Congratulations to the Democratic leadership of the House and to presidential nominee Barack Obama. You’ve just succeeded in sapping all the enthusiasm out of the activist base. We’ll be organizing for this fight in the Senate. There are now 105 members of the House that are potential targets for well-funded primary opponents and/or advertising campaigns in their districts that will drive up their negatives. Maybe some of those 105 can take comfort in their safety in numbers. But not all. A lot of Democrats just disgraced themselves, dishonored the Constitution, legalized lawbreaking, and treated our privacy rights like some card that can be traded away. The fury of the Netroots is at a near all-time high at just the point in time when you need us to gear up for a realigning election. You’re all geniuses.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
They’re all cowards.
Is this thread rendering weird for you?
No. What is it doing for you?
yes. too far left. (physically speaking.)
in firefox & safari
Ugh. I hate trying to figure these things out. Something strange just happened.
if its any help, I’m on a mac running OS X 10.5. I’m also making Man Egee’s off-the-cuff al-pastor marinade and my eyes hurt from de-seeding the peppers.
working fine in safari in osx4.11
uh oh! i hope you’re wearing gloves.
Yes, I wore gloves as you had advised. Thank you for caring. And now its boiling away.
BTW, Chile Ancho is called Chile Pasilla out here.
mmmmm, just thinking about it is making me hungry.
Yeah, they sometimes go by different names, just to add some fun to everyone’s life. I’ve seen some labeled poblano, too. I usually do the sniff test and pick the ones that I think would taste the best 🙂
I just went with the recipe as is: no improv.
The guajillo and california chiles were in the bulk bins, but the ancho/pasillas I had to get pre-packaged.
how did everything come out?
Working fine for me in firefox.
Sorry it’s screwed up for you guys.
Are you seeing Mr. Frog in the upper left hand corner? Last time this happened to me Firefox had just taken an update to my filter set and was blocking any image whose URL contained the letter “A”. I kid you not.
Anyway the reason everything shifts to the left is because the frog graphic isn’t there, and the position of the text seems to be relative to the frog graphic.
Steve, this is an awful day, but it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t help to say “they’re all” anything. I remember hearing a phone call to the Thom Hartmann show where a Chomskyite argued that because FDR had been the Secretary of the Navy at one point and there was the Japanese internment during WWII that FDR was the moral equivalent of Mussoline and Hitler. I’m sure that most people during the forties could tell the difference.
Obama has voted against immunity, has spoken out against it. He has counted noses. Hoyer had the victory. Right now Obama’s politcal power is mostly potential. Why lose a battle in public that he already lost in private?
Because that’s what leaders are called upon to do.
In other words, you’re saying, “Whaaaaaaaaa!!!!”
It’s hot here today. Why won’t Obama make global warming stop? Hell, I’m voting for Nader now.
That has to be the most asinine comment I’ve seen here in many months.
Actually, it was spot on.
First of all, this analogy is bullshit because it’s based on an asinine wingnut construction; that because it’s hot (or cold) for one day it proves or disproves global warming. That’s the first problem with Bob’s slur.
The second problem is that of course Obama has more control over how the Democratic party in the United States votes on a particular bill than he would in stopping global climate change. It’s obvious to all but the most obtuse Obama partisan that this is not a fair comparison.
The reason you think this illogical slur is “spot on” is because you mindlessly support Obama. He just took a huge piss all over the Constitution and you’re running around trying to spin it in his favor; talking about how Obama had to piss on the Constitution and it’s actually a good thing, because Obama piss is magical, or something.
You’re better off not defending Obama because the facts are the facts are the facts . . . and you can’t spin Obama’s failure to lead.
Perfect analogy. Thanks.
So you think stopping global warming is just as hard as standing up publicly for a principle. I guess the Dem party isn’t the only disappointment of the day.
That’s a terrible analogy. It is illogical.
Does Obama have the ability to stop global warming if he uses his pretty voice? No.
Does Obama have the ability to put pressure on his caucus and use his voice as the most impotrant Dem to to encourage them to stand up for the constitution? Maybe. I don’t know but it is sure a lot more likely that Obama could stop this bill than Obama could “declare” an end to global warming.
You Obama partisans are grasping at straws as your credibility is demolished from your blind support of this fraud of a Constitutional scholar.
It’s a bit unseemly for the Obama partisans to be “whining” about how their savior is being unfairly maligned. It makes the partisans look like babes born yesterday that have no understanding of Washington. Do you really believe that Obama tried to stop this but couldn’t? You’ve swallowed way too much Kool Aid if you believe that whopper. Oh, and Steny Hoyer and Reid and Pelosi didn’t want to do it either, it just happened.
