Sammy

I want to start off this morning talking about this guy I know named Sammy. He's a piece of work. I used to think that but now I know it's not just Sammy that's a piece of work, it's people who let him get away with it.

Like Tuesday, he had an interview with McDonalds. Mickey Dees. I'm sure you know about McDonalds even if you don't eat there.

Sammy shows up for the job interview with his girlfriend. They start asking him stuff like, "Do you like hamburgers? Would you agree that hamburgers are a popular food?"

Sammy goes that he can't answer that because they should hire him because they're interviewing here and he's worked before. He goes, "To tell you if I like hamburgers or even shakes would give you some indication of the amount of effort I might put into my job and I can't do that."

So the two people interviewing scratch their heads on that. Then they go, "Well what about the McRib? Sometimes we have it, sometimes we don't. When we have it, it's pretty popular. What do you think of the McRib?"

"To answer that question," Sammy says as his girlfriend begins sobbing, "would be to indicate how I might perform my job and, again, I can't do that."

So his girlfriends sobbing and tears are just streaming down her face and instead of the two interviewing Sammy saying, "You know, maybe your girlfriend shouldn't be watching this if an interview upsets her so much" they buckle.

Yep. They decide they have to hire him. Even though they've heard he may hate McRibs and he may not even fond of burgers. So now someone who doesn't care anything about what he's doing is going to be serving you because the two interviewing Sammy didn't say, "You know that's crap. You want this job, you answer the questions?"

So it's not just Sammy that's a piece of work, it's the two people who let him get away with it. And they may be worse than Sammy because they get all upset that Sammy's girlfriend cried. She's a grown up. She needs to grow up. She didn't have to come along but she chose to. Now everyone's supposed to stop asking tough questions because his whiney girlfriend might start crying.

Sammy's last name is Alito, maybe you heard of him?

Tell you what you need to do now, order "FILIBUSTER" off the menu. Scream "filibuster."

From NOW:

Alito Must Not Be Confirmed - Demand a Filibuster TodayCall Your Senators
By the time the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Samuel Alito ended last week, Judge Alito had dodged so many questions that we knew little more about his judicial philosophy than we had before they started. Even so, Judge Alito's unwillingness to stipulate that Roe v. Wade is "settled law", as recently confirmed Chief Justice Roberts had, puts a woman's right to choose in great peril. This factor alone should be enough for Senators to vote against his nomination.
Due to the current balance of power in the Senate (55 Republicans, 44 Democrats), we do not have the necessary 51 "no" votes to defeat Alito outright. So the only way for senators to block confirmation is for them to launch a filibuster -- which can only be ended if 60 of the 100 senators vote to stop the filibuster and proceed to a vote on the nomination. In other words, IF there is a filibuster, 41 senators can block the nomination. But without a filibuster, those same 41 votes would not be sufficient to stop Alito -- so the "no" votes are meaningless in terms of the final outcome, unless there is a filibuster.
Make the message to your senators clear: Our nation needs them to do more than vote no. They must support a filibuster in order to prevent Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Please call your Senators today and ask them to support a filibuster in opposition to this nomination. A no vote without a filibuster is a meaningless gesture. Our Senators' commitment to women's rights is a hollow shell if they will not fight to preserve them.
Talking Points for CallsIt is very clear that Judge Alito does not consider Roe v. Wade "settled law".
This factor alone should be enough for Senators to vote against his nomination.
We need them to do more than vote no.
Ask them to support a filibuster in opposition to this nomination.
A "no" vote without a filibuster is a meaningless gesture.
Our Senators' commitment to women's rights is a hollow shell if they will not fight to preserve them.
More information on Alito's record is available online.
If you're having trouble getting through at the local number, try the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121
Call your Senators

Burger King would let you have it your way, make sure the Senate does to.

Also want to say thank you to Cedric for writing the thing for Gina, Krista, him and me. I didn't have time to blog yesterday and Cedric's good with words so I knew it would come out good but it came out a lot better than good. Thank you, Cedric; thank you, Gina; thank you, Krista; and thank you, C.I.

Now go get active!

Dems & Alito

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts says it all.

Friday!

Friday! The 13th! We made it to the weekend.

Noting four things and then calling it a Jot.

Need to laugh? Don't miss Kat's "Alito Hearings and John Tierney's abortion" which will get your weekend started off with a good laugh and some deep thoughts.

