He should reflect on his comments on Fox today:

And I think if Joe came before the caucus and said look, if I said some things that came as offensive, I’m sorry, but they were, you know heartfelt in my support of John McCain. I think we had to just let bygones be bygones. We’re going to need him on healthcare and energy independence and education and a whole lot of other things.
…
I think everybody understands that supporting your friend [McCain] is perfectly legitimate … [W]e should have a spirit of forgiveness with regard to Joe Lieberman and reconcile and move forward.
…
[W]e’re going to prove that there is a place for Democrats who are strong on national security in the Democratic Party.

And Lieberman’s comments to Fox’s Glenn Beck yesterday:

BECK: But do you agree that Senator Hatch said to me that if we don’t at least have the firewall of the filibuster in the Senate that in many ways America will not survive?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I hope it’s not like that, but I fear.
…
LIEBERMAN: And I think the filibuster is the key. You know, it gets a bad name, but it was really put there, a 60-vote requirement, to, as somebody said to me when I first came to the Senate, stop the passions of a moment among the people of America from sweeping across the Congress, the House, through the Senate, to a like-minded President and having us do things that will change America for a long time. So the filibuster is one of the important protections we have.

Does that sound like a repentant, pro-Democratic Party Joe Lieberman to you, Sen. Bayh? A guy who says 60 Democrats in the Senate could destroy America?

Progressives took Indiana this year, Senator. You might want to check your rearview mirror to see if there’s a Ned Lamont coming up to pass you on the left in 2010.

h/t think progress

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Back in 1998, J. and I started collecting state quarters for our son L.; it seemed fortuitous that the state quarter program had begun the year of his birth, and that he would have long since taken over the collecting himself by the time he turned ten and the last of the state quarters - Hawaii - was about to be released.

Time flies, and here we are ten years later, with L. eagerly awaiting the coin that will complete his collection.

It seems to me very appropriate that the series, nominally undertaken for state pride and tourism but truly just a cheap and relatively painless way to knock $6 to $8 billion off the deficit, should begin under a Democratic president and end under a Democratic president-elect, with the last state represented being his birthplace.

The state motto of Hawaii is Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono: “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”

I am ever the cynic, but still I am hopeful that, under an Obama administration and with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, we might begin to reclaim that ideal for the country as a whole.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Or is he just stupid?

From economist Dean Baker:

It is not that anything about the current economic situation can plausibly lead to ten years of double-digit unemployment. However, we are seeing views expressed by otherwise serious people that could in fact give us the sort of prolonged stagnation that we saw in the Great Depression.

Advocating spending cuts and/or tax increases in the wake of the downturn that we are now seeing make about as much sense for the economy as nuking Silicon Valley. If the advocates of such nuttiness get their way, then a Great Depression type downturn may be on the agenda.

McCain in last week’s debate:

I believe that we have to eliminate the earmarks. And sometimes those projects, not — not the overhead projector that Senator Obama asked for, but some of them that are really good projects, will have — will have to be eliminated, as well.

And they’ll have to undergo the same scrutiny that all projects should in competition with others.

So we’re going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America. And I recommend a spending freeze that — except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we’ll just have to have across-the-board freeze.

Yeah, when unemployment goes through the roof and the economy is on the skids, pull more money out of it. That’ll help.

But, you ask, with a trillion dollar deficit and $11 trillion national debt, how can we ever afford to pay for reinvestment in our infrastructure and the creation of new industries and jobs, as we’ll need to to rebuild the U.S. economy?

Peter DeFazio has the right idea with his Rebuild America Tax: put a 10% surtax on all income of more than $1,000,000 for couples and $500,000 for individuals. This would allow the folks who’ve made the most out of the Bush tax cuts to give back to their country in its time of need. We could even sunset the surtax after a decade, giving it a nice symmetry with the Bush tax cuts’ planned expiration (unless McCain gets his way and makes them permanent, as he insanely still wants to do - he really doesn’t know anything about economics, does he?)

Anyway, ten years should be just enough time to get the economy back on its feet - or it would be, if we get at least two terms under a strong Democratic president with workable majorities in the House and Senate.

And while we’re building this new economy of ours, what a great opportunity to look at all parts of it anew: health care, banking and securities regulation, corporate personhood and responsibility.