I’m very much an Obama partisan (or was, not entirely sure anymore). That doesn’t change the fact that he ain’t looking to change much of anything as far as anyone can tell, so far. And he needs to be called on that before his base ends up voting for Bob Barr.
Why did Obama film a spot for the Georgia traitor? He didn’t have to do that. Sure, maybe Hoyer won and Obama lost (according to your HYPOTHETICAL) but Obama doesn’t have to actively help Hoyer humiliate him.
And if Obama lost a private battle then he is stupid to sit quiet right now. If he believes in protecting the 4th Amendment what does that say if he will sit quietly when.
Is this how Obama will rule? Will he let Steny Hoyer own his ass as president?
He also could have spoken up. It wouldn’t be losing if he shares his disagreement with Hoyer publicly. Presumably, Obama will vote against this next week. As you say Obama has already made his position known so what does he have to lose by coming out against this? He’s already against it, according to you.
Obama chose not to lead. He actually chose to slightly help the opponents of the 4th Amendment.
So give me a break with the Obama apologies.
He clearly made a calculated decision which you seem to agree with. You think there is something to be gained by caving in on this. What? What would happen if Obama really fought this and Hoyer won anyway?
Perhaps it is time to change your signature?
Here’s the rollcall vote.
Where did your representative come down on this thing?
Damn it. Patrick Murphy just screwed up. This is the first time he’s let me down and it’s a big one.
My new representative, Jackie Speier was on the right side. Hooray.
I’m actually kind of surprised to see all the south bay reps (Lofgren, Honda and mine is Eshoo) on the right side, they’re usually very corporate.
Jerry McNerney won in ’06 with a LOT of out-of-district progressive money and volunteers, and he’s pissing on us big time with this.
I heard McNerney at a union-sponsored lunch. Talked good then. He’s got some splainin to do.
He just got the goodbye look from me.
mark udall: yea…so my calls and e/m’s were to no avail.
not totally unexpected but that’s not going to be well received up here.
as for the senate, salazar and allard are both hopeless causes. both will vote aye, bet on it.
No surprise, but my Congressman, Raúl Grijalva, did good. So did Ed Pastor. The two freshmen Dems from AZ – Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords – voted with the GOP.
Oh good. My rep’s (Inslee) staffer wasn’t kidding when he said I wasn’t the only one calling about this.
voted NO.
I called him and thanked him.
He’s pretty moderate, and votes pro-life, but he did the right thing today.
I gave him money, $50 or so. He defeated some republican. Ever since then, he votes republican.
Fuck him. No more money for any of these pieces of shit.
Mine is a Colorado Springs evangelical nut. He voted as expected (for it). Then there are the two “progressive” Congressmen, Perlmutter and Udall, who voted for it as did John Salazar who is as weak as his brother, Ken.
So far he’s always on the side of the Good Guys. But I think thanking the ‘good guys’ is a waste of time. This bill wouldn’t have passed if the Democratic leadership (even those who voted against it) didn’t want it to pass. It wouldn’t have come out of the rules committee the way it did, there would have been more procedural hurdles etc. So thinking that only the bad guys who voted no on this are to blame is misguided thinking.
Now it will go to the Senate and ‘just enough’ Democrats are going to vote for it. The rest will vote no and then say ‘well, don’t blame us’.
It’s a farce.
Personally I don’t think Obama has the actual power to stop this but that doesn’t excuse him from not trying. If it ends up that he does stop it – that will be choreographed too.
Congress. One big kabuki theater.
The Supreme Court will have the last word on this. Seriously, look for this FISA sellout to be reversed just as they did last week with the Military Commissions Act that had eviscerated habeas corpus.
This FISA deal is bad law. Even Nixon did not go this far. Bad law because it nullifies, retroactively, illegal acts. Baaad precedent that usurps the Fourth Amendment.
First, so far most lawsuits involving warrantless wiretapping have been thrown out for lack of standing – the person can’t PROVE they were wiretapped illegally and therefore damaged. You can’t get to the Supreme Court if you don’t have standing. And the Roberts court (including Kennedy) loves to put up standing roadblocks.
Second, it will take years to get to a conclusion with the courts. Even a negative conclusion.
There is one ray of hope. Marty Lederman did posit a theory yesterday that a portion of this statute could be unconstitutional under an old post civil war era separation of powers case in which the court held that Congress can’t force a decision on a court. The telcom immunity section of this statute orders a court to dismiss a case if certain paperwork is filed. It doesn’t take away a cause of action (which is constitutional) but it orders the court to take an action.
the detainees did not have standing, huh?
The Military Commissions Act did not take years.