Mom saw this excerpt at The Common Ills and asked, "Please, put it up at your site."
From the National Organization for Women's Kim Gandy's "Mostly Serious New Year's Resolutions:"

- I pledge to do my part to oppose the nomination of Samuel Alito the Supreme Court, for all the reasons given here and here. Even if I've already called my Senators, I pledge to go call 'em again now! I know this fight could decide women's reproductive rights for the next 40 years or longer, and I am committed to doing my part to stop Alito. (And in fact, if you have some time, we'd love to have you in D.C.! Find out more about joining our campaign in D.C.)
- I resolve not to be fooled by Sam Alito's evasion, obfuscation, and wiggle words (that's a legal term, for all of you non-lawyers out there ;>) and to focus on his very serious anti-woman ideology, even if it is really funny that his excuses sound a lot like "the dog ate my homework" The excuses? In today's hearing they went something like this: the computer forgot to remind me that I promised not to rule on Vanguard cases and I really don't remember being in that misogynistic club, but if I did it must have been about the ROTC and the military (sounds of patriotic music playing in the background).
- I will do everything I can to make sure Congress doesn't take women's rights lightly, and to remind our elected officials--especially the ones who claim to be "progressive"--that women's issues matter and women's votes count!
- I'll work with my local NOW chapter on whatever campaigns I can help with in my area, knowing that all across the country I will be joined by hundreds of thousands of feminists and progressive allies working to take back our country from the far Right! (Don't know your local chapter? Click here!)

It's not over yet. If everyone works together we can still defeat Alito.

C.I.'s got a look at the upcoming issue of Ms. and it's got me interested in peaking it up so read the mag spotlight.

And Seth's got a post on Alito that went up yesterday.

ms.
ms. magazine
kim gandy
now
samuel alito
supreme court
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seth in the city
the common ills
kats korner

Alito: "I'll say anything to be confirmed"

Another day of hearings on Alito. Worth remembering Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts from November when Alito told Bully Boy, "I'll say anything to be confirmed."

Well almost anything! He won't give an honest answer on Roe v. Wade. What he has said makes it plain that he doesn't want to say Roe v. Wade is settled law.

Like C.I. pointed out yesterday, he had no problem weighing in on public displays of worship and you know that's coming before the Court.

Rebecca's got a funny thing comparing Lindsey Graham to a character in a Tennessee Williams play. Kat's tired of Diane Feinstein playing the "Little Lady of the Senate." (Me too.) Mike's proud of his senator (Ted Kennedy) but irriated by Feinstein. Elaine wonders if Feinstein's trying to be "Lily Tomlin's Tasteful Lady"? (Mom says it was an overly refined woman, one of the characters Lily Tomlin does but not as famous as Ernestine or Edith Ann.) And Betty weighs in on "The Tough Talking Thomas Friedman."

Be sure to listen to the Alito hearings live on Pacifica today.

the common ills
pacifica
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
samuel alito
supreme court
alito hearings
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
thomas friedman is a great man
kats korner

Things heated up some in the Alito hearings

The comic is Isaiah's most recent The World Today Just Nuts and it's called "The Confirmation Process."

The roundtable last night was depressing. C.I. wrote about it a little so you can read about some of it here. But the press was already calling it over after yesterday because so many of the Dems were so damn spineless and kept saying things like, "You're such a good person," "I like you" blah blah blah blah.

But after a slow start, they came to life. Maybe there's still hope?

I hope so. I thought Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy and Charles Schumer did a great job. It looked like Alito was finally getting some tough questioning. I hope they keep it up.

C.I. noted something and Mom asked me if I could put it in when I did my next entry. It's here because it's good but if it had been not so good, it would be here just because Mom asked. (But it's good. Read it, you'll see.) This is about Tuesday's hearing, Eleanor Smeal's "Alito Hearings Day Two:"

The Computer Glitch that Wasn't
Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) questioning of Judge Alito on his failure to recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard, despite his promises to the Senate, was another particularly exciting exchange in the hearing.
Before the hearings, Alito had explained his failure to recuse himself in Vanguard cases as a "computer glitch," blaming it on a problem in the computerized screening process used to prevent judges from being assigned to cases in which they may have an interest.
But documents just obtained by the Judiciary Committee make clear that Alito failed to place Vanguard on the recusal list he submitted annually to the court during various years. Feingold asked Alito, "But you don't think it was a computer glitch anymore, do you?" Alito acknowledged, "It was not a computer glitch..." and went on to suggest that he was misled by a clerk. But Feingold was unsatisfied, asking Alito, "Why not just admit you made a mistake, agree to recuse and move on? Why didn't you just do that when the issue was raised here, instead of coming up with these different explanations that, in some cases, I think, have become unconvincing?"
This is an issue that does not seem to be going away for Alito. Indeed, it shouldn't, since his credibility is at stake.
Perhaps the most remarkable statement of the day, and the one that is most telling about what is on the minds of many on Capitol Hill, was Senator Lindsay Graham's (R-SC) off-the-cuff statement made immediately following Alito's Vanguard exchange with Feingold.
Graham stated, "That was an interesting exchange ... I hope you'll understand if any of us come before a court and we can't remember Abramoff, you will tend to believe us!"