Just as it’s taken the worst economic disaster in 80 years to get this country to, just maybe, look beyond race in a Presidential election, perhaps now is the moment for real progressive change.

That’s the kind of change we can believe in. Right, Senator Obama?

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

In light of Ohio 2004 & Florida 2000, why don’t the Dems propose a simple, one line law that requires all voting precincts in all states to preserve election ballots for two years? If we have to do it for the IRS, why not make election officials?

I don’t post often on election fraud because frankly it’s just too depressing. But I may have to submit to the truth I can’t handle by reading this book:

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Things I wish the Obama campaign would put together in an ad:

• A 2-lb. block of sharp cheddar cheese at my neighborhood WinCo: $9.49.

• The four brand new Lotus automobiles, 1 Ferrari and 1 convertible Masserati I have begun to see on my suburban commute each morning.

• A Pentagon budget of almost half a TRILLION dollars per year.

• Three years after Katrina - a 400-year storm - New Orleans only has protection against a 30-year storm, despite the fact that we are in a period of increased hurricane activity:

And increased storm intensity:

And ocean current patterns which have made New Orleans more of a target:

• Eight years after the election of the first MBA president:

- Oil has gone from $25/barrel to $140/barrel

- 37 U.S. banks have failed - on par the the Great Depression

- Home sales have fallen to the lowest level since the Great Depression

- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns have all required government bailouts

- The country has the greatest negative savings rate since the Great Depression

- real income has dropped by an average of $6,000/year while productivity has continued to rise

- According to the AFL-CIO’s 2007 study:

During the past 12 months, overall total compensation of the highest-paid executive increased 20.5 percent while revenues increased 2.8 percent… As of February 2008, the average top executive received overall total compensation of $18,813,697, according to the study. In comparison, the median pay for workers rose only 3.5 percent to $36,140 in 2007, from $34,892 the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There is no question that average people in this country are hurting badly. We are spending all of our money on a bloated military so we can remain the biggest dick on the block - and failing at that - while hunger, joblessness and homelessness skyrocket at home.

The fact that Obama and McCain are only a point or two apart in polling shows the absolute failure of the Democrats and the Obama campaign to come out fighting.

Yes, the media are on bended knee to John McCain - and we’re about to see Charlie Gibson go hat-in-hand to Wasilla to ask Sarah Palin what her favorite color is and when, exactly, she knew she was destined for greatness.

And yes, the liberal blogosphere is doing its best to counter it: but we’re largely talking to ourselves.

If the Dems and Obama don’t get out there NOW, and for every one of the next 56 days, with ads on the TV - not YouTube - blasting McCain and the deadly, decadent policies of the Republicans over the last 8 years, not only will Obama lose, but we will have to live through another 4 or 8 or even 12 years of a government for, by and of the corporations.

I don’t want my son to be drafted into Sarah Palin’s Christopathic war machine when he turns 18 in 2016.

We had better cut the crap, stop playing nice, and knee-cap these sons of bitches. NOW.

Because our civility is no match for their ruthlessness. Joe Biden yesterday:

MR. BROKAW: You and I were just watching Sarah Palin…

SEN. BIDEN: Yeah.

MR. BROKAW: …with that very impressive introductory appearance that she made…

SEN. BIDEN: Yeah.

MR. BROKAW: …at the Republican National Convention. And when she used that line, being a mayor is like being a community organizer except you have actual responsibilities, you said, “Pretty good line.”

SEN. BIDEN: Yeah, it was a great line.

MR. BROKAW: She had a number of good lines.

SEN. BIDEN: She had a number of good ones. Look, she’s a smart, tough politician, and so I, I think she’s going to be very formidable.

Remember this, Joe:

Failure at some point in everyone’s life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable… When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, [my mother] sent me back out and demanded that I bloody their nose so I could walk down that street the next day.

Enough of this Senatorial comity. Go bloody their noses.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Evidently AP is looking to interview women who were Hillary supporters who are now going to vote for McCain because he picked Sarah Palin as his VP.

Because I believe many of the PUMAs truly are Republicans in Democratic clothing, I will be emailing to let the AP know why I, as a woman, would never vote for Sarah Palin.

If you would like to do the same, contact Megan Scott at mkscott@ap.org or call 212-621-7357.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Former Hillary Clinton volunteer Carol Anderson of Vancouver, who is attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver, made New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s snarky political column Wednesday with her less-than-charitable observations about Barack and Michelle Obama.