Also this is a larger issue…it won’t be on standing but on the law being retroactive and unconstitutional:
(a) The fourth Amendment.
(b) The issue of Congress passing a retroactive law granting immunity to illegal acts because the president said those acts were legal. This is a retroactive law, plain as daylight.
I had no idea you were a lawyer. What state do you practice in?
I think there was at least one case where the standing issue wasn’t an issue because the government had inadvertently disclosed they had wiretapped the plaintiffs. However, I have no clue how the courts will vote on this law, and it will take at least a year to get to the Supreme Court, since a or more District Courts and then at least one Court of Appeals must rule on the law. And then it all depends on which way Kennedy flips.
That’s right. There was one case where the person actually knew and had proof that they had been wiretapped.
Didn’t the appellate court still find a way to get rid of it based on state secrets though? I wish I could remember the name of that case.
But you are right. Relying on the SC to overturn something means years of waiting. Perhaps until there is a division in the circuits. And Kennedy is the unknown factor. I’d rather get the law correct from the start than rely on courts.
Thanks for the link to the roll call vote. I was shocked and sickened to see that my Congresswoman, Nancy Boyda, voted YES on this unconstitutional piece of garbage. I called her office this morning and left a message urging her to vote no, and since she’d voted against telecom immunity in the past I thought that she’d do the right thing. Well, she didn’t and some poor kid who answered the phone just got an earful from me. I was so pissed off that I probably wasn’t making very much sense, but I made sure to stress to him that Congresswoman Boyda is no better than a republican and she’d lost my vote this November.
I hate to use george bush’s trite generalities, but here it fits — You’re either with us or you’re against us, and EVERYBODY who voted yes on this bill (and Pelosi, who allowed it to come to a vote) is against America. They’re un-American and need to get voted out of office.
I haven’t been this angry for a long, long time.
speaks for me. I love her and think she should run for President.
Patrick Murphy is in SO much trouble right now.
Fucking Joe Sestak voted for this piece of treasonous shite.
He’s dead to me now.
Take names. If the primary is over, find out if there is a Green Party candidate that people can get behind.
primary long over. Hardly any greens around here. He does have a pretty boy rethug challenger.
I want his name taken off Act Blue which raised by far the largest part of his money.
I’m mad.
Both Pat and Joe will get the full treatment on Monday morning. Just you wait.
Last time I targeted someone this bad it was Bob Casey’s office, and when I read them what was going out they literally begged me not to send it. I believe it was also FISA related, and Senator Casey has stood strong on our rights ever since.
I like to think I helped with that conversion.
Perhaps you should pass his phone number along to Brendan…
I really try to keep believing that Nader was wrong, and there is a difference. I have more sympathy now for what creationists must go through to still the voice of reason. At the moment, I don’t give a shit anymore what happens in November. A few good people really don’t make a difference against a huge majority of venal, craven assholes like Hoyer, Pelosi and the rest of the 105. Screw ’em all and wait for the civil war.
voted YES on this piece of shit.
Sestak. Murphy. I gave money to these assholes.
The new slogan for the Democrats: “Bawk-bawk-bakawwww”.
heh…
clik to enlarge
Sorry in advance. I’m not following politics all that closely these days. But can someone tell me if the Senate still needs to approve this. Is this a done deal yet? Or can we still rally and stop this?
As the “news” media unanimously agrees, “The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week”.
So instead of impeaching the felon-in-chief for clear violations of the law, and holding the corporations who went along for the ride responsible, we’re just going to let them go for past discretions and give them more room to violate our rights in the future. Now that’s an opposition party. Wow.
Maybe in the ’90s the opposition party could have passed a law forgiving oral sex in the oval office, and some type of expansion so that everyone should get one. But no, they impeached and tried Clinton.
This Democratic party in Congress is really ridiculous.
It’s a done deal. There were not enough votes to stop a filibuster last time. Probably won’t be this time either. It doesn’t help when the Dem leadership is doing its best to get the bill passed either.
Clearly, the Dem leadership decided to lead on this . .. . lead Dems toward Bush and Cheney’s bill.
Maybe someone will try to send the bill to the judiciary to consider its constitutionality, but I don’t see that happening.
Maybe there is some other procedure . . . I don’t know.
But clearly the Dem leadership, including Obama, are willing to let Bush defile the constitution yet more. They are actively covering up Bush’s crimes. It’s a horrible abdication of their constitutional responsibility.
The Dems have not a shred of credibility left.
bought and sold to the highest bidder.
No Incumbents in ’08.
makes me wonder about responding to the DCCC e-mail i recently recieved. now 105 reasons not to send them money