And remember to listen to the hearings on Pacifica.

samuel alito
supreme court
eleanor smeal
alito hearings
the common ills

Alito Jot

Early start on The Jot. Or maybe late, if you're wondering where Monday's Jot is? Let it go, let it go. I thought I'd do an evening Jot on Monday but time slipped away and next thing I knew it was time for the roundtable Gina and Krista are doing for the round-robin. I signed up for every night. How come? If Eli can give every night, so I can I.

Monday morning? I couldn't think of anything to jot. Guess I used up all my jots helping The Third Estate Sunday Review with their edition. (That's a hint to go check the latest edition out.)

So The Jot's about Alito today. (It's early, early Tuesday.) You've got Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts at the top. Bully Boy's got his little hands balled into fists, tear coming out of his eye and he says, "Damn Alito!" Condi explains the problem with Bully Boy, he thought he was nominating Judge Ito. From the OJ Simpson case. That makes me laugh.

What doesn't make me laugh is stealing and so that I don't accidentally steal one of the good points made in the roundtable, I'm going to note some thoughts and announcements about Alito and the hearings that stood out to others enough that they posted on it before the roundtable.

Mike: I hope you're listening to the Alito hearings coverage on Pacifica. Remember that is not a one day thing. As long as the hearings are going on, Pacifica's covering them live.

Elaine: I'll also remind everyone to check their inboxes during the Alito hearings for the special editions of the gina & krista round-robin. Remember as well that Pacifica is broadcasting the hearings live. If you don't have a Pacifica radio station broadcasting in your area, you can listen online by visiting Pacifica and there is no charge for listening.

Mike and Elaine get stuck with the announcements. If you visit there two entries, you'll see that they're talking about an air raid in Iraq and how weapons get into Mexico from another country.
What other country? Someone didn't watch, listen or read Democracy Now! today. Now here's Rebecca making some points about the hearings after noting that NPR isn't broadcasting them.

Rebecca: if gas air's terry 'that's gross' had been present when john cornyn was speaking, i think the senate building would have floated right off the ground.
common ills community member billie has talked a lot about cornyn, he's her senator, and his cornyisms.
i enjoy it anytime c.i. posts any of billie's 'look, here he goes with another cornyism!' comments. but i wasn't prepared for him.
as i listened to him ramble from 1 topic to another, i would have thought the man insane if i honestly believed he meant a word he said.
at 1 point, he was speaking of school prayer and working himself into a case of the dry heaves over students wanting to pray at a school football game when all the sudden something else caught his attention and he started ranting that depictions of sex and violence are allowed but public expressions of religion are not.
okay, help me out here, but are students allowed to depict sex at a sporting event? i'm remembering get balled out by an assistant principal just for kissing in the bleachers. and violence?
is corny calling football violent? i thought he was from the state of texas?
if you're looking for easy laughs, always stand within ear range of john cornyn because his cornyisms will have you rolling on the floor.

Cedric: Yesterday, I was talking to Three Cool Old Guys and they were pointing out that not only is Alito not a woman, he's White. So when Sandra Day O'Connor steps down, we'll have one female on the bench and one person of color. We're going backwards. And that's just like everything else the Bully Boy does. He wants to turn back the clocks to before FDR when the robbers baron ran free and if you were poor, working class or lower middle class, you were just screwed.
Three Cool Old Guys pointed out that Clarence Thomas being African-American didn't influence the way he looks at things "But he still doesn't realize that he's Black." He acts like he doesn't realize it. They said something else too. I thought about it today when one of the Republican senators was going on in the hearings about porn and those 'bad liberals.'
They pointed out that the only time you can expect Thomas to fight is when the case has to do with porn and his love of porn may be the only thing he brought to the bench.
I don't know if you know this, but Clarence Thomas never speaks in Court. He's the only Justice that doesn't ask questions. He says it's because people picked on the way he spoke earlier in life.
So?
Three Cool Old Guys said that's not an excuse, that when he's a national figure, he has an obligation to learn to speak. But he doesn't speak. Maybe if he started asking questions, he'd find his voice, his real voice. Instead, he just shuts up and pretends he's white.

