Creepy Joe™ afraid of Rachel?

I missed it Friday, but caught up this morning. It appears that Rachel Maddow has taken up one of my favorite campaigns, exposing the lies, the manipulations of fact, the distortions of logic, the egotisitical twists in behavior of Senator Creepy Joe™ Lieberman.

So much so that she's invited him on her show to tell his version of his truth. I say he doesn't have the guts to take her up on it. That's Senator "they'll-take-that-as-a-sign-of-weakness" Lieberman. Much easier to send an 18 year old with a rifle into Iran than it is to walk yourself into MSNBC, isn't it Joe?

The L word

Bill Curry once told me there were two parties - incumbents, and non-incumbents.

A liberal blogger for Firedoglake found out that you don't mess with a frat brother when he asked Senator Dick Durbin about turncoat Creepy Joe™ Lieberman. It seems as if a brother Senator would have to commit matricide before an esteemed colleague would begin to consider chastising him.



One more hint to novice "video reporters" - keep the light at your back.

Never is a long time

Speaking in Denver yesterday, and after being interrupted repeatedly by Iraq war protesters, John McCain declared that he would "never surrender in Iraq."

Sounds like a hundred year war to me.

But considering, as Attaturk at Firedoglake does, that McCain has a record of being very wrong on Iraq, he ought to be encouraged to run on the war issue. I think the American public would be interested in hearing just how wrong he's been.

Still, it's hard to imagine that there is a roomful of people anywhere in America who would cheer McCain's bellicose boastings. But yesterday in Denver there was.

Chickenhawk profiteers

There's nothing more obscene, more despicable than the promoters of war who wear their patriotism on their sleeves, constantly talk about supporting the troops, opposing terrorism and "Islamic extremists,"while sacrificing absolutely nothing for the cause.

That list begins at the top with Bush and Cheney but trickles down in a murky stream of effluent past blathering sphincters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and locally Jim Vicevich who have exploited the war, exploited the bravery of the troops, exploited the patriotic feelings of their listeners, exploited bloodlust and fear, exploited terrorism and who have exploited death and destruction for their own ratings, their own book sales, their own punditry fees, their own profit. Though they would deny it, no less than Halliburton or Sikorsky, they have made money at the cost of others lives.

Over at firedoglake, attaturk pins war enabler Michael O'Hanlon.

One newspaper comes to its senses about Lieberman

The Day, of New London, has rescinded its support of Creepy Joe™ Lieberman.

Will the oldest continually published daily newspaper in the country follow suit?

Phew, safe for another two weeks

Yeah, like you I was feeling a little shaky that he Protect America Act was going to expire on February 1.

After all, how would we know who the untrustworthy amongst us were if they weren't tapping our phones.

Now it seems that those grating statesmen, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and George Bush have agreed to extend our protection against terrorist monsters (actually extend our ability to eavesdrop on the party line), and to protect us good muhricans against the fear of terror.

As always, Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake, and Glenn Greenwald at Salon have been doing an amazing job deciphering the arcane politics of how our leaders are screwing us with our own screwdrivers.

Wrong place, wrong Time

If you have a few moments of leisure to do some heavy reading in what's left of this Thanksgiving weekend, read the marvelous Glenn Greenwald's dissection of Joe Klein's serious lies and inaccuracies about FISA in this week's issue of Time.

Greenwald further extrapolates about the abysmal condition of in-the-beltway reporting.

Jane Hamsher at firedoglake, provides even more evidence of a complicitly lazy Klein.

Feet to the fire time

Hey, you either believe in this Constitution shit, or you don't.

Right now it's unclear how presidential candidates Clinton and Obama feel about the abridgment of Constitutional freedoms dictated by FISA. What's more disturbing is that neither will speak directly to the unconstitutional assignment of ex post facto immunity to telecom companies who broke the law.

I've always heard that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Crimes committed under the veil of "patriotic duty" are crimes nonetheless.

Several important bloggers are urging us to call the offices of Clinton and Obama to make them take a stand on FISA. Take a few minutes and make a call.

The poor phone companies didn't do anything wrong, and if they did, we want to be sure they didn't do anything wrong

Firedoglake suggests that the Senate has drawn up a bill which meets the President's requirement of providing ex post facto immunity from lawsuits for eavesdropping on US citizens.

The FISA bill, which Bush is calling the Protect America Act, seemed legitimate when there were the checks and balances of court approval before wiretapping.

Giving this president, and every president after, the ability to eavesdrop on you and me, okay, mostly me, is absurd to the point of ominous. What are our Senators thinking, and why are they conspiring to subvert the Constitution with our demented President.