The Garlic

Friday, June 27, 2008

This Date ... On The Garlic

27 June 2007... On The Garlic

Send In The Clowns ... It's Wednesday And All Good Things Must End ... Cheneypalooza! ... ' Leaving No Tracks'

Top Ten Cloves: Suprising Revelations, So Far, In Released, Declassified CIA Files

27 June 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard During Abu Ghraib Prisoner Release Today

27 June 2005... On The Garlic

Bush Presses Iraqi Leader On Statehood; Not Giving Up But Action Needed If Iraq To Become 51st State

Major Cities Waste No Time In Taking Court Ruling To Action; Acres Seized In Land Grab, Some Say Biggest Since West Was Settled In 1800's

Katie Holmes Career In Jeopardy; First Sciencetology, Now Must Study Psychiatry

Top Ten Cloves: Other Places and Events The Denver Three Are Barred From Entering

Thursday, June 26, 2008

I hope, that journalists around the world, are on their toes, tonight, and over the next few days.

Especially those stationed, and working, in Iraq, Guantanamo, Poland, Thailand, and wherever the Bush Grindhouse is keeping detainees, and/or has secret prisons.

More specifically, in the desolate areas, out-of-way locations, forests, etc.

And that they have cameras.

It would be poetically (and, sadly) ironic, if they caught sight of details in U.S. Soldiers, maybe MP's or CIA-types, arriving, with picks, shovels and body bags, and they began unearthing, well ... something ...

Courtesy of TPMMuckraker;

"But then it was Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) turn to ask questions. And he went toe to toe with Yoo, the former DOJ attorney and torture-memo author extraordinaire:

Conyers: Could the President order a suspect buried alive?

Yoo: Uh, Mr. Chairman, I don't think I've ever given advice that the President could order someone buried alive. . .

Conyers: I didn't ask you if you ever gave him advice. I asked you thought the President could order a suspect buried alive.

Yoo: Well Chairman, my view right now is that I don't think a President . . . no American President would ever have to order that or feel it necessary to order that.

Conyers: I think we understand the games that are being played."

Here's the video on it;

Conyers and Yoo: "The Games That Are Being Played"

Considering the track record of these NeoNitwits, why shouldn't we think that they haven't already done this? ... That it was "authorized" and "legal" ... Just another tool in the bag of "Enhanced Interrogation".

Bonus Yoo Yammering

Marty Lederman: John Yoo Testimony

Steve Benen: It depends on what you mean by, ‘Unitary Theory of the Executive’

Dan Froomkin: 20 Questions for David Addington - A proposed script for the vice president's chief of staff

Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power

Yoo Hooey

We Looked In the DIY Section, But Bob Vila Didn't Have A Handbook On It ...

This Date ... On The Garlic

26 June 2007... On The Garlic

It's Tuesday And It's Still A Cheneypalooza! ... ' A Strong Push From Backstage'

Run For Your Lives ... Ann Coulter Alert!

26 June 2006... On The Garlic

Bin Laden, In New Video, Joins Bush In Slamming New York Times; Laments Lost Donations Over Lateness Of Banking Records Story; “First Our Phones, Now Our ATM’s”

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Roger Ailes and Fox News Plans On Ending Its’ Ratings Slump

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Top Ten Cloves: Other Ways Ralph Nader Could Have Made News Today

News Item: Nader: Obama 'talking white'

10. Get his wife to steal recipes off the Internet

9. At the end of campaign commercial, say he "didn't approve this ad" and charge there's a new conspiracy against him

8. Stage a One-Man protest at the White House, demanding President open up email from the EPA

7. Make a big fuss with McCain, and Charlie Black, and say if terrorist attacked U.S. again, his campaign will get the advantage

6. Go for the YouTube hit-of-the-day - Have Ron Paul supporters chase him through parking lot

5. Green-Screen Norm Coleman's wife into Nader campaign ads

4. Unveil new funding plan - He's going to roll up his sleeves and get working to win that McCain $300-Million Battery Prize

3. Lay claim that he is the "arrogantly cool guy at the country club" Karl Rove was talking about

2. Bombshell! ...They've talked, and Hillary will run as his VP!

1. Announce he's found a new calling - He wants to be an Ice Road Trucker!

Bonus Nader Riffs

Rocky Mountain News: Partial transcript of Ralph Nader's comments

Steve M. - No More Mister Nice Blog: RALPH NADER, GODFATHER OF SOUL

Blue Girl: Would someone give Mr. Nader a nice bowl of pudding and show him where he can take a nap?

