The FISA Bill has more than a few bad things buried inside. Kill this Bill and start all over!
The FISA bill---now resting comfortably in a shoebox in Harry Reid's office---contains an odd section (#110 to be precise) that redefines the meaning of "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Said Mcjoan last week:
I wonder how many Senators blithely casting their lot with this bill realize that they're redefining warfare.
There's every chance that the immunity provisions in the bill are unconstitutional. But Congress doesn't know because no Judiciary Committee hearings were held to vet that portion of the bill. Nor were any Defense Committee hearings held to vet this WMD provision.
That's what happens when the oversight muscle of Congress becomes so atrophied. They don't even conduct oversight of themselves. And they don't know what they're voting for.
This is troubling to say the least. So in the interest of shedding light on other components of the FISA bill that have nothing to do with FISA, I tore into the guts of it over the weekend. Here's what else I found:
And the other rule is that Obama has to check his spine at the door. Check.
flashcard
· 1 year ago
The same media sat on their hands while the Republicans disrespected Purple Heart recipients by wearing band ads.
lilybart
· 1 year ago
NEW RULE: No DEM should ever serve in the military because it is not respected. If you are a liberal, then you couldn't have served honorably. I think this is what the media believes.
1billinnj2
· 1 year ago
good morning everyone. remember to call your senator and demand that they vote against the FISA BILL. thanks and have a nice day.
michaelt
· 1 year ago
i was pretty flippant yesterday about mccain's war record. i'd like to take this time to apologize.
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
What war record?
It was 20 minutes, wasn't it?
He crashed a bunch of planes in training, crashed in the jungle, got captured, end of Mr. McCain's war.
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
As I understand it, though, FISA just stops civil prosecution, not criminal prosecution.
CHICAGO - Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.
Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday at Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio. The arm of Central Presbyterian Church operates a food bank, provides clothes, has a youth ministry and provides other services in its impoverished community.
For me this changes everything. I have no interest in pissing money into Christian charities so they can teach abstinence and creationism. Churches and ministries currently enjoy tax free status even though many of them roll in money taken from the poor and needy. If that is the best Obama can come up with to reach the right wing nuts then he has lost me. I will not vote for him.
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Ughh.
OK, I'm having problems with this.
I mean, I know in the old days, the churches did all the soup kitchens, orphanages, aid to the poor and sick, salvation army stuff, etc., but that was before the Fundies turned the religious charities into a political arm of the American Taliban.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
That's the final straw for me too, now. And him "distancing himself from Clark." Get you some fundies who have bashed me my entire life. Fucking sell out asshole. No way I will vote for him now. Hillary was better than this shit.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
I always said the the Murkin people deserve McShrub. I plan to give them him now...
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
Along with Obama's support of the FISA bill and others that seem inimical to his positions state earlier, I'm tired of his pandering for reactionary votes. Progressives got him this far and he should leave the dance with the one who brung him...
He certainly could come up with more progressive solutions--if he doesn't, I'm finished with him as well. This may be the first time I write in Minnie Mouse...
lynchie
· 1 year ago
O&W: i agree, I have been very vocal in my support of Obama, however this trend in the last 3 days makes me wonder who is running his campaign now. If his progressive talk was just that talk, then my friends we have been duped. My tax money should not be given to organizations who market only the Christian view. I see few churches do anything but start a building fund with their revenue. There have been countless issues with missing money and regulating where the money is used and by whom would be a nightmare. This scares me.
vickif
· 1 year ago
I am so disgusted right now. First Obama caves to those who say he isn't patriotic enough because he isn't wearing a flag pin, then says Wes Clark should'nt have critized McShame, now he wants to expand faith based initives. I wanted Edwards but only voted for Obama because Edwards backed out before SuperTuesday. Now Obama is sounding as bad as the repugs. I'm from Illinois and voted for Obama for theSenate. That I won't take back because Alan Keyes would have been much worse.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, in a major speech on patriotism, criticized MoveOn.org for referring to Gen. David Petraeus as General Betray Us last year. The Illinois senator said politics too often seems “trapped in old, threadbare arguments” that he called “caricatures of left and right.” The Democrat argued that “given the enormous challenges that lie before us, we can no longer afford these sorts of divisions.”
This comment which was not necessary at all. Let people stand on what they say. His quick move to the right and coupled with the move to give more money to christian groups makes me wonder whether he really is as Liberal as we thought, or at least as i thought. Makes me wonder is all.
lilybart
· 1 year ago
Pointing out actual facts is not allowed either, because as we all know, the facts have a liberal bias.
