First are Howard and Deb Bowen.   Go! Go! Go!

Worth repeating IMO.  We are in great danger and this signing statement protects everybody involved in the 9/11 code of silence. This is beyond outrageous.  This is fascism.

the president's signing statement:

"When Congress returns in September the Intelligence committees and leaders in both parties will need to complete work on the comprehensive reforms requested by Director McConnell, including the important issue of providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to have assisted our Nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001."                                                   

No posts for an hour?

Great words from our favorite governor in 2004....we need people speaking like this now instead of giving in on personal freedoms.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1419

Happiest of the happy happy birthdays to the sweetest of the sweet women that I know (and I know *lot*!!). . . .

Whose birthday, puddle?

Congressman Ron Paul's Secret Revealed

Lew Rockwell.com | August 5, 2007
Jennifer Haman

While speaking to a woman the other day that had never heard of Ron Paul, she stated "My goodness, he is amazing. He is the best kept secret of this presidential campaign." She could not believe there was a contender who represented everything she wanted in a presidential candidate and more. (For those of you who have not yet heard, Ron Paul is running for President.) She talked about wanting to end the war in Iraq. Ron Paul has promised to do that immediately and not leave a soldier behind. She talked about wanting a more secure border. Ron Paul has stated that he wants very strong borders and he was appalled that our government had taken border guards off of our borders to send them to Iraq. She mentioned she is treading water financially and never seems to get ahead. Ron Paul has a solution for that too: end the fiat money system so Congress cannot create monetary inflation . Well, what about privacy she asked? She felt we have moved into an age of Big Brother. Ron Paul wants to protect our privacy by sticking to a strict Constitutionalist policy. He wants to end the Patriot Act that allows the government to enter your home without a warrant and without notifying you so you know they were there. Dr. Paul wants to end the destruction of habeas corpus , the only doctrine we have that lets you see a lawyer if you land in jail. Without it, all other rights are meaningless. Dr. Paul has voted against every attempt to regulate and control the Internet . He believes that the Constitution does not give Congress a right to decide who may or may not marry, or what drugs a physician may or may not prescribe . Ron Paul believes in limited Federal government and limited taxes: he even wants to end the Income tax . (Can you imagine taking home your whole paycheck?)

A quick hello,

Still depressed over the FISA  renewal.  Thanks, Seashell, for all the good links.

Happy Birthday, Thankful.  How highly you are regarded here, and your closest friends seem to treasure you.  Hope your day is wonderful.

How nice it is to have an Internet that works and a computer that hasn't shut off yet today.

This has been our broken summer: the refrigerator broke, the roof leaks, the camper water tank leaked, computers broke, Internet transmitter broke, teeth broke.  Guess this keeps things real.

Thanks, also, for the comments about the Bloggers' convention.  Hooray for blogging. 

RUSS FEINGOLD SAYS IT ALL

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-feingold/lessons-not-learned_b_59302.html

Six years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, Congress rammed through the USA PATRIOT Act with little consideration of what that bill actually contained. Five years ago, Congress authorized a reckless and ill-advised war in Iraq. One year ago, Congress passed the deeply flawed Military Commissions Act. And late last week, a Democratic Congress passed legislation that dramatically expands the government's ability to conduct warrantless wiretapping, which could affect innocent Americans. It is clear that many congressional Democrats have not learned from those earlier mistakes, two of which happened when Democrats controlled the Senate. Once again, Congress has buckled to pressure and intimidation by the administration.

It should go without saying, but it's important to repeat: every member of Congress supports wiretapping terrorists. And no one thinks that the government should have to get a court order to listen to communications between suspected terrorists in foreign countries, even if those communications happen to pass through the U.S. The FISA bill Congress passed late last week was the latest example of the administration exploiting a legitimate problem to make an outrageous power grab - and unfortunately, it was also just the latest example of Congress giving in to the president's fear-mongering. The very last thing we should be doing is granting this administration -- and this Attorney General in particular -- more authority to conduct wiretaps without adequate judicial supervision. It is the abuse of power by this administration that is one of the main reasons this president and attorney general should be censured.

The American people see through these tactics, and don't buy the president's attempts to use the threat of terrorism to get what he wants any more. Unfortunately, 16 Senate Democrats and an Independent, as well as 41 House Democrats were all too willing last week to let the president successfully employ this ruse yet again.

**********************************************

SHAME SHAME SHAME

3RD PARTY 3RD PARTY 3RD PARTY

Democratic "leaders" and leading Democratic Presidential candidates can't weasel out of this one by pointing at "blue dogs" and Lieberman. It's a comp0lete failutre of leadership and focus.

WHEN YOU GET THAT MANY DESERTERS IN SUCH A PIVOTAL VOTE,

it's Reid, Pelosi, Clinton, and Obama who are not putting the screws to these traitors.

 It's on them, party loyalists!

THE SOFT UNDERBELLY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/the-soft-underbelly-of-th_b_59225.html

Here we go again. I was going to write a nice, fun piece about Matt Damon on a lovely Sunday afternoon when the Democrats went and ruined everything, as usual. From time to time, I am told that I am too hard on the Democrats. It is not possible to be too hard on these vacillating, spineless, rudderless, clueless clowns.