C.I.: With regards to Alito, let's note this from an interview Grover Norquist gave to El Mundo (September, 2004):
Question: And if Bush wins?
Norquist: The Democratic Party will be forever doomed. If we take control of the legislature and the executive branch, we will reinforce our control of the judicial branch to direct it against the Democrats. We will bring about a modest limit of the ability of the people to initiate lawsuits against corporations, which will damage the lawyers who specialize in these cases, which is one of the props of the Democratic Party. We will accelerate the decline of the unions. We will cut funding to groups of public employees, like teachers, who are one of the great sources of Democratic votes. And we will begin to move the welfare state toward a private system, in pensions and health care.
That excerpt is from Troy Duster's foreword (p. ix) of Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich's The Fox In The Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy. (And worth thinking about with the hearings going on.)

And there's a community note, so I'll note Kat.

Kat: While I'm noting things, let me note Elaine who wrote the nicest thing about my 2005 list. And let me note Trina who we interviewed at The Third Estate Sunday Review and who has just started her own site Trina's Kitchen.
I think Trina's wonderful. She's smart, she's funny and, without taking anything away from her husband, she's done a wonderful raising a large family. Just growing up in one can be a challenge but being one of the two responsible for all the children is a real challenge. Now she's doing her site Trina's Kitchen and it's intended to be a once a week site, Saturdays, where she'll talk about cooking and politics.

That's Mike's mom and she's a nice lady. My mother said, "I hope you're planning on mentioning Trina's site when you blog." Moms stick together LOL.

So pulling from members' sites, we got the information that Pacifica is broadcasting the Alito hearing live and we got some takes on the hearings and we got information about Trina's Kitchen.

"Celibacy in the City" Pt. 1

The first part of Isaiah's "Celibacy in the City" from his comic strip The World Today Just Nuts. Posted as a look back at 2005 and to start your weekend off with a blast.

"Celibacy in the City" Pt. 2

Second part of Isaiah's "Celibacy in the City" from his The World Today Just Nuts.

Celibacy in the City Pt. 3

From Isaiah's "Celibacy in the City."

Spying and Snooping Bully Boy

This is one of Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts called "Spying Bully Boy is a drag" and I planned to use it next week at the earliest but then I got online and saw some stuff and thought this might be something that needs attention today.

This is from yesterday's Democracy Now!'s "National Security Agency Whistleblower Warns Domestic Spying Program Is Sign the U.S. is Decaying Into a 'Police State:' "

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is reporting that the NSA passed on records of intercepted email and phone calls to other government agencies including the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security. This news come on the heels of several other reports that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, military intelligence and local police departments have all been engaged in monitoring peaceful groups including Greenpeace, PETA -- the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Catholic Worker, anti-war groups and even bicyclists in New York City. During the 1960s and 1970s, the military used NSA intercepts to maintain files on U.S. peace activists. It was this domestic surveillance that led Congress to intervene and pass Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in order to prevent future such abuses. The statute permits domestic intelligence surveillance with the approval of a court order from the FISA court.
In 1975, Senator Frank Church, a Democrat from Idaho, said, "We have a particular obligation to examine the NSA, in light of its tremendous potential for abuse. . . . The interception of international communications signals sent through the air is the job of NSA; and, thanks to modern technological developments, it does its job very well. The danger lies in the ability of the NSA to turn its awesome technology against domestic communications."Now Congress is considering holding a new round of hearings on Bush’s domestic spying program. A bipartisan group series of Senators have already issued their public support including several top Republicans including Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Two weeks ago, a former NSA intelligence officer publicly announced that he wants to testify before Congress. His name is Russell Tice. For the past two decades he has worked in the intelligence field both inside and outside government, most recently with the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency. He was fired in May 2005 after he spoke out as a whistleblower.

C.I. notes that in a thing called "Spying and Seberg" that talks about how the spying before harmed.

And in the New York Times today there's an article called "Agency First Acted on Its Own to Broaden Spying, Files Show" (which I just read thanks to C.I.'s link). The spying by the NSA started right after 9-11 and Congress member Nancy Pelosi objected and questioned from the start. She's said that before but her letter on this was classified and we've had to wait for it be declassified. Now that parts of it are we know that when the spying started.