Anderson stood in the back of the room at a meeting of the Democratic Women’s Caucus wearing a Hillary T-shirt, a hat signed by the New York senator, and a “Nobama” button, Dowd wrote. She booed, Dowd said, every time a speaker mentioned Obama’s name.

“She’s voting for (Republican John) McCain and had nothing nice to say about the Obamas,” Dowd wrote. “What about the kids, I asked. ‘Adorable,’ she agreed.

Well, I said, Michelle raised them.”

“‘I think her mother does,’” Anderson shot back, adding, ‘I wonder if Michelle would give the Queen one of her little knuckle punches?’”

I was among those who believed that the “PUMAs” voting for McCain were truly Republicans at heart, and so jumping off the Democratic bandwagon wasn’t a big deal for them. But I’ve been proven wrong: Ms. Anderson has been a Democratic activist (and Hillary fan) for more than a decade. This makes her switch to McCain even more bizarre than her bitchiness about Michelle Obama.

I believe Ms. Anderson was one of the two women who came over to the Obama side during our county Democratic convention to convince us to switch to Hillary. It was her that I had in mind when I wrote this:

Obama’s voters are looking toward Obama as a standard bearer, as a point man for the change they want to see in the country. Hillary’s supporters, at least the older women among them, are voting for their surrogate: because they want to see a woman in the Oval Office before they die, and because they themselves were denied so many opportunities for advancement in their own lives.

You could see it in the eyes of the supporters who came over to the Obama side to try and win converts, that fragile hopefulness that verges on pleading. Can’t you see it’s our last chance?

I do not doubt that they also desperately believe in Hillary Clinton, but their investment in her goes much deeper than politics. Hillary Clinton is proof that they had it in them all along, the fire, talent and creativity, and they could have been leaders but for the glass ceiling that seemed to rise only inches a decade.
…
What we Dems on the Obama side need to do in the meantime is to let these Hillary voters know how much we respect their accomplishments, and understand their need to see one of their own make it to the top.

If only the hard-core Hillary supporters like Ms. Anderson could return the favor.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

1 Comments

• At August 28, 2008, bushtool wrote:

  I know from attending the 2004 convention that what is reported by the news media is completely different than what is actually happening at the convention. Generally speaking, we do not have news "reporters" anymore, we have news "creators".

  After attending the convention, I'd go back to watch the coverage by CNN at my hotel and wonder what convention those reporters were actually attending, because it wasn't the one I had just left.

  The media wants it to be all about Hillary and her hurt fans rather than about Obama because that creates controversy and helps McCain.

  Steve Stuart's comment about the Hillary thing being overblown in the same Columbian article I am sure is very accurate.

  Wish that Bill and Hillary would disappear from politics completely but that is not in the cards unfortunately. I think the thing to do if you really dislike Obama and really adore Hillary is to not vote like half the country does anyway. To vote for McCain is really self-destructive.

Yes, Joe Biden has the brain and mouth to take on whoever McCain picks as VP (and to slap down this year’s swift boaters), and no, VPs don’t make policy, but if anything could telegraph Obama’s essential centrism, Biden’s the guy.

Some of Joe’s greatest hits:

On his support for the Iraq War vote:

I will vote for this because we should be compelling Iraq to make good on its obligations to the United Nations. Because while Iraq’s illegal weapons of mass destruction program do not–do not–pose an imminent threat to our national security, in my view, they will, if left unfettered.
…
I also take confidence from how far this administration has come on Iraq over the past year. Many in this Chamber predicted, and many who oppose this resolution predicted, that the administration would use the terrible events of September 11 as an excuse to strike back at Iraq. This, despite any credible evidence that Iraq was involved in the terrorist attacks on America.
…
Thank God for Colin Powell. Thank God for Colin Powell because that was the other half being argued by the administration quietly, saying: Mr. President, do not listen to those voices who counsel “no inspectors and do not go back to the U.N.”

[T]he President said this week that the use of force in Iraq is neither “imminent nor inevitable,” and that makes sense because while the threat from Iraq is real and growing, its imminence and inevitability in terms of America’s security have been exaggerated.
…
I believe it is unlikely Saddam Hussein will use weapons of mass destruction against us unless he is attacked. To do so would invite immediate annihilation, and I am skeptical that he would become a supplier to terrorist groups.