Ralph Nader ... On The Garlic

Good Post Alert: Letter to Mesopotamia

Not an unheard of situation, but rare, as Barry Crimmins has a guest writer on his site this week.

John Joslin, Unemployed American Electrician from Detroit (who is rumored to be the designated tradesman that will turn off the lights on the Motor City when it does, finally, shut down), pens a most sincere, and cleverly amusing, note to the Iraqi War Orphans.

Letter to Mesopotamia

We can't risk cutting off the money for your war and take a chance on having all hell break loose where you are. For one thing, none of our soldiers in your country has a proper round- trip ticket to get back home. They would have to stay there if the money runs out. This way, by getting the war bill passed, we will have enough money to keep all the soldiers in your country for at least another 6-months. Guaranteed.

I am looking forward to the $362 bucks per week I'll be pulling down once this war paperwork is taken care of. To put it in perspective -- that's equal to one year's worth of income for the average household in Fallujah. That's near you, right? ( Hey, don't forget, stuff is expensive here in America. It's another world, kiddo ! )

Check it out, it's a good read

And, while your over there on Barry's site...

The Garlic has been remiss in posting that Al Giordano has moved his on-the-money blog, The Field, away Rural Votes, to his own site, NarcoNews. You'll want to bookmark it and check in regularly on The Field - It is MUST READING for this election season.

Barry has two posts - Here and Here - with all the dramatic details of the relocation (and they were dramatic)

Oh yeah ... How on-the-money is Giordano?

Check this out and see for yourselves... It scary, it's so on-target ...

This Date ... On The Garlic

25 June 2007... On The Garlic

Bong Hits 4 Roberts

It's Monday, And The Cheneypalooza Is Rolling On! ... ' Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power'

25 June 2006... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Poll Results - Our First Dead-Heat! ... The Garlic's Weekly Poll: With Karl Rove’s theme of Cut-and-Run for the GOP’s Fall Mid-Term Elections, what Rove really means is ...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hey, Hoyer (and Pelosi) ... Politico ... Suck On This!

How is it, exactly, "speaking volumes", being a "master of cloakroom politics who can use his friendships across the aisle to strike deals" to simply cave-in and give the Bush Grindhouse what it wants, like the FISA Bill they gift wrapped last week?

If you read the Politico (I assumed, as I begin reading, that the artice was written by the one who always drops to his kness, Mike Allen, but, alas, it is not), and the hummer they give to Stench Hoyer today, you'll think the slime ball just saved the world, or something

And Stench Hoyer is thinking pretty high of himself;

In an interview with Politico on Monday, Hoyer called the FISA legislation a “significant victory” for the Democratic Party — one that neutralized an issue Republicans might have been able to use against Democrats in November while still, in his view, protecting the civil liberties of American citizens.

Hoyer said that House Democrats succeeded in dialing back some of the provisions contained in the earlier, Senate-passed version of the FISA legislation. While the Senate bill provided retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program, Hoyer noted that the House version mandates judicial review of the companies’ actions. Legal experts and congressional opponents argue that such review will ultimately be meaningless.

[Make a note - send dictionary to Stench Hoyer, with Post-It tag on page defining "significant"]

The legendary football coach Paul Brown used to tell his players that, when they got to the end zone, "act like you've been there before".

What would he ever make of Stench Hoyer (and the table-less Nancy Pelosi), taking victory laps - after giving away the store!

Just astounding, that they would go out and brag about their caving in.

I'll repeat here something I wrote the other day;

Considering they beat back the bill the last time they had it, with the recent Supreme Court decision to restore Habaes Corpus to detainees, and, let's throw in the overwhelming majority of American citizens against Illegal Wiretapping, and Immunity for the crony Telecom companies that conducted it, why on earth did they not stand tall, and emphatically reemphasize the LAME in Lame Duck President?

And, if you think I'm being to harsh ...

Digby;

Do read the whole Politico article, which doesn't bother to spend even one paragraph describing why people were opposed to the bill. For that matter it doesn't bother to tell us why the other side was so adamant that it get passed either. The fact that it wasn't some typical congressional agenda item which might naturally be "horse traded" but rather a matter of fundamental constitutional principle, isn't worth mentioning. Even the fact that the whole thing stinks to high heaven of financial corruption gets no mention.