Little heavier Jot than I was planning for this morning but hopefully Isaiah's comic makes you chuckle and the spying is something you're already interested in.

the new york times
democracy now
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the world today just nuts
the common ills

2005: Bully Boy Exposed

Did you miss The Daily Jot? I took off Monday because I was beyond tired after we finished The Third Estate Sunday Review and needed a break, we all did. And since I still get e-mails whenever I don't have a post up first thing in the morning, I made the decision that on Tuesday, I'd post late to get the point across that The Daily Jot doesn't have to go up in the morning. I'd like it to. It's like brushing my teeth, something I'd like to deal with first thing but sometimes that can't happen.

Cartoon is Isaiah's "Bully Boy Exposed" from his The World Today Just Nuts comic strip.
It should make you chuckle. It made me laugh.

And I'm going to jot a bit about "The Common Ills Year in Review 2005." Hope you already caught that. It's a great look back at the issues that mattered in 2005 and the people who made a difference. And thanks to Joey and Kara (and C.I.) for thinking two things I did were worth noting in that. I read "The Common Ills Year in Review 2005" and didn't just get a sense of some headlines but saw how much the country went through in 2005 and how much the people woke up. I enjoyed hearing people's picks for what stood out and why. So if you haven't check it out, here's the link one more time "The Common Ills Year in Review 2005"

I'm going to be noting Isaiah's comic strip for the next three Jots, by the way. I think he was an important voice in 2005 and he provided us with laughter while making us think. Today's comic was picked because it does reflect 2005, Bully Boy was exposed for what he was.

the world today just nuts
the common ills
2005 in review

Book of 2005: Dave Zirin's What's My Name Fool?

This is a joint entry by Mike (Mikey Likes It!) and Wally (The Daily Jot). You will see the entry at both sites. We thank C.I. for scanning the cover of Dave Zirin's What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States which, in our opinion, is the best book of 2005.

Martha and Shirley did a summary of books that spoke to The Common Ills community in 2005. We enjoyed reading about them. We were flattered that some members singled us out.If our antics ("For the hour!" "For the hour!" in Larry King bluster mode) made Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People stand out for West or anyone else, we're flattered. We're also glad that we helped What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States stand out for a few people. But Zirin's book is our pick for the best of 2005.

Here's why. If you're a sports fan, you'll enjoy it. "But I hate sports!" some may say. We say, "Let us finish." If you like to read about politics and activisim, you'll enjoy it. If you like to read about both, you'll be floating on a cloud smiling. But this really is a book for everyone.

So if you buy books for yourself or as gifts, we'd urge to think about this one. If you check out books at the library, we'd urge you to consider checking this one out. If you do neither, we'd urge you to be aware of the book and of Dave Zirin because the book's an important one and Zirin's an important writer.

In his introduction, Zirin writes:

Sports as a whole do not represent black and white, good or bad, red state or blue state issues. Sports are neighter to be defended nor vilified. Instead we need to look at sports for what they are, so we can take apart the disgusting, the beautiful, the ridiculous, and even the radical.
This book aims to recall moments of resistance past and rescue the underreported shows of struggle and humanity by atheletes of the present, so we can appreciate the beauty of sports, independent of the muck and fight for a future where skill, art, glory, and the joy of play belong to us all.

If you need more information, you can check out the book discussion on this book at The Third Estate Sunday Review. You can also check out an interview that Amy Goodman did with Dave Zirin for Democracy Now!

But this is a book you should be aware of and Zirin is a writer you should check out. That's our recommendation for book of the year.

Since it's early in the morning, we'll note that the following sites plan to have new content later tomorrow:

The Common Ills
Like Maria Said Paz
Mikey Likes It!

Other community sites may also have new content but those are confirmed.

In addition, Sunday, check out The Third Estate Sunday Review for the latest edition. It may post later than usual (that's still up in the air) but it will post.

And, in case you missed it, there was new content Friday at the following sites:

The Common Ills
Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
Cedric's Big Mix
The Daily Jot
Mikey Likes It!
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

the daily jot
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
like maria said paz
mikey likes it
kats korner
cedrics big mix
the third estate sunday review
the common ills
democracy now
dave zirin
amy goodman
book
activism
sports

Bully Is . . .

Where's The Jot?

Talk to my grandfather.

Last night, he was all set on Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts about Bill Frist. This morning he wakes up and says, "No, you have to go with his 'Celibacy In The City.'" Fine. I'm about to boot up the computer and he's wondering about Bully Boy in his blood box and I tell him I've highlighted that one a number of times so we can go with Celibacy In The City.

Then he says, "Wait, let me think."

So we go out to breakfast. He's set on another one and then as we're leaving, he says, "One of the Bully Is . . ." so I wait to be sure and even pull a Regis and ask, "Is that your final answer?"