He's old. Be nice to grandpa.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Obama rejects Wesley Clark's comments about McCain.
Sure enough, just as I was about to publish this blog post, I got an email from Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."
So much for Vice President Clark.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
I back Clark 100% on his comments which the media have distorted, of course. Somebody needs to expose McBush, and this "unity" meme coming from the Obama camp is getting disgustingly pervasive. We don't need Rethugs...they don't need Obama's "protection" either.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
i guess the joke is on us. Maybe I am getting way ahead of myself but it seems he is like the rest tell everyone what they want to hear. The pandering to protect McCain by condemning people who have supported him is a bad trait. I don't want any more resurrection of Christiofascist movements. We have had enough of the right manipulating the stream of tax money into their grasp. i am supposing that Obama has never heard of the separation of Church and State, his support of the FISA bill was also shocking and a total reversal of his earlier stand. Guess that is why in my view all politicians are suspect in their honesty. If he has in fact shown his true leanings then he will quickly become at best a one term President. He needs to stand up and support the left, we got him where he is and now he seems to want to go nice, nice to the extreme.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
There is no way I will vote for Obama now and the fundies. I will preform my religious rites although I'm exhausted at this point but see to it that McCain is the next president. That's what the deeply dumb here deserve. Said it all along.
Rufus
· 1 year ago
So Obama is pandering to the right for votes he really doesn't need -- guess a landslide wasn't going to be enough for him. Can I get my contributions back? Disgusting.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
I will not vote for Obama now. Where the fuck is tlwraith?
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Oh well.
Last night I followed Kos' example, and gave to a couple congressional candidates and the congressional and senate campaign funds but didn't give anything to Obama.
Guess I made a good decision.
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
It looks like Obama is gun-shy after sticking by Jeremiah Wright. Now, he can't move quickly enough to denounce his own allies. So he's cross at Wes Clark, and he's mighty cross at MoveOn as well! Who else will he be cross with as he kicks off "Operation Piss Off the People Supporting and Bankrolling His Campaign In Order To Prove He Hates the Dirty Fucking Hippies". Now that the primary is over, he can turn his back on the people that brought him.
I was going to max out to him today, given I haven't given Obama a dime yet (focusing on congressional candidates). But I changed my mind. He wants to send the message that he doesn't need us, all the power to him. Message received. I'll spend that $2,300 somewhere else.
I have no intention of EVER MAKING NICE with the fundie creeps. NEVER!!
Indigo
· 1 year ago
Good morning! Visualize an Obama win and the reorganization the main stream media would have to endure in order to feel comfortable in a liberal White House and you will see . . . a racist media so frightened they don't know where to turn.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
I did alot for Obama to see him get the nomination. It's alot easier to undo that the same way. Go ahead on and pander, asshole.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
For another poster, it was 6/20 when Obama lost him. It's now 7/1 for me. I'm not going to do anything but stand away from this. I can intuit already it's not going to be alright. Just like I said all along, get prepared folks...
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
I will write in Edwards.
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
You write in Edwards I will write in Ron Paul.
Bobby
· 1 year ago
Obama's a phony and a sell-out. I'm so glad I never sent him my money.
John Edwards was the real deal.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
40 years ago, during the Vietnam conflict, I was convinced that anyone who ran for office had to support "the system" no matter how corrupt. And even though I continued to believe it, I thought there just might be hope this time.
I get so goddamned tired of not following my own instincts sometimes.
jr
· 1 year ago
only in America can a guy who left his wife after she was in an accident be the victim
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
Did your husband leave you for a wealthy younger woman? It is all you ever post? Just asking...
kiki
· 1 year ago
FYI While I was out the other night, I ran into someone who was in the service and just got back from Iraq. He was leaving for "IRAN" early that night. I asked him what he was going to do over there and he said he couldn't tell me. It's all true what Hersh is saying and Bush has escalated the secret war inside Iran.
dBa
· 1 year ago
If he creates any office with the words 'Faith-Based' in it (IF he wins the Presidency) , I'll just continue the next 4 years like I have the last 8 - pretending America doesn't have a President.
Fortunately, I can sit out the vote knowing my state will go to McSame. It's Carlinesque, but at least I won't have myself to blame.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
I can't stand the lies coming from these Bush regime surrogates on CSPAN about marijuana...gateway drug, my ass. I've been smoking for 40 years and there have been years I didn't indulge...can put it down any time, don't smoke every day (although I do smoke cigarettes).
