Snow responds to wiretapping subpoenas.

post from Think Progress on 28 June 2007 02:59:00 PM. © Think Progress

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas for documents related to the White House’s warrantless surveillance program. Today, White House spokesperson Tony Snow called the subpoena’s “outrageous” and alleged that Congress was kept “fully informed all along the route:” SNOW: [L]et’s just say it’s an outrageous request. What you have is a program that was [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/28/snow-responds-to-wiretapping-subpoenas/

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Midday Open Thread

post from Daily Kos on 28 June 2007 02:57:22 PM. © Daily Kos

Paul Hodes spoke to a group of students at a (rather dubious and wingnutty) journalism program recently. Asked to give advice to young voters, he said:

"Get involved. Stay involved. Work on campaigns. If you don't work on campaigns, make sure you vote," he told the youngsters.

"Read the newspapers. Read blogs. Watch television. Be involved with the news. Write your representatives."

And finally, Hodes told them, "Don't be discouraged. We often focus too much on the problems of this country. This is a great country." (emphasis added)

Not bad advice, and a sign of the respect blogs are earning.

Yes, it's a campaign tactic. But Chris Dodd's use of his YouTube spotlight is the kind of campaigning I personally want to see: He's asking people to lobby their senators to support the Dodd Amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, which would require redeployment from Iraq in 30 days, and then to YouTube videos of their interactions with their senators. He's basing his campaign pitch on his own action (the amendment) and on inviting interaction, all aimed at getting the US out of Iraq. That's leadership.

Street Prophets will record its millionth visitor sometime today.

Boy, I bet Susan Collins is glad she had Joe Lieberman raising money for her. Lieberman's fundraiser for Collins raised between $120,000 and $150,000. That's some significant money. Too bad for her that the netroots - MoveOn plus blogs - raised more like $250,000 for her Democratic opponent, Tom Allen. So she ends up more than $100,000 in the hole.

Follow up to Barb's Congressional pay raise post below: It's important to note that Congress is voting on this pay raise because they voted to deny themselves an earlier raise that would have come to them automatically. Democrats were not willing to accept a raise until the minimum wage was raised. Also:

Most members support the pay raise as a means of retaining experienced lawmakers and of making sure that Congress is not simply dominated by wealthy people.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/128730340/8286

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Federal Doolittle probe digging deeper.

post from Think Progress on 28 June 2007 02:48:00 PM. © Think Progress

“Federal prosecutors have recently contacted as many as a half dozen former aides to Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), seeking information from them in their investigation of the Roseville Republican’s association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” the Sacramento Bee reports.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/28/federal-doolittle-probe-digging-deeper/

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Rahm Emanuel: No Money for "Cheney Branch of
Government"

post from TPMmuckraker on 28 June 2007 02:47:08 PM. © TPMmuckraker

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) took a filleting knife to Vice President Dick Cheney's attempts to elide the Archives' Information Security Oversight Office on the House floor just now. Following through on...

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http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003558.php

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The Past Life of a Republican U.S. Senator

post from TalkLeft on 28 June 2007 02:40:00 PM. © TalkLeft

The picture above is of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)in 1969 when he was a student at Hofstra University. From his Wikipedia entry:

"He ran for student senate and opined in the school newspaper that his fellow students should vote for him because he knew that 'these conservative kids don't f*ck or get high like we do...

Fast forward to the present, and Sen. Coleman opposes the legalization of marijuana. In a recent form letter his office sent out he wrote:

"I oppose the legalization of marijuana because, as noted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, marijuana can have serious adverse health affects on individuals. The health problems that may occur from this highly addictive drug include short-term memory loss, anxiety, respiratory illness and a risk of lung cancer that far exceeds that of tobacco products. It would also make our transportation, schools and workplaces, just as examples, more dangerous."

Lawyer Norm Kent went to college with Coleman and now serves on the NORML Board of Directors. He fired off this response to Coleman, which is just great reading. While I will highlight below, I encourage you to read the whole thing.

The letter begins with a little reminiscing:

Years ago, in a lifetime far away, you did not oppose the legalization of marijuana. Years ago, in our dorm rooms at Hofstra University, you, me, Billy, your future brother-in-law, Ivan, Jonathan, Peter, Janet, Nancy and a wealth of other students smoked dope.

Sure, we had to tape the doors shut, burn incense and open the windows, but we got high, and yet we grew up okay, without the help of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's advice.

Kent notes the number of their classmates who went on to become doctors, lawyers and other professionals. He reminds Coleman of the time:

We smoked pot when we took over Weller Hall to protest administrative abuses of students' rights. You smoked pot as you stood on the roof of the University Senate protesting faculty exclusivity. As the President of the Student Senate in 1969, you condemned the raid by Nassau County police on our dormitories, busting scores of students for pot possession.

Kent goes on to discuss the irrationality of Coleman's current position. One of my favorite lines:

We have seen more people die last year from spinach then pot.

He goes on to chastise Coleman for being hypocritical and urges him to come out of the closet:

How about you looking back at your past and saying: "What I did was not so wrong and not so bad and not so hurtful that generations of Americans should still, decades later, be going to jail for smoking pot - nearly one million arrests for possession last year."

Can't Norm Coleman come out of the closet in 2007 and say "These arrests are wrong - that there is a better way, and we need to find it."

