Health Care: What YOU Can Do

If you've been following the Health Care Reform fight, then you know that the Senate Finance Committee met today to vote on Max Baucus' bill.

Well, five Blue Running Dogs joined the Republicans to vote against the public option authored by Senator Rockefeller (D-W.Va). This, despite the fact that two out of every three of their constituents (or more) FAVOUR a Public Option. And despite the fact that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has already published a report stating that Rockefeller's version of the public option would save the government between $50 billion and $150 billion over a ten-year period.

Needless to say, ALL the Republicans voted against the Public Option. So down it went in flames.

The time has come to fight back, people. Get off your duffs. A commenter at HuffPo left the following information on who to contact, and how:

BAUCUS: Phone: (202) 224-2651 Fax: (202) 224-9412
LINCOLN: Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371
CONRAD: Phone: (202) 224-2043 Fax: (202) 224-7776
NELSON: Phone: (202) 224-5274 Fax: (202) 228-2183
CARPER: Phone: (202) 224-2441 Fax: (202) 228-2190

If you are a constituent of any of these primo assholes, then it is your DUTY to call or fax them and demand to know why they have rejected Rockefeller's money-saving public option. They're now debating Chuck Schumer's version of the public option, a much weaker, watered-down version which won't save the country as much, if anything.

Any constituents of Charles Grassley out there? If you believe you deserve as good health care as he gets thanks to your taxes, call or fax him too, and ask him why he made this statement:

"Government is not a competitor. Government is a predator."

— Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

Does he really mean it? Has he given up HIS taxpayer-financed health care? Who is his private health care insurer? Why does he not switch over to private health care? If they're good enough for us, they should be good enough for him.

ICHC FTLOL

Give them all an earful, peeps. They deserve it. They've earned it.

Note: This blog does not advocate violence against anyone. However, we reserve the right to mercilessly mock our so-called elected representatives.

Additional note: Although it would be great if the people's representatives could be spayed or neutered, it is, unfortunately, too late, as most of them have already flung their obviously unworthy genes into the pool.

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Politics: Health Care

Seen with her favourite person, your own Senator DiFi

Live in California? Want a better health care system?

Then get ready to sit down and give ol' helmet-hair (Senator DiFi) an earful. Because that worthless bitch doesn't think you need health care reform. Why the fuck should she, she's married to a rich man and making a couple hundred thou a year PLUS she gets gold-plated healthcare at the taxpayers' expense.

I can't stand her, quite honestly. Her politics would be seen for the worthless shit they are if we didn't have true asshats like John Cornyn, John McCain, Lamar Alexander, Evan Bayh, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran, Jim DeMint, John "Fuckaround" Ensign, David Vitter, Lindsay Graham, James Inhofe, Orrin Hatch, Jon Kyl, Joe LieberWHORE, Mitch "Granny" McConnell, Ben Nelson, Pat Roberts and Jeff Sessions in the Senate. Geez, that's an awful lotta asshats, huh? And most of them worse than your very own Princess Diane.

Recently, that waste of skin Feinstein was heard to opine to Greg Sargent, who now blogs at Plum Line, that criticism from "the left" doesn't bother her.

Problem is, it ain't the mythical "left" that wants President Obama's health care bill to pass. It's three out of every four Americans. You know, your average person who (1) doesn't have pots of money; (2) isn't married to someone who has pots of money; (3) doesn't have taxpayer-funded health care.

If you really want the health care system reformed, do your part. Here's some information on how to get started. If you don't want to do the activist number, then at least call DiFi and make sure you let her know that you KNOW she's up for re-election in 2012; and that she's thinking of running for Governor of California; and you will remember her votes on health care and will hold her accountable at the polls, whatever office she sets her sights on.

Di-Fi's numbers:

San Diego: 619-231-9712
Washington DC: 202-224-3841

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Politics: Joe Lieberman Is a Boil

... upon the collective behind of humanity.


Our dear readers know quite well how fond we are of Senator Lieberman (I-Me). His placing the State of Israel's interests above America's interests has done more harm to Israel than good.

Frankly, we find the repellent little bottom-dweller (in every sense of the word) utterly unbearable. He is a sanctimonious, whining, liar. A greedy shill. A pathetic, craven little man, cowering at every shadow and willing to give up not just his, but our, collective civil liberties to assuage his pathetic, weak-kneed fears.

So, it is with great delight that we at this fine blog announce today that the Huffington Post is reporting that Brave New Films has collected some 43,000 signatures in a petition to the Senate Democratic Caucus' steering committee to strip Lieberman of his various positions of power within that Caucus.