This one is sweeter than most because he managed to capitulate to the congressional minority and the most unpopular president in history on an issue of fundamental constitutional principle which contained little political risk to uphold. A truly bravura performance. In fact, it's worthy of a lifetime achievement award.

Glenn Greenwald;

In other words, Democrats achieved a "significant victory" because -- by giving Republicans everything they demanded -- Republicans are no longer able to criticize Democrats on this issue. What a shrewd strategy: "if we comply with all their demands, then they can't criticize us for anything." That's the Democratic Party's plan for winning, according to Hoyer.

Regarding Pelosi's claim that the Democrats won "significant concessions" -- a claim repeated by Hoyer in the Politico article -- Ponnuru says: "If that's what they want to tell themselves, fine. It sure looks like they got rolled." It looks that way because that's what happened. Who exactly do Pelosi and Hoyer think they're fooling with these self-glorifying claims that they stood down the Republicans and extracted concessions?

The Congressional Leadership of Stench Hoyer, and the table-challenged Nancy Pelosi, is bankrupt, and devoid of principles.

Like so many - and most in, or attached to, the Bush Grindhouse - that has turned their backs on the Constitution, so has this dynamic duo, and they compound their sins by urging their membership to follow their lead.

They continue to be The Blank Check Club.

But wait, while she lives in a world, sans tables, Pelosi found something to rest her gumption on;

Pelosi Welcomes Filibuster of the House FISA Surrender Bill

Did they not send out the PR?

Was last week, the one time, once-per-year, the House is not allowed to debate a bill?

Did some mysterious vapor overcome Hoyer and Pelosi, causing them to forget all the arcane rules that they could have delayed, tabled, or otherwise, killed this bill off?

Since they've been throwing confetti on themselves, what happens if the Senate does manage to beat this bill back?

How can they celebrate the Senate saving our Civil Liberties, when they, themselves, advocated, lobbied and voted against them?

This strategy, of caving into the Bush Grindhouse, and minority Republicans, as some sort of election strategy should fast-track them, zoom them, up to the top of the Darwin Awards (presumably, Pelosi will find a table to place the award on).

And, if the Senate doesn't beat the FISA Bill back this week, they can sit in the same clown bus as Hoyer and Pelosi, who, undoubtedly, will be patting each other on the back, for the great job, for their "significant victories" - as the bus drives over the cliff.

Bonus Links

Comments from Left Field - Hoyer and Pelosi To Their Base: You Should Thank Us for Screwing You

John Amato: Hoyer’s Conservative Capitulation Lifetime Award

Jane Hamsher: FISA: Call Your Wobbly FISA Senator

Bonus, Late-Breaking Update

Dodd And Feingold Will Filibuster Telecom Immunity

Amy Goodman: “One of the Greatest Intrusions, Potentially, on the Rights of Americans Protected Under the 4th Amendment”–Sen. Feingold Blasts Telecom Spy Bill

Think Progress: Reid to co-sponsor effort to strip retroactive immunity from FISA bill. (Updated)

Mike Lillis - Washington Independent: Telecom Donations Tied to FISA Vote; Supporters of the Spying Bill Received Twice the Contributions as Those Against It

Bet On The Bug Shit

What, no S&H Green Stamps with it?

No set of steak knives?

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain put on his Dr. Emmett Brown lab coat yesterday and firmly aligned his possible presidency with Monty Hall, and "Let's Make A Deal", offering a $300-million prize for someone to develop a battery for electric and/or hybrid cars.

Man, you knew that McCain has always been low rent, but a carny?

Is he planning on replacing the Rose Garden with a Midway?

VP Choice? ... No problem, it's gotta be the Bearded Lady!

More on McCain's $300M battery prize

In a speech today at Fresno State University in California, the Republican presidential candidate outlined his proposal for a $300 million prize for new technology that would be 30% cheaper than current batteries and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars." He did not offer any technical specifics.

McCain called the taxpayer-funded prize — $1 for every man, woman and child — "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency."

"Step right up here ... Only one-dollar ... One, American greenback ... Step right up here ... You sir, you look like you could develop a battery ... Only one-dollar ... One-dollar gets you $300-Million ... I like those chances! ... Step right up here ... Build a battery and win a prize ... Step right up here ..."