So you voted for the war resolution because Saddam, unfettered, was a threat to the U.S., but unlikely to use his weapons against the U.S.? And trusting our soldiers and the Iraqis to the tender mercies of Bush and Colin Powell? That’s some stellar foreign policy judgment right there.

Biden joined the Thomas Friedman caucus first in Fall 2005:

I think we have to stay for the next six months in order to see whether they make the compromises necessary.

But the difference between Jack Murtha and me, he thinks it’s the bottom of the ninth, and we’re at the bottom of our order and we’re losing. I think it’s the bottom of the eighth, we’ve still have a 50/50 chance if we make some serious changes.

And again in February 2006 (pdf):

The next six months will help to determine whether Iraq comes together or falls apart, and whether our mission is a success or a failure.

Regarding his support for the bankruptcy bill:

Consumer advocates say that Senator Biden was one of the first Democratic leaders to support the bankruptcy bill, and he voted for it four times — in 1998, 2000, 2001 and in March 2005, when its final version passed the Senate by a vote of 74 to 25.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer group that opposed the bill, said that Senator Biden had provided a “veneer of bipartisanship” that eventually helped the credit card companies win over other Democrats. “He provided cover to other Democrats to do what the credit industry was urging them to do,” Mr. Plunkett said.

On filibustering the Alito nomination:

No. I think that a filibuster is not likely to bear any fruit here. We already have four Democrats who’ve announced they’re going to vote for Judge Alito. That gets it down to a pretty slim majority.

I think we should make fulsome statements as to why — in my case, why I think Judge Alito should not go on the bench. He gives much too much power to the presidency, thinks the president can go to war without the consent of Congress, et cetera.

But a filibuster, I think, is not likely to occur. But who knows? One man can generate a filibuster.

But not you, right, Joe?

On Obama:

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

I’m not sure we could have expected better now, but I had higher hopes than this in January.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

A letter to the editor in The Columbian today:

Can we afford change?

President Bush has been in office for approximately 7½ years. During the first six years of his presidency the economy was fine. Consumer confidence stood at a 2½-year high; regular gasoline sold for approximately $2.19 a gallon; the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent; the Dow Jones hit a record high at 14,000 plus; Americans were buying new cars, taking cruises, and generally living large.

However, Americans wanted change. So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and we received our “change.” Consumer confidence has plummeted; gasoline is approximately $4 a gallon; unemployment is up to 5 percent; home equities have dropped by $12 trillion; 1 percent of American homes are in foreclosure and the Dow is probing another low.

Now we have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic presidential candidate who claims he will give us additional changes. Can we really afford more changes?

Might agree with the author if there was any connection whatsoever between the cause and the effect.   You can live like you’re rich.  uy a fancy car and go on cruiseseven if you can’t afford them.  But eventually the piper must get paid.  It is not someone else’s fault that you exceeded your lifestyle.  The same logic applies with regard to our government’s actions.   Guess the author thinks that just saying there is a connection between unrelated events makes it so.

What about things like deficit spending, corporate deregulation, environmental and infrastructure degradation, illegal war and occupation, erosion of civil liberties, no healthcare for 45 million Americans and failure to regulate the mortgage markets for starters?  These things had nothing whatsoever to do with  “Consumer confidence has plummeted; gasoline is approximately $4 a gallon; unemployment is up to 5 percent; home equities have dropped by $12 trillion; 1 percent of American homes are in foreclosure and the Dow is probing another low”, right?

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Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

I had no idea we were going to be voting on precinct committee officers in the primary.

If you haven’t voted yet, and you are in the 100th precinct, would you consider writing me in?

I’m J.P. Thompson:

I’ve wanted to get more involved anyway, but the idea that Mike Heywood could be PCO indefinitely is what has me doing this now. If you know Mike, he has a somewhat grating personality, and I know that he has driven me - and others I have spoken to - away from Dem. Party events with his social insensibility. He is also not a good organizer or manager. (Mike, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry, but it’s true.)

I have attended the precinct and county caucuses and have voted in every election since moving to Clark County. I’ve spoken up for my candidate every time. I’ve canvassed my precinct on my own with cards I printed explaining the caucus system, date and time in order to get out the vote.