He thinks about it and decides that it is because of the fact that when Mom was a little girl, she used to clip the Love Is . . . comic strips from the paper and she'd tape them to her bedroom mirror and on her bedroom door. (Which is news to me who couldn't even put up my sports posters with tacks!) (Serious, I had to use that ticky tacky stuff and it was only after I noticed my teacher using that to hang stuff on the walls at school that I got to put anything up on my bedroom walls.)

I like the Bully Is . . . comics too and it makes me grin to picture my mom as a kid clipping the Love Is . . . comics out of the paper and then taping them up. I started wondering what she based it on? Was it the saying or the drawing that would make her decide to clip one. So I call her at work and go, "Mom, how do you pick those out?"

She plays dumb and says she never did that and if she did, she doesn't remember it. As I'm about to get off the phone my grandfather asks me to ask her about when her cousin Phil ripped one off her bedroom door just to be mean and she punched him (she was nine) and Mom goes, real angry, "He deserved that!"

I was laughing and saying, "I thought you didn't remember!"

She remembered. All along. She said the boy and the girl were cute little drawings and that she did think ("then," she emphasized "then") that the comics were really wise.

So my grandfather and I are going with one of Isaiah's Bully Is . . . comics. And you can find four here because Ava pulled four of them together to make a mini-collection.

My grandfather picked this one because he says it sums up 2005, Bully Boy oblivious to everything around him. I'll put up Celibacy in the City next week. I'm not sure if I've done that before or not. The first time it went up, I wasn't even blogging. But it is funny and a favorite of mine too.

So what do we have left to note about 2005?

Yesterday we noted something Mom picked out (Kim Gandy's latest column) and, over my breakfast, my grandfather had the idea of 10 other people who made a difference in 2005. There are more than ten people but these are the ones we picked out.

1) Amy Goodman because Democracy Now! gives you real news and not spin.
2) Cindy Sheehan because she took a stand and forced America to face reality.
3) Peyton and Eli Manning because we're big sports fans (and I did hear on Democracy Now! this guy talking about how the brothers visited the evacuees).
4) Robert Parry because he writes real strong books and Rebecca pulled my name for Christmas out of the list so I have three of his books. (I've just finished Secrecy & Privilege.)
5) Danny Schechter who is the News Dissector and is also the director of a great documentary called WMD (and you can read a review at The Third Estate Sunday Review).
6, 7, 8) Jon Stewart, Margaret Cho and Janeane Garofalo because laughter is needed and makes us all feel better.
9) Dave Zirin because he writes about sports and politics and makes you realize how important both can be.
10) All of us who are speaking out or starting to and aren't suffering from a bad case of "War Got Your Tongue."

Some bests of 2005

Mom said I should do some sort of best of for the year. So I'll note Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts above as one of his best and one of my favorites. It's The Wiz starring Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Matt Cooper and Judy Miller. (For C.I.'s version of The Jot, check out. C.I. had that idea Tuesday night and offered it to me, which was really nice and sweet, but it was C.I.'s idea so I insisted it be at The Common Ills.)

And Mom picked NOW's Kim Gandy's "Holiday Songs in the Key of 'F:'"

I love this time of year. Although the ice and snow aren't doing my car any favors (or my hair, for that matter!), there is something special about having time to rest and reflect on the year -- take a step back, bask in the warmth of family and friends, and gather strength for the coming battles (which, I promise you, will be numerous).
So before treating you to our holiday songs "in the key of 'F'," I hope you'll join me in looking back over the year at some of the accomplishments that make me so proud to be your NOW President.
- The year started off with a bang with all the furor over Harvard President Larry Summers' ridiculous comments about women's "innate" inferiority in math and science! NOW was the first to call for his resignation, a call that was later seconded by the Harvard faculty. The end result of the public attention was that Harvard has now made a real financial investment in increasing the presence of women in hard sciences at that institution.
- In February we launched our Equal Marriage campaign, and the terrific response from activists across the country, and the ways they have put this campaign to work, has been spectacular to see!
- Through March and April we fought the FDA on risky silicone breast implants and then lobbied furiously on Emergency Contraception (EC) while also mobilizing our activists to save the Senate filibuster from the frightening "nuclear" option that would have threatened our liberties and made it nearly impossible to stop a bad Supreme Court nominee.
- In July came a real turning point. We were all gathered in Nashville for our National Conference when the news of Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation was announced. Never ones to shrink from a fight, we immediately declared a "State of Emergency for Women's Rights", were the first in the nation to hold a press conference, and organized a march and rally in a matter of hours, right there at the Tennessee State House in Bill Frist's "back yard."
- In September we marched with CodePink and hundreds of other groups to call for an end to the Iraq war and invasion. Hundreds of NOW members joined in to help remind the world that "peace is a feminist issue!" We also spoke out against Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, and continue to demand fair treatment for the survivors, who are desperately seeking the aid that was allocated for them, but which hasn't been delivered by the Bush allies who received multi-million-dollar no-bid contracts, like Halliburton.