I don't know about you, but I'm bettin' on the Bug Shit ...

Bonus Riffs

Matthew Yglesias: Prize Patrol

SF Chronicle: McCain keeps driving the energy issue

Wonkette: WALNUTS! To Give You $300 Million For Inventing Some Fancy Thing!

Matthew Yglesias: Prize Patrol

Yeah, Karl, We Certainly Know The Type

Obama is "coolly arrogant"?

At a breakfast with "Republican insiders" Monday morning, ABC News reports, Rove said of Obama: "Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette, that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

Yes, Karl, and you watched, didn't you ... You stared ...

And it burned you, didn't it.

Maybe, helping them with their homework, their tests, only to see them lip-locked with Joe Jock after school.

Or going to your prom, stag, sitting at the geek table, with all the other little dateless geeks.

But now, years later, your at the club, watching "him" ... Again ...

Being the doughy, spectacled geek, living in someone else's shadow, downing shots of hard liquor, bitterly making cutting, angry comments, from the other side of the room, at the family's legacy table, your perch, on everyone else in the room - especially the Muffys and the Biffs - smug in self-praise, that your bile musings are the vindication that you won, you came out on top, not them, so take that all you cheerleaders, all you football heroes ...

Even Margaret Spellings thought he was a bowser;

Spellings paused, then said: "Have you met Karl Rove?

"He was so inept and so inartful," she added. "I mean, I couldn't even understand."

Hmmm ... Not exactly martini-and-beautiful-date suave, I would say.

Well, there's always the solid gold cock ring to fall back on ...

Bonus Rove

Rove / Nixon (Karl hits at the 3:55 mark)

John Cole: Country Clubfoot In The Mouth

Steve Benen: Rove picks the wrong metaphor to slam Obama

Jeff Fecke: Everybody Knows That Guy!

Kyle E. Moore: The Name Game

Karl Rove, Living In An Etch-A-Sketch Kind of World

Forget The Green-Screen, Why Show Him Throwing Out Garbage?

I caught this link, to Crook and Liars, out of the corner of my eye and had to investigate.

Was Norm Coleman’s wife green-screened into this ad?

And it links to this - "Coleman campaign green-screening the spouse?"

Lighting and reflections are one issue, but they were issues when we landed on the moon too. However, check out the angle in that shot -- it looks like Mrs. Coleman is either embedded into the counter, or wasn't actually in this shot, especially when you consider that the height difference between the two isn't that big

Watch the video, it's rather hysterical.

The green-screen thing is bad enough, but why on earth would they have Coleman opening up a trash can and throwing away a bag of garbage?

How many punchlines can you get out of that?

Throwing away his career ... Auditioning for his next gig ... He should have jumped in, and the garbage bag approve the commercial ...

A head-shaker, all around ...

This Date ... On The Garlic

24 June 2006... On The Garlic

More Cheneypalooza! 'A Different Understanding With the President'

24 June, 2005... On The Garlic

High Court Approves Bush's 'Clean City Act'; 5-4 Decision Paves Way for Govt. Cherry-Picking Eminent Domain Properties

Frist Distances Himself From Gitmo MD's; Ethical Issues Reveled; Frist Says He's Never Made Exam or Viewed Tape

Top Ten Cloves: Other Different Philosophies, According to White House PR Man Scott McClellan, That Karl Rove Has

Monday, June 23, 2008

What's Next ... An "Ek-A-Lec-Tic" Reading List?

My, My, My ...

If you had to go through brain freeze, to come up with something that would top the news on the day that George Carlin dies ...

Ta-Da! ... Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain comes riding in ....

Or, in fairness, we should say, his staff.

First, a random image (perhaps while in the throes of that brain freeze);

Stumblin' Bumblin' John, in the Senate with his colleague, Ted Stevens, kicking it around, snickering at some young staffers, how the two of them have mastered all those "Internet Tubes" ...

This precious SB John moment comes via one his his aides, Mark Soohoo, at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York.

From Ben Smith's "The Google";

Pressed again on McCain's tech savvy, he defends his candidate.

"You don’t actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country," he says.

"You actually do," former Edwards blogger Tracy Russo responds, suggesting he try to explain Twitter to his grandmother and then ask her how that applies to governing.

"John McCain is aware of the Internet," says Soohoo. "This is a man who has a very long history of understanding on a range of issues."