From BNF's site:

We CANNOT tolerate a leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus who supports George Bush and McCain's War in Iraq. We CANNOT tolerate a Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee who endorses and stumps for McCain. We call on the Senate Democratic Steering Committee to strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship and his leadership role.

I should think not! This cowardly lyin' went to Iraq in full body armour with hundreds of ordinary GIs forming a human shield around him to stroll around the marketplaces of Baghdad and had the gall to come back here and declare that Iraq was "safe." In essence, telling the parents, siblings, lovers, children, neighbours, and friends of men and women in the uniform of the nation that it was OK to send their loved ones out there to be shot, wounded, maimed, and killed.

Jowls quivering with faux indignation, Holy Joe screeched and wept crocodile tears over Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions with an adult woman in a voluntary liaison. Yet he has shed, to date, not a single tear for a million murdered Iraqis, or the 4.5 million refugees, the wounded and maimed. He has not shed a single tear for American soldiers and civilians killed, injured, and suffering because of that Barsoomianly bisyllabic bozo, Jor Jee Bush. Children of both nations have lost their parents, and parents have lost their children. But Holy Joe's children are not in harm's way, so what does he care? His children - Matt Lieberman, his son by his first marriage, Rebecca Lieberman, his daughter by his first marriage, Ethan Tucker, his stepson, and Hana Lieberman, his daughter with his lobbyist wife Hadassah - are all sitting safely in the U.S. out of harm's way.

Matt is, apparently, the head of the Katherine and Jacob Greenfield Hebrew Academy of Atlanta. He's unlikely to be killed or wounded unless the nerdy students of the Academy decide, a highly unlikely event, that he has inherited his father's nasal, complaining whine and decide to remedy such genetic inheritance by machine-gunning him right out of the gene pool.

Rebecca, when last publicized by the NYT, was making $75K p.a. at the New York City Board of Education; but that was eight years ago, and she's probably pulling down six figures now. Although we understand that New York City is probably more dangerous than Atlanta, Rebecca is also highly unlikely to be wounded or killed in the line of duty. It's our understanding that the Board of Ed in NYC may be more highly charged than similar bodies in other cities and states, but we have not heard any rumours of board members offing each other or undesirable employees. Let us fervently hope that she did not inherit Daddy Dearest's vocal chords. If there is one thing that could drive otherwise peaceable people to murder, that voice would probably be it.

Stepson Ethan Tucker is a Rabbi, according to the Jewish Ledger. Fortunately, he is the biological spawn of Lieberman's wife Hadassah, from a previous marriage. As a result, he is not likely to inspire anyone to wound or kill him to stifle the trademark Lieberwhore whine. To his credit, Rabbi Tucker is a committed supporter of Barack Obama.

Daughter Hana, now 20 years old, is in college. Hopefully, her father's vocal chords have died out with him. Otherwise, the poor child might find herself Darwinized, as the Sanctimonious Bleat that is the very life and trademark of Holy Joe is not to be borne by mortals.

While these four Lieberspawn live their lives untroubled by such matters as PTSD, destroyed limbs and lives, TBI, and inadequate health care and lack of support from the warmongers such as Lieberwhore himself who cheerfully send other people's children to die in places they would never send their own sacred spawn, we observe the daily body count in Iraq and Afghanistan and note that Usama bin Laden is still at large and the Iraqis are now demanding a withdrawal timetable from the U.S. Will wonders never cease?

At any rate, if you are as fond of the Liebergasbag as we are, we urge you to hie yourself forthwith to this site and sign the damned petition. Surely there's more than 43,000 of us that would like to see this sanctimonious prick cashiered.

Any feminists or nonfeminist women who might consider censuring us for stomping the pathetic old weasel are advised to consider Holy Joe's sanctimonious support for the right of medical personnel and hospitals to refuse contraceptive assistance to female rape victims. Consider this in the light of Holy Joe's support of Catholic, anti-women's-rights judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Holy Joe may pay lip service to women's right to choose, and how could he do anything else given the position of the majority of his constituents on the issue? But his support for women goes no further than his lips. He's pretty sanguine about telling a rape victim to get herself to another hospital if the one the ambulance takes her to won't help her exercise her right to choose.

Prick.

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Economy: It's About Bloody Well Time

Harry Reid apparently found these somewhere in Washington:


Because, according to Raw Story, he has decided

[...] to defy a threatened White House veto and try to win passage of a bill to curb rising home foreclosures by changing bankruptcy law.