Erika noted it at The Common Ills yesterday and Mom said to give Erika (and C.I.) credit. Tomorrow, my grandfather gets to pick. Thanks to Mike for yesterday's shout out. ":D" back at you, Mike.

Resisters standing strong and Pyle on FISA

Swiping from C.I., I'll note "Support GI Resister Katherine Jashinski Now!" which is about Jashinski and others standing up. Check out that DC Indymedia article.

And from the news roundup we did Monday night/Tuesday morning, I want to make sure everyone knows about Monday's KPFA Evening News where
Christopher Pyle who helped draft the FISA act said:

So what we have here is the rather extraordinary situation of a president who has admitted to committing a felony. Now he says that Congress excused him by passing the resolution against al Qaeda but that says nothing about electronic surveillance. And then he says that the Constitution excuses him because the Constitution places him above the law. There's actually a secret memo produced by the Justice Department to justify torture that says that a war time president can ignore the criminal law of the United States. There's no basis for this in law, there's no basis for this in the history of Constitutional law and Constitutional interpretation and that's of course why the memo was kept secret because if it had ever seen the light of day it would have been laughed out of court. Well now it's seen the light of day and assertions based on that theory have seen the light of day and we're not laughing because we realize the government is really out of control.

I'm tired this morning. I took part in Gina & Krista's year review roundtable for Friday's round-robin last night. Hope everyon'es got some solid New Year's Eve plans. 2006, let's make it a better year than 2005.

Don't try to give Bully Boy peace for Christmas

Above is Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts that ran on Christmas. It's funny because it's true -- Bully Boy would be enraged to receive peace for Christmas. If he had peace, how could he continue to bully the world?

Now here's something we all worked on. C.I. wanted it to go up here first and I said no. We all said no because it was C.I.'s idea and The Common Ills is the site that most members check first. So if you're seeing this for the first time, wow, I'm impressed! If you've already seen it, give a quick read at least to make sure you didn't miss anything. This is an early Jot but my Jot for Tuesday none the less.