So tell me, you Bush drug geniuses, do you indulge in alcohol? Something else I seldom use...but which, like tobacco is legal, but far more deadly than marijuana.
shanobama
· 1 year ago
The Bush failure in Afghanistan has caused a surge in Heroin in America. It is an epidemic now, and for the youth who are really struggling in this economy a real trap. Another thing we will have to clean up and pay for from the Bush years.
As for marijuana, sigh, I cant believe our generation is still fighting the drug war against this plant. Industrial hemp could solve many problems in America, including paper production and bio fuels.
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
I get medical marijuana for my wife at a place called 420 L street in Downtown Sacramento. I have been photographed many times. When I go down today to fill my wifes script I am thinking of giving them some cookies if they are still there. The stuff I get for her is called Earthquake. It alone has made it so she can keep her pounds up. And her spirits as well.
lauren1959
· 1 year ago
Ideology alone does not get you elected. Kuchinich's was the closest candidate to me philosophically and we all saw how well his campaign made out. One of the things I admire about Obama is that his approach to this campaign is much more logical and even handed than I could ever be. Staying at home, writing people in, and the other such strategies is how we got eight years of Bush. If you're content to spend another four sitting at home complaining (or blogging) then go for it, but as far as I'm concerned that makes you MORE responsible than the people who really agree with McCain...you know better. If those of us to the left are ever going to make any progress, we have to learn how to listen and to argue without arrogance. We can say something entirely accurate and supportable, but if in doing so we minimalize our opponent we are doomed to failure. Progress is better than railing....
shanobama
· 1 year ago
Great post lauren. I feel the same way. If progressives can sit at home or throw their vote away on a write-in candidate after what we have been through the past 8 years then they are more responsible than the people who support McBush.
Besides, I just want to see every cracker racist and religiously intolerant bigot in America keel over when we put a half black guy into the Oval office. That alone will make it soooooooo satisfying.
dBa
· 1 year ago
"Besides, I just want to see every cracker racist and religiously intolerant bigot in America keel over when we put a half black guy into the Oval office."
Great, another reason not to vote for Obama. I didn't vote for bush so I could have a beer with him and I'm certainly not going to vote for Obama to pop the veins of racists.
dBa
· 1 year ago
I can't be responsible for having two candidates, both of which are for faith-based initiatives and neither of whom will fight against telecom immunity. So don't call me 'more responsible' after people like you have given us a choice between wrong and wronger. Give me some candidates worth a vote, instead of these two pandering posers.
I'll vote third party before either one of these two...just so people like you will think I'll have a reason to complain, hows that?
McSame never had my vote, and Obama lost mine this morning, so, I'm officially looking for someone to vote for....give me some ideas Lauren, so I can have the luxury of complaining for the next 4 years.
Butch1
· 1 year ago
" Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs . . ."
What happened to the Obama who ran for the nomination? This new version wants to continue Bush's Faith Based Programs to win the Ultra-right leaning Christian fringe. He has also said that hiring and firing could be based on one's faith. I wish he would stick to going forward and not to continue Bush and his thinly disguised religious money give away trough to keep them voting for him. This is not good. Who are the ones advising Obama? This has to stop. One can't please everyone especially the religious right, they will always find something more to complain about.
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
I don't want to sound like a dick but, I said this would happen...
KansasModerate
· 1 year ago
Joe, don't you value your integrity and credibility?
I don't recall that you ever complained once -- not even a teeny weeny bit -- when the overwhelming majority of the MSM refused to question, challenge or vet Barack Obama unless forced into a corner (such as with Reverend Wright). With Newsweek and NBC/MSNBC leading the way, most of the MSM operated as a giant propaganda machine for Obama while trashing Senator Clinton at every turn.
All Comments
could it be more same?
The FISA bill---now resting comfortably in a shoebox in Harry Reid's office---contains an odd section (#110 to be precise) that redefines the meaning of "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Said Mcjoan last week:
I wonder how many Senators blithely casting their lot with this bill realize that they're redefining warfare.
There's every chance that the immunity provisions in the bill are unconstitutional. But Congress doesn't know because no Judiciary Committee hearings were held to vet that portion of the bill. Nor were any Defense Committee hearings held to vet this WMD provision.
That's what happens when the oversight muscle of Congress becomes so atrophied. They don't even conduct oversight of themselves. And they don't know what they're voting for.