"I have no expectation of reaching any agreement with the White House," said Reid a day after the administration warned the bill would need changes to get President George W. Bush's signature.

"I have tried for seven years" to reach agreements with Bush on a variety of issues, but have repeatedly failed, said Reid, a Nevada Democrat, at a news conference.

"So we are going to do what we think is best for the country," Reid said. "If we get 67 votes (in the 100-member Senate to override a possible Bush veto), that's great."

Now don't get your hopes up too high, peoples. We here at La Casa de Los Gatos are still saying, "Be still, my beating heart."

Is he really gonna do it? Are we gonna see sixty-seven of the idiots in the Senate stand behind him?

Now's the time to start pressuring your Senateschmuck to get the fuck in line and vote with Harry. Now, a caveat here: we're not saying the bill as it exists is just peachy-keen and we totally buy into it. We have not yet read the bill, and we don't know what's going on. We plan to get our eyeballs on a copy but we're no financial genius, so we can't promise to update this post with the latest and greatest.

We do refer you to Bonddad's blog, which has a fine analysis of the housing crisis. La Casa de Los Gatos is fiscally conservative. We don't believe in throwing money (assets, resources, whatever) away. That means we don't believe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have lost billions over the past quarter should be angling to lose even more by raising the cap on their investment portfolios.

We believe the "subprime mortgage crisis" was created by greedy lenders and greedy consumers working hand in glove with an inattentive and duplicitous government that relied on hocus-pocus as the mainstay of its economic policy. If financial idiots like ourselves who have to read Managing Your Money For Dummies can figure out that something's wrong with the mortgage industry, there is no way that the Misadministration's economists can pretend they didn't notice.

Thus, we say, let's all scrutinize this foreclosure bill. We think people who bought houses for investment, and speculators, lazy mortgage brokers and lenders who failed to do even the most rudimentary financial checks or even duplicitously tried to push on consumers loans they should have known said consumers could not afford, don't deserve a bailout, and certainly not at the expense of those of us who have carefully budgeted and saved and been responsible consumers and taxpayers. On the other hand, there are many people who were bamboozled into buying and failed &mdash or did not know enough &mdash to read the fine print.

Some people deserve rescue. But rescue doesn't have to equal bailout. A good rescue would be for the very banks who are found to have engaged in duplicitous practices to be forced to freeze homeowners' mortgages at a rate that allows such homeowners to pay off their loans. This would serve the dual purpose of punishing the greedy and duplicitous lenders and simultaneously temporarily staving off the impending collapse. However, we doubt that such a course of action will commend itself to the rich and powerful who rule the nation. Still, we can try to remove the most egregiously unfair provisions and add language that achieves the goal (staving off impending fiscal collapse) without overly burdening the taxpayer or letting lenders go scot-free.

The Dim Son will undoubtedly stamp his little feet and throw a hissy fit. That's fine. Mr. 19 Per Cent is not exactly a force to be reckoned with any more. And we well know that his desired "changes" to the language of any bill will serve only his wealthy and powerful friends, or as he has referred to them, his "base." While simultaneously screwing common working people.

Image from WhoHijackedOurCountry

We gotcher base right here, Chimpy. Vanculo, you worthless little putz.

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B.A.D. Featured Bloggers

Update: Well, poo. We wuz wrong about DiFi. It looks as if she voted against the telco immunity. Sorry about that, folks. Leapin' Stupids Disease appears to be out of remission. Apologies, Senator Feinstein. We still disagree with you more than half the time on your votes, but we were wrong on this one. We'll take our medicine like a cat: snarling, hissing, running away, and hiding (oh, wotthehell, Archy, a few scratchings for good measure).

Over at his Soapbox, Ted sounds as if he's set to become an adoptive parent to a high-needs child. Congrats, Ted.

Casa de Los Gatos believes in adoption, as opposed to reproduction. With 6.x BILLION FUCKING PEOPLE (and we do mean fucking people, or we wouldn't be up to 6.x billion) on the planet, there is absolutely no need for more "mini-me's," y'awl. Whatever your particular genetic signature, chances are it's already out there in teh pool. In fact, the gene pool could stand a hearty dose of chlorine.