You might find more integrity and honor in that then adopting the sad and sorry policy of our Office of National Drug Control Policy. You might find the person you were.

As I said, a great letter. If you are a constituent of Sen. Coleman's, how about writing him and letting him know you agree with Norm Kent.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/128729207/085

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I Just Started Laughing...

post from The Newshoggers on 28 June 2007 02:40:00 PM. © The Newshoggers

by shamanic

when I heard reports of the latest SCOTUS assault on consumers. According to our esteemed conservative majority, there is less of a need today to prevent manufacturers from price fixing than there was a century ago, before "big box retailers" and decades of merger waves consolidated both ends of the manufacturer-to-retailer path to a select few companies.

I couldn't stop laughing. Of course they ruled in favor of corporate profits over consumer budgets. I know the justices don't shop at Wal-Mart, but a lot, and I mean a lot, of Americans do. If the manufacturers it purchases from can set higher prices at Wal-Mart's few major competitors, Wal-Mart gets to raise prices while still advertising "Always Low Prices. Always."

During the Sam Alito hearings, a conservative colleague at work insisted that if I believed that Alito was a competent attorney and judge, that was the only criteria he should be judged under. I disagreed, explaining my belief that it is appropriate to determine whether a SCOTUS nominee believes that corporations should have more rights than individuals. I still believe that. I wonder whether rising prices will make a dent on anything besides my colleague's wallet.

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http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-just-started-laughing.html

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Congress, Which Will It Be

post from Daily Kos on 28 June 2007 02:38:24 PM. © Daily Kos

On a day where the White House has declared themselves to be above the law, ignoring the power that Congress imagines they still have, there is some good news coming out of Washington:

...Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000.

So, what will be Congress' focus in the coming days? Ensuring that they get their cost of living raise, or deciding whether or not we are still a nation of laws?

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/128730341/9456

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Congress debates defunding Cheney.

Earlier today the House debated Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s (D-IL) amendment to restrict the $4.75 million budget for the Vice President’s Office. On the House floor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) sarcastically jabbed Cheney for violating “a number of rules, maxims, constitutional provisions,” while Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) argued that holding the vice president accountable would somehow [...]

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http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/28/congress-debates-defunding-cheney/

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Cheney: Can Anybody Lick This Dick

Things happened mighty fast. Let me see if I got the timeline straight.

On Sunday or Monday, Dick Cheney's office claimed it was exempt from national security disclosure requirements because as president of the Senate, the vice president of the United States is not a part of the executive branch.

Come Tuesday, House Democrats said, Okay, if you're not part of the executive branch, we'll strip funding for your office. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois), sponsor of the legislation, noted that five years ago Cheney claimed executive privilege when asked to reveal details of energy policy meetings Cheney held with his pals in big oil.

In a typical pot and kettle moment, Cheney's office accused the Democrats of playing partisan politics.

Sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, Cheney's office came out saying, Aw, shoot, yeah, we're part of the executive branch. Never mind what we said earlier.

Then, late Wednesday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee slapped the Office of the Vice President with subpoenas for documents relating to President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program. Cheney's people once again squealed "partisan politics" even though the subpoenas were supported by Republicans Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley and Arlen Specter.

My guess is that somewhere in the course of navigating all those rotating knives, Cheney and his folks figured it would be safer to stay under the executive umbrella. For all you hear about Cheney being the most powerful vice president in U.S. history, he really doesn't have jack for statutory privilege. The U.S. Constitution makes him president of the Senate. Period. He's not the number two commander in chief of the military, or anything else. Even his Senate job is pretty much of a joke. He only gets to vote in case of a tie, and that's the only time anybody expects him to show up. That's why the Constitution provides for a president pro-tempore of the Senate to do the actual work of running the legislative body's day-to-day business.

So if he's going to hide sins, he needs to hide them behind Mr. Bush's door. Whether Congress can huff and puff its way past that obstacle remains to be seen.

On Thursday, Mr. Bush's counsel Fred Fielding rejected congressional demands for documents relating to fired federal prosecutors. He also made it clear that former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor will not respond to subpoenas requiring their testimony.

Leahy's Judiciary Committee sent subpoenas seeking documents regarding the NSA to the White House and the Justice Department as well as to Cheney's office.

Dick Cheney has more lives than Freddy Krueger. How many times before this have we thought he was on his last one? Cheney has so many defensive layers of subordinates, claims of privileges, and legal arguments he can probably ride out this subpoena business until the next Republican president pardons him. The guy has committed enough sins to run for Satan and win by a landslide, but don't expect him to ever pay a price for them in this life.

But is it worth harassing him to the maximum extent possible? You bet it is. Dick Cheney is still the high priest of the administration's neoconservative "crazies in the basement." Every moment Dick spends covering his six is a moment he doesn't focus on driving U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and every moment we can keep Cheney's hands off of U.S. policy is a good moment for America.

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Read his commentaries at Pen and Sword.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=17522

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This is Almost Sad

by shamanic

In the same week that a major news organization revealed the extent to which George Bush has merely been a placeholder for his own VP, he loses his final chance to have something other than 9/11 and Iraq as his legacy.

This video at TPM is a little painful to watch. And it's harder still to know that we're stuck with this wasted, beaten, burnt out man as the nominal leader of our nation for nearly a year and a half.

Read The Full Article:
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/this-is-almost-sad.html

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