This is troubling to say the least. So in the interest of shedding light on other components of the FISA bill that have nothing to do with FISA, I tore into the guts of it over the weekend. Here's what else I found:
http://www.dailykos.com/
thanks and have a nice day.
It was 20 minutes, wasn't it?
He crashed a bunch of planes in training, crashed in the jungle, got captured, end of Mr. McCain's war.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_el_pr...
CHICAGO - Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.
Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday at Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio. The arm of Central Presbyterian Church operates a food bank, provides clothes, has a youth ministry and provides other services in its impoverished community.
For me this changes everything. I have no interest in pissing money into Christian charities so they can teach abstinence and creationism. Churches and ministries currently enjoy tax free status even though many of them roll in money taken from the poor and needy. If that is the best Obama can come up with to reach the right wing nuts then he has lost me. I will not vote for him.
OK, I'm having problems with this.
I mean, I know in the old days, the churches did all the soup kitchens, orphanages, aid to the poor and sick, salvation army stuff, etc., but that was before the Fundies turned the religious charities into a political arm of the American Taliban.
He certainly could come up with more progressive solutions--if he doesn't, I'm finished with him as well. This may be the first time I write in Minnie Mouse...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/30/obama-...
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, in a major speech on patriotism, criticized MoveOn.org for referring to Gen. David Petraeus as General Betray Us last year.
The Illinois senator said politics too often seems “trapped in old, threadbare arguments” that he called “caricatures of left and right.” The Democrat argued that “given the enormous challenges that lie before us, we can no longer afford these sorts of divisions.”
This comment which was not necessary at all. Let people stand on what they say. His quick move to the right and coupled with the move to give more money to christian groups makes me wonder whether he really is as Liberal as we thought, or at least as i thought. Makes me wonder is all.
He's old. Be nice to grandpa.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/06/obam...
Sure enough, just as I was about to publish this blog post, I got an email from Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."
So much for Vice President Clark.
Last night I followed Kos' example, and gave to a couple congressional candidates and the congressional and senate campaign funds but didn't give anything to Obama.
Guess I made a good decision.
I was going to max out to him today, given I haven't given Obama a dime yet (focusing on congressional candidates). But I changed my mind. He wants to send the message that he doesn't need us, all the power to him. Message received. I'll spend that $2,300 somewhere else.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/30/205...
John Edwards was the real deal.
I get so goddamned tired of not following my own instincts sometimes.
It is all you ever post?
Just asking...
While I was out the other night, I ran into someone who was in the service and just got back from Iraq. He was leaving for "IRAN" early that night. I asked him what he was going to do over there and he said he couldn't tell me. It's all true what Hersh is saying and Bush has escalated the secret war inside Iran.
Fortunately, I can sit out the vote knowing my state will go to McSame. It's Carlinesque, but at least I won't have myself to blame.
So tell me, you Bush drug geniuses, do you indulge in alcohol? Something else I seldom use...but which, like tobacco is legal, but far more deadly than marijuana.
As for marijuana, sigh, I cant believe our generation is still fighting the drug war against this plant. Industrial hemp could solve many problems in America, including paper production and bio fuels.
The stuff I get for her is called Earthquake. It alone has made it so she can keep her pounds up. And her spirits as well.
Besides, I just want to see every cracker racist and religiously intolerant bigot in America keel over when we put a half black guy into the Oval office. That alone will make it soooooooo satisfying.
Great, another reason not to vote for Obama. I didn't vote for bush so I could have a beer with him and I'm certainly not going to vote for Obama to pop the veins of racists.
I'll vote third party before either one of these two...just so people like you will think I'll have a reason to complain, hows that?
McSame never had my vote, and Obama lost mine this morning, so, I'm officially looking for someone to vote for....give me some ideas Lauren, so I can have the luxury of complaining for the next 4 years.
What happened to the Obama who ran for the nomination? This new version wants to continue Bush's Faith Based Programs to win the Ultra-right leaning Christian fringe. He has also said that hiring and firing could be based on one's faith. I wish he would stick to going forward and not to continue Bush and his thinly disguised religious money give away trough to keep them voting for him. This is not good. Who are the ones advising Obama? This has to stop. One can't please everyone especially the religious right, they will always find something more to complain about.
I don't recall that you ever complained once -- not even a teeny weeny bit -- when the overwhelming majority of the MSM refused to question, challenge or vet Barack Obama unless forced into a corner (such as with Reverend Wright). With Newsweek and NBC/MSNBC leading the way, most of the MSM operated as a giant propaganda machine for Obama while trashing Senator Clinton at every turn.