Adopting children, on the other hand &mdash that's a mitzvah. Those tykes &mdash especially the high-needs kids &mdash they could use your help. Consider the life of a child in the foster-care system, which is where unwanted children go in the U.S. of A, and you will agree that abortion ought to be a sacrament. No one should have the right to throw another sentient creature away, like these children are thrown away. Abandoned, unwanted, bullied, beaten, they are ground through the system and on their 18th birthday, kicked out with little more than the clothes on their backs. And then it's life on the streets, drugs, prostitution, petty crime, and back into the system, except this time it's the jail and prison end. Anybody who sincerely believes this is better than a quick suction job is deluded or insane or both, and desperately in need of a retroactive abortion themselves.

Ted, you're a mensch. I hope things work out with the kid, and for you overall.

Over in Wyandotte, Michigan (eww, cold!), a group of very courageous people are meeting weekly to protest the disgusting war of occupation in Iraq. They blog about it at Wyan.blog, which Casa de Los Gatos discovered thanks to the efforts of Lizzy, who lives with 922 cats (and kittens!). You can see them standing out there all bundled up against the cold, bravely holding their signs every week. Kudos, Wyans. We wish we could be there with you in the flesh, but our flesh is, regrettably, falling off our damaged bones these days. We're with you in spirit, though.

We have not blogged the Senate's criminal position on the telco immunity aspect of the FISA bill because we knew everyone else would do it and do it better and require fewer psychoactive meds. And sure enough, Batocchio over at Vagabond Scholar puts the boot in nicely and tells us what to do next.

Is Dianne Feinscum your Senator? Find out who's running against her, throw your support to the candidate most likely to beat her overprivileged ass to pulp, and flood her office daily with calls, faxes, email, letters, and postcards. Casa de Los Gatos should not need to warn you to maintain a civil and respectful tone regardless of your current state of mind, whether utter hopelessness or despair.

Here's the list of Democratic Senatescum who voted to give the telcos retroactive immunity, thereby insulating them forever from the consequences of breaking the law and crapping all over the Constitution:

• Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Evan Bayh (D-IA)
• Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
• Tim Johnson (D-SD)
• Herb Kohl (D-WI)
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR)
• Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Ken Salazar (D-CO)
• Tom Carper (D-DE)
• Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
• Jim Webb (D-VA)
• Ben Nelson (D-NE)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Kent Conrad (D-ND)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

You can safely assume that the majority of Rethuglican Senatescum voted to grant immunity.

A significant number of those on the preceding list are "Blue Dog" Democrats, that is to say, scumsucking pigs willing to give their constituents and principle the rigid digit if they think they'll get a little lobbyist money out of it. But La Casa de Los Gatos once had great respect for Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb, and thought Barbara Mikulski was on the side of the people. Folks, please write to your legiscum - our democracy only works if we all participate, whether by writing letters or making phone calls or visiting these people and talking to them. Please make an effort, do your part, get them to hear that two out of every three people in this country do not want retroactive immunity for the telcos.

This has been your daily roundup of B.A.D. bloggers. Casa de Los Gatos thanks you for your attention.

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Politics: FISA and You

Do you ever wonder if the telcos handed your phone records and other information to which they might have had access, to the spy agencies? Sure, you do. You and most other Americans probably have a low-level stress alert set on FISA, because we know damned well those bastards have been spying on all of us since March of 2001. For the date- or history-impaired, that would be six months before the incidents of 11th September.

The FISA votes have been wending their constipated way through the Legislature for years now. A little movement here, a little squeeze there, while we all sit and fume and wonder what the fuckers are up to now.

AP tells us that the Chimperor is determined that telcos will have immunity for their illegal acts in aiding spying on American citizens. One way he's doing this is to order his rage of hunchmen (yes, Frank Zappa coined that phrase) to do everything they can to delay the so-called "stimulus" package in return for FISA concessions. This will make it look as though the Democrats in the Legislature are failing to give money to the suffering masses.

First off, the chutzpah of this boondoggle just fucking blows our socks off here at La Casa de Los Gatos. Even the gatos' tiny white socks have been blasted to various corners of the universe by this unholy level of total fucking cheek.

What they're trying to do, the Republican legislators and the Chimpidiots, is ensure that you can never find out whether you were spied on. No, really. If these telco pigs get their proposed "immunity," you can't force them to disclose whether they handed your records to anybody. They're immune from prosecution.

This also means you can't find out whether any other shenanigans were going on - you know, like, did the Misadministration funnel millions in taxpayer money to the telcos specifically for acts that violate the FISA laws or the constitution? Did they encourage violation of the constitution by, say, tapping the phones of attorneys talking to clients (that is ANY attorney talking to ANY client, like, oh, your divorce lawyer, or your spouse's patent lawyer; your bankruptcy lawyer - lots of potential for ugly right here).