So, if for some reason you’ve been as busy as I have and haven’t gotten to your ballot until now, please give it some thought. I know it’s a longshot, but I have to start sometime, and there’s no time like the present.

Thanks.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

4 Comments

• At August 20, 2008, Pat Campbell wrote:

  Heywood's old truck bumper sticker said it all for me...

• At August 20, 2008, bushtool wrote:

  Pat,

  What did it say?

• At August 22, 2008, Pat Campbell wrote:

  I'm not going there, but you might check it out to see if the sticker is still there.

• At August 22, 2008, bushtool wrote:

  gotcha

This roll call is bullshit. Can you imagine what Bill and the PUMAs would say if Hillary was the nominee and Obama asked for a voice vote at the Convention?

“Not no, Fuck No. And fuck YOU.”

I say boilermakers all around, a toast to the first runner-up, and then on with the show.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Bill Gwatney, the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, was shot in his office in Little Rock Wednesday morning and died a few hours later, police officials said.

The officials said a single gunman fired three shots at Mr. Gwatney, a former state legislator, in the party’s headquarters a few blocks from the state Capitol and then drove away.

Mr. Gwatney was rushed to the medical center of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but a friend of the Gwatney family, who asked not to be identified, said doctors determined that his wounds were inoperable. He died several hours later, police officials confirmed.

The suspect, driving a Chevrolet pickup truck, was chased south for about 25 miles by police officers and was shot after he was stopped, said Lt. Terry Hastings of the Little Rock Police Department. The suspect was airlifted to a hospital and later died of his wounds.

The suspect was described as a white male in his 50s. About ten people were present in the party headquarters during the shooting. “The suspect turned and ran out the door,” Lieutenant Hastings said.

I wonder how many Sean Hannity and Michael Savage tomes they’ll find in the shooter’s hovel.

And how many more Democrats will be attacked by those who’ve succumbed to the siren’s song of GOP blame for what is wrong with their lives: It’s the gays. It’s the blacks. It’s the Muslims. It’s the liberals.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

1 Comments

• At August 13, 2008, me wrote:

  Deepest sympathy to the family of Bill Gwatney. Have we really come to this? A Unitarian Church gets shot up last week and now this? We should not jump to conclusions but have my paranoid fears of gun wielding republican white/straight supremacists shooting up the streets of America come to fruition? I often chide myself for being frightened when I drive by one of the many confederate flags around town. Perhaps the chiding is ill spent. There is that book, The Big Sort, about people moving to areas where they agree with everyone, and that it is not a good thing. Perhaps "the big sort" is a survival tactic.

Most of us that have been paying attention or that have been involved in the outright “undemocracy” of party politics want to change to a better political party system.  Rob Kall, over at OpEd News, says that two things must occur to fix party politics, namely instituting instant run-off voting and equal treatment for all parties (not just the R and D parties) by the states:

August 13, 2008

Cleaning the Two Party Garbage Out of the Drain To Make Room for the Cream of the Heart

By Rob Kall

It’s time for Independents, Democrats and Republicans to come to toghether, in agreement that the congress sucks, to demand equal treatment for third party candidates and instant runoff elections so citizens can vote for the candidates they really want and the lesser of two evil candidates they prefer to settle for.
My youngest, eighteen, is squeamish. I was cleaning garbage out of the sink drain this morning, part of doing the dishes that I’d let soak overnight, when I realized, my eighteen year-old would be averse to putting his hands into the dirty water.

“Not enough cleaning shit,” I thought, recalling the diapers I’d changed on my three kids.
And that’s how my mind wandered to to politics– how politicians have gotten so accustomed to “seeing sausage made,” the analogy so commonly used because watching sausage being made is pretty disgusting, and so are the regular dealings of politics.

…………………….

In my state, the punitive laws are so unjust, unequal and unfair that it is almost impossible for a third party candidate to run. And there’s no way that the people can put measures or propositions on the ballot, like in California. It’s a lousy system, rife with cronyism and good ol’ boy machine politics in both parties.

…………………….

I am ready to demand that all elections for office be done using instant run-off or some comparable approach that requires that an election come down to two people, with people being allowed to select their first, second, third and fourth choices, gradually eliminating the ones with the least votes– and all that can be done with paper back-ups for recounts and verification.

…………………….