Alright, there has to be an important distinction here. Most of the Democrats in the House voted the right way on the latest capitulation to the most unpopular president in history. And 28 Democratic Senators voted the right way. The rest are the biggest bunch of weaklings and half-wits I have ever seen. They are the soft underbelly of the Democratic Party.

How many times do I have to write this article? How many times will these same Democrats give in to the worst president in history? So, this time, they caved on FISA. And they caved big time.

The president has been running an illegal warrantless wiretapping program since 2001. He has been continually and brazenly breaking the FISA law. He finally submitted the program to the FISA court recently. And a FISA judge said earlier this year that the program was not legal. Now how do the Democrats hold the president accountable for breaking this federal law?

Did they impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanors? Did they censure him? Did they cut off funding? No, not only did they not do any of these patently obvious things, but instead, they turned around and changed the law to give him the authority to ignore the courts. How do you not call them weaklings? How am I supposed to take it easy on them? How can this possibly be justified?

You ass clowns, he is the least popular president in history! Nixon spent nowhere near this much time at a 25% approval rating. In fact, when Nixon got to be this unpopular, he was forced to resign. Can you imagine Democrats capitulating to Nixon on critical legislation days before his resignation?

But wait a minute, doesn't our intelligence have to listen into real threats from abroad? Of course!!!! But they can get the easiest warrant on the planet to do that. No court in America would turn down their request to listen on any communication that was even remotely suspicious. But don't they need to act quick on many occasions? Wouldn't a warrant unacceptably slow them down? No, they can act as quick as they want and then get a warrant 72 hours later to make it retroactively legal.

We've been through all this before. All of Bush's excuses for this illegal spying program are pathetic. He can - and he should - do all the spying in the world to keep us safe. All he has to do is run it by a court after the fact to make sure they aren't abusing the civil liberties and the privacy of innocent Americans.

There is absolutely no justification for these Democratic votes that helped Bush make his illegal program legal. On top of abdicating their constitutional responsibility to check an out of control president, they have also done something politically retarded. In one fell swoop, they have capitulated to a grossly unpopular president, justified his talking point that national security is on the line and given Republicans leverage over themselves.

There is no upside. The Republicans will use this to paint Democrats as weak on national security. They will say Bush protected us and most Democrats fought against it, but a few, sensible, moderate Democrats understood what was at stake. Then they will use this perceived weakness on national security to run against the very Democrats who voted with him.

And they fell for the same old trick that Bush has used a hundred times. Hurry up and give me this authority right before you go to recess otherwise the country will blow up. There is no time, you have to give it to me now otherwise I will blame you for all the increased terrorism I have caused. Plus, if you don't give me what I want, I'll take away your summer recess. Heaven forbid!

The people who are guilty are the Democrats who pretend to be centrists and vote with this administration over and over again to enable their worst abuses. They not only give away our rights without any concern, but they also give up the political middle. By pretending that compromise with this administration is reasonable, they move the center to the extreme right of the political spectrum. This not only does damage to the country, but does untold damage to their own party.

Is there anything these middle of the road, mamby, pamby Democrats won't give the president? I literally cannot conceive of any power they wouldn't cede, any principle they wouldn't compromise, any issue they wouldn't capitulate on.

How low does the president have to go before they would fight back? Does he have to get into the teens in popularity before these Democrats realize it doesn't help them politically to vote with him? Does he have to be at a 9% approval rating before they start voting against him?

What if he took away all of the rights of a US citizen? Would they fight then? If you answered, well, surely in that case they would fight back, you were wrong.

The administration already took away all of the rights of two US citizens, Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi - and the Democrats did nothing, zip, zilcho, nada. The courts ruled to protect American citizens' rights in those cases, but don't worry, there's still time for Congress to reverse them. Just wait till right before the next summer recess or next election and the Democrats will give this administration anything they want on a silver platter.

It's time to start wholesale primary fights against all of the capitulating Democrats. It's obvious all they care about is protecting their own power. They think the only challenge to that power will come from the right side of the spectrum. It's time to make them reconsider their assumptions.

#2 thanks, #9 yup.

I believe there were candidates that actually wanted to vote for Bushes new improved Fisa law, and pissing on our Constitution. Trusting Gonzo and potus for my rights. No Thanks. The signing says it all. Profits before the people.

This is worth checking out.

The “You Work For Us” Summer Tour

Thanks Renee. Something seriously has to be done. I believe we need a Constitutional convention of the people at the mall in DC for a few days.

What a strange word to use.  "alleged"  Might as well say "rumored."  It means there is no proof.

Just returned from the Town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (GA 9th)

... i think his congressional aides wanted to strangle me by the time it was over. Several local elected R's had vanished by the end of the session, apparently having remembered something they needed to attend elsewhere.

I really wasn't there to be partisan, but the Congressman dogged the Dems once too often for me. Then came the comment and question session.

The first person was a lady who is very upset with the Medicaid part D, the Critters answers to her didn't help her a bit. She continued to shake her head like she was living a nightmare.