Did they hand over for future use to intelligence agencies damaging information gleaned from illegal surveillance - like, were you, an elected official, bopping your boyfriend on the taxpayers' time? Or were you, a person with hopes of running for office someday, exchanging incriminating communications with your homo-, bi-, or generally queer-sexual partner or fling? Or a Young Republican engaging in sexual shenanigans of which your church, family, community, and state would thoroughly disapprove?


If Darth and Idiot Boy get telco immunity, you're screwed - we're all screwed. We won't be able to find out what they've got on us, when they started collecting it, what laws they violated - we probably won't even be able to get them to stop, or to turn over the information (not that that would do much good. That which has been seen cannot be unseen).

Already, our slimy AG, Michael Mucousy, has sent a letter to Harry Reid warning of the proposed veto.

In ten days' time the current FISA law will expire. Thus, the Republicans and the Misadministration are going all-out to ensure that the version that passes will protect their good buddies at the telcos, and, incidentally, screw the people. We're only good for paying taxes and working and spending to keep the economy going so these crooks and liars can spend our money making themselves and their friends rich.

If not for Senator Chris Dodd, we'd already be screwed.

So hie thee over to McJoan's excellent post on who you need to call and what you need to tell them. Because if you don't pressure your whiny sad-assed legislators to protect you, you better start purchasing lube by the gallon.

Oh, you might want to send these to your legislator. They've long since proved they haven't got any.

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Politics: FISA and Retroactive Immunity

Okay, we're not going to give Harry Reid much-deserved hell for failing to support Senator Chris Dodd's principled stand on the FISA bill and retroactive immunity for the telcos who assisted the Bush crooks and liars in illegally spying on the American people. At least the little creep is finally standing up on his hind legs and listening to Chris Dodd and the two out of three Americans who want the telcos to face up to their crimes and shenanigans.

Lookit, folks, these telcos are the same scumballs who cut the FBI off for failure to pay timely - not failure to pay at all, just failure to send the next whopping check on time. So they don't really give a sideways flying shit if terrorists show up tomorrow and bomb us all to smithereens. All they care about is (a) making money, and (b) NOT paying for their criminal acts. So why exactly would we want to give them immunity?

At any rate, the Senate will soon begin voting on the retroactive immunity issue, so if you have a moment to spare, call your congresscritter and make sure that they stand with Senator Dodd and the 60+ per cent of us who think if the telcos want to make big profits off the American taxpayer, they'd better be answerable to that same irate taxpayer.

Whatta buncha schmucks.

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Politics: The Puppet-Master

Pic of The Dick courtesy of wingtv.net

Anybody who believes for one moment that Chimpy McStupidson is in charge of the White House or the U.S. government is either insane or seriously self-deluded. Here, the true ruler - the autocratic despot, the mad tyrant, the feculent bag of stench that rules the nation reveals once again his Machiavellian hand:

Vice President Dick Cheney prodded Congress on Wednesday to extend and broaden an expiring surveillance law [...].

"We're reminding Congress that they must act now," Cheney told the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The law, which authorizes the administration to eavesdrop on e-mails and phone calls to and from suspected terrorists, expires on Feb. 1. Congress is bickering over terms of its extension.

The fact of the matter is, it authorizes the Cheney Misadministration to spy on emails and phone calls without judicial oversight, and "suspected terrorists" is a term that is defined solely by the Cheney Misadministration.

Given their track record so far, do you trust them not to spy on you and your family and friends? How about your business deals? Your patentable inventions? Your conversations with your lover?

Meanwhile Harry "No-balls" Reid is showing yet again that he has a spine made of straw:

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to extend the stopgap Protect America Act without expanding it, raising stakes for an expected showdown in the Senate later this week on a new version of the law.

Now we owe our gratitude to the Rethuglicans for inadvertently protecting us from the consequences of this shameful piece of legislation.

The article adds that administration allies in Congress want this law to be made permanent, with retroactive immunity for the telcos who aided illegal government eavesdropping.

Well, the ACLU decided to ask Americans how they feel about retroactive immunity for the same worthless father-fucking mother-raping sister-sodomizing dog-blowing pieces of shit - sorry, the telcos - who cut the spying efforts off the minute the government missed a payment deadline. Clearly, their concern is not with the dangerous spies and terrorists, but with lining their own pockets. They don't want to pay huge fines when we find out how many times they broke the goddamned laws.

