoided.

Can't get Meiers, can't get Bolten, can't get Rove, can't get Cheney, so let's get Clemens

The spineless Congress which has failed repeatedly to stand up to the criminal activity of the Bush administration, but by gum, they're going to stand up to those bad, bad baseball players.

Hard to imagine with so many things going wrong in the world that Congress is even spending a minute worrying about over-paid athletes injecting themselves with HGH.

Is it any wonder that their approval numbers are in the dust?

Here's your hat, what's your hurry?

And stay out.

Oh, poor Republicans. After using Congress for its own political purposes for eight years, Republicans are offended that the House has issued contempt citations for two White House staffers, and will not, repeat, will not pass a FISA bill including telecom immunity, without proper considerations, the Republican walked out.

If they can't have their way, they're taking their ball and going home.

It's not like they don't have a quorum. See you later.

Dems fund the war, again

On Friday, Congress sent Bush a Pentagon and war funding bill for exactly what the Commanderin-chief wanted. The vote in the Senate was 90-3. That means that lots of Democrats voted for it, largely so they couldn't be accused later of not supporting the troops. That rusty canard has been dismissed by the public for months, but the lamebrains in Washington cling to it like lifevest in a pool of flaming gasoline. All the Presidential candidates from the Senater were not there to vote, conveniently.

Remember when Ralph Nader was excoriated for declaring that there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates for the presidency. Remember?

Sweet jaysus

God bless Glenn Greenwald for making me see good in the feckless Democratic congress.

They love Jesus and Christmas, even if Jesus wouldn't much care for the dirty little war they're funding. I think these are the same folks who are skeptical of the fact that Mormon's believe that the Garden of Eden is in Missouri, and that Joseph Smith was talking to angels about a century and a half ago. These are the folks who believe that an angel poured the seed of Jesus into his mother Mary's ear.

I think Jesus had a lot of great ideas, but there's no way he walked on water, is there?

Think of what he's asking; think of whom he's protecting

President Bush wants a new FISA bill on his desk as soon as possible, and he's strong arming Congress to pass one quickly. FISA allows the federal government to spy on you, and in its current form, with very little in the way of checks or balances. That would spoil the whole sense of secrecy of which the Bush administration is very fond.

Congress seems to be resisting, but only ever so slightly. It's clear they don't want to be labelled "soft on terrorism," and it's clear they want to give the intelligence agencies what they need to "protect" us. It's not so clear anymore that they want to assure the tenets of civil liberties as outlined in that hoary old document the Constitution.

But Bush wants something more. He wants the bill to contain language which will protect telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for helping the Feds spy on folks like you and me. Maybe more me than you. Bush is afraid that these lawsuits will bankrupt the telecommunications companies. But think about what he's saying:

1. The Federal government knowingly asked these companies to break the law
2. These companies, for the most part, went along with the Feds and broke the law
3. The feds, and the telecommunications companies, tried to keep these crimes (and that's what they are) secret
4. Now that we all know what the telecommunications companies did, some of us might be upset and sue them
5. Bush obviously feels that without immunity, the telecommunications companies don't stand a chance of winning those lawsuits because, well, they broke the law
6. Not surprisingly, Bush, once again, is standing up for the big corporations and abandoning the little guy, and the liberties of the little guy

Now Bush is trying to convince Congress that the telecommunications companies were only trying to do their patriotic duty. Just like the Generals in charge of Abu Ghraib.

You would think that a big corporation with staffs of brilliant lawyers would know better. You would think that they would tell anyone who asked, "We're not going to wipe our expensive Italian shoes on the Constitution." But, AT&T, Sprint and MCI, and others, apparently all went along. Only, little Qwest communications told Bush, the FBI and the NSA to shove it. Thanks Qwest.

I don't have much hope that Congress will resist. It hasn't happened yet. But next time a state trooper tries to hand you a speeding ticket, try telling him, "I'm a warrior in the Global War Against Terror, trying to keep my country safe after the attacks of 9/11," and see how far it gets you.

And this is why it pisses me off when someone blames Ralph Nader

The spineless Democrats in congress seem poised, once again, to roll back our liberties in the fear that they will be labelled "soft."

What irony, eh?

They are so afraid of the Republican party that they are nearly catatonic. They refuse to do the work we elected them to do. They refuse to understand that patriotism is more than political expedience. They are as despicable as those they supposedly oppose.

We need a real third party. And I'll vote for Ralph Nader again, and again, rather than give my vote to one of these cowardly weasels.