The question is, how do we make it happen when the Democrats an the Republicans will both fight this? I don’t have an answer. If you don’t like Obama or McCain, and you’re considering throwing your vote away on a candidate who can’t win, you should, at least, in addition to complaining how both candidates suck, be woring your ass off doing all you can so that the next round, when you vote for a third party candidate, your vote will count. Fail to do that and it makes no sense to use your vote to send your message of dissatisfaction– political masturbation– fantasization that gives you brief relief.

All the third party orgs should be joining together, recruiting independents and huge percentage of Democrats and Republicans who are disgusted with congress and their parties, to build a big, strong movement that demands equal treatment for third parties and some form of instant runoff or similar voting that lets people vote for their most preferred candidates AND second and third choices. Get enough people behind this– there should be tens of millions– and the wisdom of the crowd and the power and momentum of the sheer mass of the people behind this movement will come up with the answers from the bottom up.

……………………….

They’ll have to keep their promises and pay a lot more attention to the people. We have the tools, through the net, through instant messaging and texting and all the new media to be much more effective at communicating with our legislators. There’s no reason why every issue facing congress and every state or local government could not be voted upon by the people, and counted by district, or the area any elected offial represents.

The two party system might have been a viable model when candidates travelled by horse drawn coach or train, when they used the postal service to communicate. But in today’s world, the two party system is fetid dinosaur that is, year after year, grinding away at the constitution, at democracy and the future of America. It’s time we the people rise up and come together– from the left and right– to replace it with something better.

What is wrong with having just two parties?  Here are just a few things off of the top of my head:

• Serves to maintain the status quo.
• Allows those already in power to maintain a stanglehold on their power.
• Limits the choices of the voter to those candidates who are pre-selected by the party officials.
• Allows campaign funds to be overly concentrated in the hands of those already in power.
• Squelches the ability of party outsiders to raise funds and get their message out.
• Forces voters to choose the lesser of two evils.

And I am sure you can come up with a lot more…

Dedicated to Rosy Malloy who has been volunteering tons of time to a party recently only to inevitably find out that having two parties sucks.

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Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

Your Department of Justice at work:

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Justice Department officials will not face prosecution for letting improper political considerations drive hirings of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

But, he told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, “not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws.”

Tell that to Don Siegelman.

The funniest bit:

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said more needs to be done to prevent political hiring at the agency. “Even if it is true they didn’t commit a crime, it would be appropriate to make what they did a misdemeanor so that in the future, those who violate the civil service laws cannot escape unscathed,” Schumer said in a statement.

Remember this, Chuck?

“While he is certainly conservative,” Mr. Schumer said, “Judge Mukasey seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House, our most important criteria. For sure we’d want to ascertain his approach on such important and sensitive issues as wiretapping and the appointment of U.S. attorneys, but he’s a lot better than some of the other names mentioned and he has the potential to become a consensus nominee.”

How’s that working out for all of us now, Sen. Schumer?

The Dems will never learn. You try to play ball with the GOP and they’ll bean you with it at the first opportunity.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver

August 8, 2008—this is the date for our Strangebedfellows MONEYBOMB on behalf of constitutional rights and civil liberties in America. Let’s remove from power the key enablers of the tyrannical and lawless FISA ‘compromise;’ we can end the Patriot Act—and so much more.
…
Strangebedfellows is a unique and diverse left–right coalition which has come together to put a stop to the eradication of civil liberties in America. Modeled on a similar group in Britain, the initial Strangebedfellows group … share the view that warrantless surveillance, telecom immunity and other such outrages of the lawless surveillance state MUST END—AND END NOW.
…
The force and power of a moneybomb is simple and straightforward. We all donate on the SAME DAY, and working together we send our political leaders (Democrat and Republican) a freedom message they will never forget. So help us make it work. Pledge today; then come back and donate on the 8th. Let’s show our leaders once and for all that there is a POWERFUL movement here that will settle for nothing less than constitutional governance in America.

Why August 8th?

That is the day in 1974 when Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office for his lawbreaking and surveillance abuses. That day illustrates how far we have fallen in this country in less than 35 years, as we now not only permit rampant presidential lawbreaking and a limitless surveillance state, but have a bipartisan political class that endorses it and even retroactively protects the lawbreakers.

Post from: Democracy for Vancouver