Well, guess what? No, c'mon. Take your best shot. You think Americans want the law expanded and made permanent? With retroactive immunity for the telcos?

Fuck, no. Here's what your fellow-citizens have to say on the topic:

Majorities of voters on both sides of the political spectrum oppose key provisions in President Bush's proposal to modify foreign surveillance laws that could ensnare Americans, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The survey shows nearly two-thirds of poll respondents say the government should be required to get an individual warrant before listening in on conversations between US citizens and people abroad. Close to six in 10 people oppose an administration proposal to allow intelligence agencies to seek "blanket warrants" that would let them eavesdrop of foreigners for up to a year no additional judicial oversight required if the foreign suspect spoke to an American. And a majority are against a plan to give legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping.

"Across the board, we find opposition to the administration's FISA agenda," pollster Mark Mellman said Tuesday.

No shit. Pardon our language, but we're so furious, we're in danger of a cranial infarct from explosion.


Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to contact your senate slimebucket and INSIST that your voice be heard on this issue. NO spying, NO retroactive immunity, goddammit, or your senator's ass is out come the next election. Pass it on, and mark your calendar for whenever the worthless gobshite who purports to represent your will and the will of the two-thirds of us who don't want these bloodsucking Big Brother types to own us, body and soul, is up for re-election, or appearing in your hometown, or whatever.

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2008 Elections: FISA Bill

Well, Chris Dodd did his bit for us and for the Constitution. Now it's our turn to do our part. That's what the words "a government of, by, and for the people" mean, folks. It's of us - we have to take office or vote into office those whose political positions make sense to us. It's by us - we have to educate ourselves on every issue and keep an eye on those we elect, so that we remove any incentive on their part to lie to us, hoodwink us, and rob our treasury. And it's for us - it's made up of the people that we elect and appoint and get to know and talk with, to act in our best interests. Not theirs. Not the lobbyists'. Not the corporations. Us. The People.

That's you and your family and your friends and your neighbours, and their families and friends and neighbours and so on unto the very last man, woman, and child on these shores. But to make it real, we all have to work. We have to read, and listen, and watch, and educate ourselves.

Chris Dodd did his part, but the FISA bill is only in temporary reprieve. Harry Reid will bring it back to the floor of the Senate next year. You have these intervening months to find out what that bill really means. What it means for you - can they listen in to every phone call you make or receive? Can they read every single email or web click?

To find out more, visit Firedoglake, where the ever-inspiring bloggers have, with Glenn Greenwald, put together a petition to let Harry Reid know that his craven compliance with the Misadministration's surveillance of Americans is unacceptable and to request him to join with Senator Chris Dodd in crafting and passing amendments that protect the civil rights of Americans.

If you don't have a subscription to Salon, consider getting one as a Christmas present to yourself - it's worth it for the pleasure of reading Glenn Greenwald.

And now, a word of thanks to those of you who helped, from Senator and 2008 Presidential candidate Chris Dodd:



Thank you, sir! Wanna say "Thank you, Senator Dodd?" Go here.

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Politics: Who Will Stand With Chris Dodd Against Cloture on FISA?

Image from Raw Story

Looks like the Republicans all want to give the telecoms companies retroactive immunity so they can keep spying on the American people and whine, "But the NSA told me to! I was only following orders!" - also known as the Nuremberg Defense - when they finally get busted for their misdeeds.

As for the Democrats, none of the top tier is bothering to get involved in this issue. Is this what we want from our next president? More illegal surveillance of Americans? The utter destruction of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Looks like Chris Dodd is the only presidential candidate to speak out against retroactive immunity. The only one who cares about the constitution.

Senator Clinton, where are you? Senator Obama? Senator Biden, goddammit?

In all fairness, John Edwards and Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee can't be there to filibuster this worthless piece of dreck bill.

But why isn't Senator McCain, self-proclaimed Defender of the Constitution, doing anything about this?

Watertiger has the list of politicians with the guts to stand with Chris Dodd against this despicable attempt to circumvent the law. To the endless shame of the Republican Party, they're all Democrats.

We'd spit on the gutless worms who won't stand with Chris Dodd on this, but it would be a waste of spit. Right now, Chris Dodd is looking more presidential than the lot of the rest. If your Senator isn't on the list, call their office now, dammit, and demand that they vote NO on cloture of the FISA bill.