"Is aware of the Internet"

Priceless!

This goes some way in explaining his wife's recipe thievery.

We can only speculate, that McCain thinks that she, or someone, just ripped'em out of those "Internet Tubes" as they whizzed through Arizona.

We know that The Commander Guy uses "The Google".

So, does that indicate Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain still has a ways to go?

He may be "aware of the Internet", but is he hip to "The Google"?

If we extend this out, to the differences between his campaign, and Barack Obama's, we may have to lean towards the direction that SB John is a "The Yahoo" man.

What's Next ... An "Ek-A-Lec-Tic" Reading List?

Is Aware of Bonus Links

Cernig: John McCain Is Aware Of All Internet Traditions

Jane Hamsher: If You Can’t Use a Computer, How Can You Be President?

No Intel Inside

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things, Besides The Internet, That John McCain May Be Aware Of

News Item: This Is Nice To Know

10. Pretty sure you need to look both ways before crossing the street

9. You mean it's not a requirement to be Vice President that you have to know how to do an Exorcism?

8. Vaguely aware of not to eat yellow snow

7. Has heard you should wait an hour after eating before going swimming

6. It was a Beach Boys song, I'm certain of that ...

5. There are 50 states, right?

4. Those aren't Cindy's own family recipes?

3. After using the restroom, Lavos Sus Manos!

2. Yeah, Yeah ... There's the Sunni and Shi’ia thing ...

1. There are electric can openers now?

RIP George Carlin ... And Start The Investigation

I believe we need an immediate investigation.

Yes, conspiracy.

George Carlin dead, at the beginning of the biggest, most important election in decades?

Before the Summer TV Reality shows?

Before gasoline goes over $5/gallon?

A mere coincidence?

Strap on your tinfoil hats and here's where to start.

What was the eighth word you can't say on television doing last evening? ... Does it have a alibi? ... You might as well round-up the ninth and tenth words as well ... This would have been too big a job for just the eighth word to pull off by itself ...

It's long been rumored that they were jealous, even bitter, that Carlin didn't include them.

And, you have to look at any other words that may have been acting suspicious lately.

This has to be a pretty big operation, so, maybe, the words had some help.

Better haul in the Multiplication Tables, and Periodic Charts, for grilling, as well.

This is big!

Links

George Carlin Website

Barry Crimmins: George Carlin

Brilliant at Breakfast: Oh, God...no

Martin Lewis - George Carlin: Seven Words You CAN Say On HuffPo...

Nicolle Belle: George Carlin - 1937 - 2008 RIP

Reuters: Edgy comic George Carlin dies in L.A., aged 71

Wonkette: George Carlin Is Dead

Mustang Bobby: George Carlin has died

Louis C.K.: Goodbye George Carlin

Jesus General: I'll miss him

Larisa Alexandrovna: George Carlin RIP

And a H/T to Larissa ... Yes, this is a good one to remember him by

George Carlin Nails It

This Date ... On The Garlic

23 June 2006... On The Garlic

"I Am Spartacus" ... The Bush Grindhouse and Cheneypalooza

23 June 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Other Big, Breaking News Senator Rick Santorum Is Eager To Announce

23 June 2005... On The Garlic

Al Qaeda, OSHA Clash Over Workplace Safety; With Iraq As Training Facility, Safety Agency Wants Compliance

23 Disney Parks Overrun As Southern Baptists End Boycott; Gates Locked On Mob By 11AM; Nagging Children Key To Breaking Stalemate

Biden Looking At Presidential Run In 2008; Taking First Step of Staffing, Including Proofreaders and Fact Checkers

Winn-Dixie Announces Cuts of 22,000 Jobs; Movie Bombed, Cost Increases Prolong Bankruptcy

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things The Los Angles Times Might Experiment With

Sunday, June 22, 2008

"This Is The Capitulation We Have Been Waiting For!"

Or; "A Cave-In You Can Believe In"

Yes, the Junior Senator from Illinois plans on voting for the wretched "bipartisan", "compromise" of a FISA Bill, whenever it hits the Senate next week.

This follows the Stench Hoyer, and table-challenged Nancy Pelosi led Congress's approval of the measure on Friday.

I guess, we'll need historians, some 30-years from now, to come up with the answer and explain why the Democratic-majority House would cave-in to the wants of the worst, and lowest-rated, President in U.S. History.