A lack of rhetoric, a lack of will, a lack of leadership

When I listened to Jack Reed's Democratic response to Bush's Oval Office speech on Iraq, I agreed with most everything he said. But I was shocked and appalled at his, and the Democratic Party's inability to deliver a fiery speech that indicts Bush, exposes his lies, and rallies the American people against the war. I think the Democratic party needs to go back and listen to the speeches of Martin Luther King, and learn.

And I'm tired of hearing "we don't have the votes." I know it's a political reality, but there are ways around it, and canny leadership would exploit those ways. If you don't have the votes, then stall. All Bush can do is veto. Send him the same bill again and again until he and the Republicans in Congress get the message from their constituents.

Who needs Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi if they can't be more forceful, and make their Republican colleagues realize that their careers are at stake if they don't stop backing the President.

Blood is flowing, and it's on the hands of every Senator and Representative if they can't find a way to stop Bush.

Congressperson, is that a skeleton in your closet?

Or is it a bogeyman. Either way, you seem to be afraid of something that the rest of us are brave enough to face.

Disheartened, disappointed and disgusted

It's almost beyond comprehension how Congress, which has been belittled and stonewalled by the president, and the entire executive branch, have capitulated, before running off for an extended vacation, and provided George Bush with more power than he has ever proven worthy of.

I don't see how they can face constituents, and I dare mine to come within shouting distance of me. They are absent spines, principle and the good sense that god gives everyone who doesn't go to Congress.

May the gods smile on us a bit longer, but I'm afraid we are an empire running our of clock.

Fool me twice, shame on me

I admit to a certain amount of idealistic political naivete, but I don't understand for a minute how Congress can consider even a compromise update of FISA.

I know that Representatives and Senators quake at the idea that the administration would portray them as soft on terror, but this is an administration, may I remind them, which has no respect with the majority of Americans. What's to worry about.

Worse still, this is an administration which as late as yesterday, in a letter from the Attorney General, admitted to using "confusing" language in testimony about secret programs to Congress. Confusing as in misleading.

This is the administration, which in the same Attorney General's testimony, it became obvious that the President was actually keeping more secrets than previously admitted.

This is the administration which has abused it's power at every turn, which has invoked executive privilege whenever it would have to admit wrongdoing, which has used fear as a tool to get its way. There is no need to compromise with this administration.

Where is the lesson learned with the passage of the Patriot Act - rushed through unread by most who passed it - when the administration is pushing to pass important legislation in the rushed final days before an August break.

Don't let Congress do it. Call your representatives and tell them to take their extended vacation without doing more damage to our civil liberties.

Next day note: Nice to see the Times feels the same.

Postcards from Congress

Much has been made of Iraqi lawmakers taking a long vacation in the midst of chaos.

Some have also questioned the August recess of our own noble US legislators. In the midst of a war spiraling out of control, a collapsing Department of Justice, a continuing attempt to consolidate power by the Executive Branch, an ongoing threat to our civil liberties, I think it would be appropriate for the House and Senate to abbreviate their August hiatus.

What harm would come in shortening their journey back to their home territories. I doubt there would be many complaints from constituents who want something done about the war, the Attorney General, the President and yes, when the Bear starts sliding, our economy.

In Connecticut, we know our Senators will be out of touch. Dodd's on his quixotic run for President, so he'll likely be visiting other home territories, and Creepy Joe Lieberman, he'll pop up in places he knows folks won't scream at him. Don't expect to find Creepy Joe at the local diner. He doesn't need your vote this year.

As for our Representatives, sure they deserve a week or two to visit Hammonasset, but will they be doing the work of the people for a month, or will it be junkets and margaritas on the Vineyard?

Sometime this week, give your representative a call and ask them to shorten the traditional Congressional break (instituted, by the way, in a time before air conditioning when DC was a fetid swamp in August...oh right, air conditioning hasn't changed that), and return to the life or death work that waits on their desks. At the very least, ask for a schedule of what your representative will be doing in August. Maybe they'll send you a postcard.

Oh sure, and would you like a pony too, sir?

How the Democrats can even make a show of cooperating with this administration is beyond me.

This is a president and vice-president who have used fear to grab as much power as they can, and now they're asking for more. And what's even more incredible is that some Democrats seem to be taking the request seriously.

Listen to Russ Feingold. It's another serious grab for tyrannical power. Tell Bush you'll even consider something coming out of his office when he rescinds the executive order on all his henchmen and women testifying.

Do you wonder why Congress has an approval rating of 11%.