And, to elevate your naturally low blood pressure, this exciting tidbit:

Dodd, a dark-horse candidate for the Democratic presidential nod, tried to put a "hold" on any FISA update with telecom immunity, but that request apparently has been ignored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Thanks a lot, Harry Reid, you miserable traitor. You had no problem honoring the Tom Coburn (Repulsive-OK?) hold on the Emmett Till bill which passed overwhelmingly in the House, did you? But that was a civil rights bill, designed to benefit victims of injustice. Whereas this is a bill designed to benefit big corporations that have repeatedly broken the law, using the Nuremberg Defense, and want to get off scot-free. You pathetic schmuck.

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Politics: Republicans Refuse To End Iraq War

Send this snivelling wankbag home on the next train

Big surprise. Raw Story reports that Senate Republicans have blocked passage of a bill that would have forced the end of the Iraq war. Votes were 53-45 against. The article states, in part:

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war without strings attached.

The Republican measure failed 45-53, 15 short of the number of votes needed to go forward.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the only way to get troops the money was to approve the restrictions outlined by Democrats.

"Our troops continue to fight and die valiantly. And our Treasury continues to be depleted rapidly, for a peace that we seem far more interested in achieving than Iraq's own political leaders," said Reid, D-Nev.

This is ridiculous. We need to find out who the missing votes were. We're fairly sure that Joe Lieberman either voted against ending the war or abstained from voting. And the other?

Did any Democrats vote against the bill? We'll try to find out and post their names. These morons must be called out by name and shamed for their stand on this illegal, immoral war. And everybody - if one of your representatives voted against the war - if you really want to end the war - then you need to call their office every day, if need be, and persuade all your relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and acquaintances to do the same.

Watch your elected representatives like hawks and if they're enabling this war, then make sure you vote them out in the next election. The blood of the dead is on all our hands if we don't stop the war.

On the upside, the Democrats have vowed not to bring up a new war bill for the remainder of the year. The Pentagon is moaning about having to lay off employees. Having been laid off ourselves, we sympathize with the workers who will lose their jobs. But the war must end. If the Republicans are not willing to force the Boy-King to end it, then we must all pay the price. The price we pay for continuing this war is countless deaths and the bequeathment of a huge financial burden to our grandchildren, who are being born into the world with a $20,000 debt. That is unconscionable.

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Politics: No More Rendition

Today the FISA bill; now an end to "rendition." Okay, they haven't ended the Iraq debacle yet, but damn, teh Congresscritters deserve some lub for these two bills.

Raw Story reports that the House apparently snuck a provision into the $50 billion Iraq funding bill that

... would effectively end CIA renditions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

[...]

The Iraq funding measure revises the Army Field Manual to prohibit torture and abuse, including waterboarding, and authorizes an array of specific interrogation tactics. It specifically states that CIA operatives must adhere to these rules as well.

So even though the two Senate slimebuckets, Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, voted to let "Waterboarding May Be Torture But You'll Never Get Me To Admit It" Mukasey be confirmed as the next attorney-general, the Democrats have found a way to make his appointment somewhat less toxic.

It's all good, folks. And if we keep their feet to the fire, keep working on the issues, it can only get better.

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Politics: Bernie Sanders Speaks For The People

I've always had a (platonic, political) crush on Senator Bernie Sanders. Anyone who is an independent - truly independent, not a political whore like Joe LIEberwhore - has my admiration. It takes no small measure of guts to stand up to the gutless whores of congress, the sleazy politicians who keep asking for our money, our boots on the ground, our votes, but not our opinions. Who do nothing to help us out of the mess that they keep creating for us, with their bankruptcy bills that give banks and corporations everything and the consumer nothing. Their military funding bills that keep prolonging the war in Iraq. Their FISA bills that give immunity to the telecoms who spied on everything we wrote, said, and thought, retroactively, but not an ounce of relief for those of us shamelessly spied on.

Senator Sanders speaks for we, the people, dammit. Listen to what he has to say:

"For the last six years," says Sanders, "it is clear that we have had a president that does not understand what the Constitution of the United States is about. What this president believes, essentially, is that he can do anything he wants, at any time, against anybody, in the name of fighting terrorism. And he happens to believe that the "war on terrorism" is unending; it's going to go on indefinitely. And I think it is very important that we have an Attorney General who can explain the Constitution to a President who clearly does not understand it.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mukasey is not that person."

Adds Sanders, "We have the right to demand an Attorney General who supports strongly the Constitution and is prepared to tell the President of the United States when he is acting against the Constitution."