Considering they beat back the bill the last time they had it, with the recent Supreme Court decision to restore Habeas Corpus to detainees, and, let's throw in the overwhelming majority of American citizens against Illegal Wiretapping, and Immunity for the crony Telecom companies that conducted it, why on earth did they not stand tall, and emphatically reemphasize the LAME in Lame Duck President?

Aside from the destruction of practical things, like civil liberties, the Constitution, the 4th Amendment, etc, they're handing Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain a gift, for his trumped up National Security credentials, as well as ammunition to the GOP for the Fall Election.

Couldn't you just hear Obama, at one of the upcoming debates, hammering Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, asking him pointedly, yet calmly, why he wants to illegally spy on American citizens, and give the telecom companies that do it a free pass?

Let's face it, SB John would only be able to stutter back some unreality-based, jingoistic, rehashed Commander Guy-speak

This helps the Republican establish the talking point of how "they" are the ones leading the fight on terror. That, it is because of "them" that we are "safe" and, only "they" can keep us safe, and only "they" can fight this war on terror.

Oh, if they blocked or voted down the bill, the Republicans would call them sissies, appeasers, and soft on terror.

Really?

You mean the Swiss-cheese brains of the Democratic Leadership can't figure that out? That they have to sit there, cowering over such school-yard taunting?

Maybe they could remind their counterparts across the aisle, of the tsunami of material that has been released recently, between Scott McClellan's book, the Senate Intelligence Committee's report (and not to mention the classified material they are privileged to see) on how much (if not all) of what the Bush Grindhouse put out there was over-hyped lies.

Remind those across the aisle that the existing FISA law adequately protects us, that it is unnecessary to trample the Constitution and conduct illegal activities to do so.

Yes, this is a change year, a change election, and what the American people are hungering for is representatives that work for the people, that stand up to injustice, that protect our civil liberties and the Constitution.

Hoyer and Pelosi just led the Democrat-controlled Congress in parroting a Dick-Cheney-like "SO!", ignoring the will and wishes of a majority of the country.

While it could play out that Chris Dodd will rally the Senate troops to squash this injustice, or, perhaps Leahy and Feingold.

That would be fine, but the one person, the one Senator, that should be leading the charge, whose voice should be bone-hoarse come Monday, is Barack Obama.

He is now the flag carrier for the Democrats and it is egregious that he is buying into this capitulation.

If Only ... Obama's Frank Capra Moment (That we won't likely see)

Think of the soaring speech he could give, say, from the floor of the Senate, one in which he challenges his colleagues -no, make that shames his colleagues, to stand up for America, to protect our rights, to end the treacherous evil that has suppressed us for the past seven-years, to rise up and reclaim our country, our ideals, our principles.

Christ, the way he can fire it up, even the networks would likely break into the daily soaps to beam this out.

The country comes to a slow stop.

Mass gridlock, as vehicles stop, their occupants leaning over to listen ....

People huddled in front of television store windows ... The Times Square Jumbotron ... Cellphones ... iPods ...Any device that can pick up the speech.

Word reaches the Senate floor that the Senates computer system has crashed, from the millions of emails sent, telling the Senate to follow Obama and kill the bill ...

Fired up, hoarse and haggard, exhausted and in pain, from the injustice that this bill represents, Obama, down to a whisper, extorting his colleagues, perhaps to the point of passing out, ala Jimmy Stewart in 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington'.

The money shot coming with Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, sunken and sullen, embarrassed, places his vote against the measure, unleashing enough of the other rubberstamp Republicans to follow suit and kill this off.

If Obama isn't going to give the speech, and kill the bill, someone needs to ...

"This Is A Very Frightening Bill"

It's likely that a significant portion of the country doesn't have any idea what going on with this FISA Bill, or the implications awaiting upon its' passage.

This is a video of Professor Jonathan Turley, from 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' Thursday evening, discussing the FISA Bill.

Turley doesn't mince words or sugar-coat anything, and you can sum it up with his "This is a very frightening bill"

From the transcript;

TURLEY: Yes. This is a very frightening bill. What people have to understand is that FISA itself is controversial. This court issued tens of thousands of warrants granted applications for surveillance without turning down any. Only recently did they turn down two.

So, the standard is already so low that they have virtually never refused a request. That standard, however, was too high for the Bush administration.