Of course there was the usual staged praising by the GOP faithful. Then another fellow who said he was a Reagaan guy and all that.. but these last six years the R's have really gone down hill. AND he thinks the Medicaid part D is a fraud and hoax.
The Congressman even had a px friend there, an honest guy much to my delight, who tried to help - but just had to agree that the whole thing was a catastrophe.

Then it was my turn...

test

I called my critter and was told to go to her website to see if there are any town halls listed.  There are none.

She's a dem. 

Gore/Clark

I'll bet the reason they passed that bill on Friday was they could slither out of town and there was nothing we could do. It wouldn't do any good to convene on the Mall right now bc the folks are all gone back home for the month. Snakes all.

Good grief.  Maybe we should read from the bottom up. 

Well, the gentleman had made much todo about the way a vote had ended exactly at 15 minutes when he just knew the R's would have turned it around in a few more minutes.
He went on about how the Dem leadership would have been sooo upset if an amendment, thue the bill had been sent back to committee, implying the vote had been curtailed maliceously violating House rules

Soooooo, and since everyone else had made the point for me already. I explained to everyone how the vote on Medicaid part D had gone, why it was failing even amongst R's at the end of the vote's allowed time... and that it was the R leadership that were rule breakers and arm twisters at best.

... but wait there's more

BB in a few

Annilow...not all snakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1Keo8qrLs&NR=1 

Let's see if I can make it clickable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1Keo8qr...

finish the story and I'll award the HOWARDLY

He had used a nicw world map to show all the countries in which children born to foreign nationals were not allowed citizenship. He wants to revoke that for children born on U.S. soil.
He also blasted Dems for the new funding bill for children in poverty saying that the next step would be 'socialized medicine for all".

Welllll, i said that if that same map showed all the countries that had healthcare for all it's citizens it would wrap around the globe especially all the industrialized nations, and include some obscure Central American countries.

AND, btw, didn't he (and his fellows in the back of the room)
himself making over $160,000 a year have coverage paid for by the government?

You could hear the crickets a mile away.

Then he said "But i have to pay $1300 dollars a month to live in D.C."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We need to relieve him of that burden folks.

... if, just maybe, and i don't expect it coz' it aint happened yet, but if just maybe, let's think positively here.

IF the DNC and DFA were to give half a cr@p about this area and sponsor a few of our fine progressive folk running for the U.S Congress, this fool could sit on his porch instead of being a Rove puppet for years to come.

Fine progressive folk like John Bradbury who i spoke to this morning... who doesn't know how he'd be able toconsider running again. He tried and tried last time to get support from above and all he heard was... those crickets.

Folks we aint sckeeerd her to stand up to the evil... we just need some help.

Folks we aint sckeeerd here to stand up to the evil... we just need some help.

... but whut do us hicks know?

(libertarian troll, my big ole butt)

gotta run

Love ya'll, mean it

my senator jim webb voted for the fisa crap.

he is hearing from me

bobby scott, my rep would never give in to that sh.t.

so when jim comes down to my neck of the woods, he is gonna hear from me.

go go ahead , tape my calls, you gonna hear from me.

and what happened to all those ak 47's missing in iraq?

you thing this prez has anything he is doing that is right? he is just trying to scare u to shut up.

and is wiretapping his political foes. so use the postal system. letters will do it.

Dave

I done it both ways. With or without help from above.The candidate has to sacrifice their time so others need to step up and raise the funds. and if there aren't going to be alot a Treasurer with a tight fist to hold down costs

all candidates hate to raise money but the ones that win figure out how to get a portion because without that record on an FEC report those elusive dollars from on high don't happen

ever

22. Yeah Reed thanks -- I guess there's one or two good ones.

Dave wrote "libertarian troll, my big ole butt."

It's clear you're not, but  like those occasions you mentioned you were certain I'm not a right wing plant, it's de rigeur to emphasize that you aren't.

I hear ya Phil... i've been 'all-in' for these guys, as i was for Dean {and had 8200 Dems ready to vote for the libral-gay-lovin' guy... ;~)} but the $1,000,000 figure the 'on high' guys were expecting was about 20 times more than was even possible for our folk.

... while the R's had at least 2M to play with going in.

Soooo, when all ya'll want to bash us, but NOBODY comes around to help with even fundraisers, like uhhhh maybe Howard, don't be surprised when things you love aren't veto proof.

... and all your hard work for candidates goes to naught.

sadly

Sure - don't let the fact that taxpayers money will be thrown away, just spend millions more on new machines!

I see that Ski Trip is complaining about new weapons delivery systems again.  What will they spend money on next, space exploration?

The Dem leadership does not want to impeach, they just want to keep passing bills to be vetoed. The Dems look good, Repubs bad on election day.

Pelosi has been feeling the growing criticism of her position to take impeachment off the table. She was not in a good position to defend no impeachment.

They pass the surveillance bill, and
She calls for new legislation as soon as they return, when they could wait six months. Why the urgency Now? They knew when they signed the bill that it was too flawed, so why did they sign? It is quite possible that it was an opportunity presenting itself to pound the last nail in the IMPEACHMENT COFFIN.

She won't have to deal with us anymore on that issue. Except, I think she might have to deal with us anyway.