You hear that, Dianne Feinstein? You hear that Chuck Schumer? You two, along with a bunch of Bush dogs, voted to confirm that sleazebag Mukasey as the attorney-general of the country. All of you ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves. All you Republicans who voted for someone whose sole aim and purpose in life appears to be ensuring that those who commit high crimes and misdemeanors against this nation will never be held to account. Those who commit war crimes to benefit their wealthy friends will never face a trial for their criminal acts.

Make no mistake about it. The people will hold you to account if you do not hold these villains to account. We will not lose sight of our aims. We know that the country cannot afford four more years of Shrub or Giuliani or Romney or Huckabee or McCain. We know that. We know that we must get rid of the Bush dogs and the traitors. But the day of reckoning will come, if not today, if not next year, it will still come.

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Politics: Mukasey Confirmed

Senator Harkin
While Tom Harkin publicly rails against the confirmation of Mukasey as attorney-general, the four Democratic Presidential candidates who *can* do something about Mukasey - like ensuring the louse does not get confirmed - do squat.

Harkin said, according to a report in Raw Story:

"According to the last attorney general (Bush) was king, and maybe this one believes the same thing, he can do whatever he wants to," Harkin continued. "But even in 1215, the King of England was held to the standard of habeas corpus. I guess we want to turn the clock back to before the Magna Carta."

Raw Story has the video, for those who prefer to believe their own eyes and ears.

But Senator Harkin, why didn't you get on the phone and call Obama, Clinton, McCain, and others who have publicly spoken against the confirmation of Mukasey? Why didn't you ask them to show up and filibuster if necessary to keep Mukasey out?

According to Time Magazine,

Not voting were Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden of Delaware, Hillary Clinton of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Barack Obama of Illinois. All four had said they opposed Mukasey's nomination.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona also was absent, ... .

Republicans Lamar Alexander and John Cornyn were absent, but all other Republicans voted for Mukasey. Remember that if you have the slightest inkling of a conscience or respect for human rights or antipathy to torture.

These Democrats also voted for Mukasey:

Besides Schumer and Feinstein, Democrats voting to confirm Mukasey were: Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Of the Senate's two independents, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted for confirmation and Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted against.

Of course the LIEberwhore voted for Mukasey. He thinks that torture is something that is only done to Jews or white people. Everybody else can just join him in gobbling the Chimperor's knob.

Bunch of pathetic, spineless, hateful bastards.

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Politics: Senate Reconsidering Telecoms Immunity

The Senate Judiciary Committee is reviewing the FISA bill that grants retroactive immunity to the telecoms companies that allowed the Misadministration to spy on Americans without a warrant, Raw Story reports. However, the Committee has not yet clearly stated that they will strike down the retroactive immunity provisions, so we can relax and assume that they're weaseling as usual and will give the Chimperor everything he wants, including the right to physically rip our guts out before our loving families' eyes, if he requests it.

The Judiciary Committee meets today to consider the bill.

Senators on the panel will only consider one-third of the bill today, delaying consideration of the retroactive immunity provision for at least a week, a Judiciary Committee spokeswoman said.

[...]

National Journal's CongressDaily, a subscription-only newsletter, reports that a key Democrat on the committee may now be wavering in her support for immunity.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who sits on the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, said she is re-evaluating her support for retroactive legal immunity. She voted to approve it as part of the Intelligence Committee bill. "I did support [immunity] in the intel bill and I'm giving it further thought," she said. (Republican Sen. Arlen)Specter said he does not know if there will be enough votes on the Judiciary Committee to strip the immunity provision.

Keep the pressure up on Di-Fi, folks. Her behaviour in confirming racist judge Leslie Southwick and professional frog-impersonater Mukasey, and her stance on this bill have been utterly disgraceful. She needs to hear from her constituents.

As for Specter:

On Wednesday, he proposed a compromise in which the government would become the defendant in lawsuits aimed at the telecoms.

“I think it’s very important that the courthouse not be closed so there can be a judicial determination to see if there have been any violations of privacy rights,” Specter told The Hill. “I think the telephone companies were good citizens, and should not suffer from what they did. And my idea is to have the government substituted as the party.”

All he's really saying is, let the taxpayer who has been illegally spied on now pay any damages resulting from lawsuits against the telecoms who participated in the illegal spying.

Talk about sticking it to the people! Arlen, you're a schmuck. Step down. Isn't there a decent progressive somewhere in Pennsylvania, someone who will respect the rights of the people and the Constitution, who will run for this putz's seat?

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Roll Call Vote on FISA

You can go here if you want to see if your senator or representative was spineless.

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