And, so, people need to be very, very much aware of this bill. What you‘re seeing in this bill is an evisceration of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. It is something that allows the president and the government to go in to law-abiding homes on their word alone, their suspicion alone, and to engage in warrantless surveillance. That‘s what the framers that drafted the Fourth Amendment wanted to prevent.

Congress Prepares to GUT the Fourth Amendment!

Read the full transcript Here

You are now warned and armed ...

Do let happen to you, what happened to Dr. Miles Bennell, in 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers';

"Listen to me! Please listen! If you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand, then the same incredible terror that's menacing me WILL STRIKE AT YOU!"

Bonus Bend Over Riffs

Christy Hardin Smith: A Necessary Word Of Thanks…

Glenn Greenwald: Time Magazine uncritically prints Nancy Pelosi's "justification" for the FISA "compromise"

Cernig: Obama Backs FISA Cave

digby: Sistah Soljah'd ?

Glenn Greenwald: Obama's support for the FISA "compromise"

emptywheel: A Letter to the Next President of the United States

Greg Sargent: Why Obama's Support For FISA Cave-In Is Such A Downer

Jack Balkin: Why Obama Kinda Likes the FISA Bill (But He Won't Come Out and Say It)

Has Anyone Asked The Oil Companies This Question?

[Insert Ranting Here]

Everyone (at least, everyone I know) is staggering over the cost of putting gasoline in their vehicles.

Prices range from $4/gallon - $5/gallon around the country.

The oil companies cry poor mouth, and have 10 different answers, six-ways-from-Sunday, on why they can't lower the price ... That it's out-of-their-hands ... It's a global market, classic supply-and-demand stuff.

And, it just so happens that these companies are recording, through this awful, terrible time, RECORD PROFITS!

Chevron posts record $18.7 billion profit

Soaring oil prices lifted Chevron Corp.'s annual profit to $18.7 billion in 2007, the fourth consecutive year that the San Ramon company made record amounts of money.

Other companies have made even more. Exxon Mobil, the country's largest oil company, reported on Friday that its 2007 profit hit $40.6 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2006, while sales passed $404 billion. No American business has ever scored a higher profit.

ABC News asked a question, fairly recently;

Should the Oil Industry Make a Profit?; As Gas Prices Soar, the Oil Industry Rakes in Billions in Profits

BP yesterday reported a staggering 63 percent surge in first quarter net profit to $7.6 billion, and Royal Dutch Shell posted a 25 percent increase to $9.1 billion. Last week, ConocoPhillips reported a 16 percent rise in net income to $4.1 billion.

I have to speculate, that if the dining rooms and restaurants that are patronized by the politicians (and lobbyists) that populate the Nation's Capital, suddenly jacked up their menu prices by 63%, you'd hear some serious howling, followed by a blizzard of new legislation (or the threat of such).

And for the question I am going to ask, I fully understand that the Oil Companies will have more answers to it than a month of Jeapordy Championships, all in their intricate, byzantine, M.C. Escher-like logic.

So, adopting the Denzel Washington approach, from the movie 'Philadelphia', I ask the Oil Companies "explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old."

If you lower the cost of gasoline, by 50%, to, say $2/gallon, isn't that adequate profit for you?

In the case of Chevron, from above, that would mean they would have $20.3-Billion profit.

Maybe in the the big, my-oil-derrick-is-bigger-than-yours world, a $20.3-Billion profit isn’t much, but I would wager a majority of people would consider it a pretty staggering amount.

How much is a company like BP (as above) going to suffer if they have "only" a 31.5% profit surge?

Something tells me that if this happened organically, naturally, via the classic, supply-and-demand route, the Oil Companies would still be smiling and sucking on big cigars.

So, perhaps Congress should haul in these extremely obese fat cats and put that to them.

Their speeches should be littered with words like "Windfall Profits", "Market Manipulation", and "Price Gouging".

Perhaps, especially with a new President and Congress on the horizon, it can be noted to these extremely obese fat cats that their subsidies and tax breaks are going to disappear ... That they are going to have to fend for themselves much in the manner of the average American citizen.

That the days of baking their cakes, and eating them too - and then shitting all over us are over.

The government, short of nationalizing the industry, can't force them to lower their prices, but they sure-as-hell can hit them in their wallets, much in the same manner they are pulverizing ours.

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