"News roundup including did Bully Boy break the law?"
Did Bully Boy break the law by authorizing spying on American citizens and circumventing the FISA courts? If so, how many years can someone be sentenced to for that crime? We'll highlight a radio discussion on that issue, but first, news on Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Russia, Chile, Israel, activism and more.
As reported on The Daily Iraq Wire, December 25th wasn't a day of peace in Iraq. Two bombs went off in Iraq injuring seven Iraqis. In addition, a reported al Qaeda group in Iraq announced Sunday that they had kidnapped and killed four Arabs who had been "working with the US authorities and the Iraqi government in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad."
Monday violence and unrest continued. Deepa Babington, reporting for the Irish Examiner, notes that Baghdad saw five explosions today killing eight and wounding thirty-eight. Outside of Baghdad, there were attacks in Falluja where a suicide bomber killed himself and two police recruits. In Dhabab, five Iraqi soldiers were killed.
Reporting for IPS, Gareth Porter reports today a "looming confrontation" between Shi'ites in Iraq and the American officials who are urging the disbanding of Shi'ite paramilitary groups. American officials fear groups may have close ties to Iran. The "looming confrontation" emerged when American officials decided to make an issue of the "torture houses" run by Shi'ites. "Decided?" Major R. John Stukey and others first reported the existance of "torture houses" in June of 2005. From June to November, US officials remained silent.
As of Monday, US military fatalities in Iraq stand at 2169, official count with 56 of those fatalities for the month of December. Iraq Body Count, which gathers totals by following media reports, estimates that as few as 27,592 and as many as 31,115 Iraqis have died thus far since the invasion.
In other war news, Agence France-Presse reports the American military is claiming that "very soon" the number of troops serving in Iraq will drop from 19,000 to 2, 5000.
In activism news, NOW is calling for action on Samuel Alito, Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination:
There is work to be done, both in Washington, DC and throughout the country. As a part of Freedom Winter 2006, NOW and Feminist Majority Foundation are working together to bring grassroots activists to DC between January 3 and January 20. We're also encouraging activists to organize in their communities.
More information can be found online at NOW as well as online at the Feminist Majority Foundation. In related news, Ms. Magazine has compiled "the top ten news stories for women in 2005." Topping the list, Sandra Day O'Connor's announcement that she will step down from the Supreme Court bench. Planned Parenthood has also compiled a look back at the year 2005. Their look back begins with a listing of the five best and five worst places to get birth control prescriptions filled:
Best
Brooks/Eckerd Corporation
Costco
CVS
Harris
Teeter
Kmart
Worst
Rite Aid
Target
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
Winn-Dixie
In international news, Al Jazeera reports that Augusto Pinochet will finally stand trial for the deaths and disappearances carried out under his dictator regime as the head of Chile. Chile's Supreme Court, in a three to two vote, ruled that Pinochet is fit to stand trial. The BBC reports that charges will be filed Tuesday against four US marines for rape. The four are currently at the US embassy in Manila and "it is unclear whether it will hand over the marines." Abdul Rahman Khuzairan reports, for Islam.Online. net, that on Sunday a sit in was staged in Casablanca by Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Forum "to protest the mass grave found recently with the remains of 82 people." Canada's Star Phoenix reports that Monday in St. Petersburg, shoppers in one store were exposed to a mysterious gas: "Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Russia's second-largest city." And in Tut-tut Tuttle news, the Finanical Times reports that car dealer and contributor of $70,000 worth of donations to the GOP in 2004, Robert Tuttle continues to stumble in his post as US ambassador to England. For the second time, Tuttle has been forced to issue a correction to the BBC following an interview. Embassy work, not as easy as moving cars off a lot.
"Have we made poverty history?" asks The Independent of London? The debt relief in 2008 will go not to Africa but to Iraq and Nigeria. In addition the United States is backing off from it's earlier committments. Also reporting for The Independent, Maxine Frith notes that charities and aid workers believe that Live 8, and those involved in the concerts, "hijacked" the effort and gave the world a false sense of resolution when the problems of world poverty contine. Meera Selva reports from Africa that the people supposed to benefit from the concerts in London's Hyde Park have seen little difference in their lives. One woman tells Selva, "We have problems in Africa, big problems. What can plastic bracelets and pop concerts do to solve them?"
Reuters reports Israeli helicopters firing three missiles into Gaza. This comes as Al Jazeera reports that the Israeli government has announced intentions to build an additional 200 homes on the West Bank. The BBC reports, in other news from the region, that Ariel Sharon has been urged to "curb his appetite" by doctors as he awaits sugery "to close a small hole which doctors found in his heart after he had a minor stroke."
For The KPFA Evening News Anthony Fest spoke Monday evening to Christopher Pyle, "a consultant to Congress in the drafting of the surveillance act, today he teaches political science at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusettes." (What follows is a rough transcript, use the link to listen to the archived broadcast.)
Pyle: The Church Committee was set up because during the Watergate era we had discovered extensive domestic surveillance operations by a number of agencies including the FBI, military intelligence, the CIA and, the largest intelligence agency of all, the National Security Agency. It does electronic intercepts worldwide. It has stations around the world. It picks up communications off of statellites. It picks them off of landlines and it searches them with a dictionary of watch words. And during the 1970s, we discovered that the National Security Agency had maintained files on about 75,000 Americans and they particularly targeted political activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, the folk singer Joan Baez, and the anti-war protestor Dr. Benjamin Spock. We sought to end that massive surveillance, which had no judicial authority what so ever, by passing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. That law said that if the government, when the government wanted to monitor electronic communications it had to go to a special court to gain a national security authorization, a speciall warrant. And for a number of years, it appears that the government did go to the special court and was able to conduct its monitoring with special warrants. But three years ago, the Bush administration decided that this was inconveinent for some reason that's not fully understood. And they just ignored the court and began collecting, uh, information rather broadly. The law itself says that it's the exclusive method by which monitoring may take place and that anybody who violates the law is guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Fast: So there's no leeway for interpretation here, it's uh, it's black and white that if you don't go through the FISA court, you are in violation of the law?
Pyle: Exactly. So what we have here is the rather extraordinary situation of a president who has admitted to committing a felony. Now he says that Congress excused him by passing the resolution against al Qaeda but that says nothing about electronic surveillance. And then he says that the Constitution excuses him because the Constitution places him above the law. There's actually a secret memo produced by the Justice Department to justify torture that says that a war time president can ignore the criminal law of the United States. There's no basis for this in law, there's no basis for this in the history of Constitutional law and Constitutional interpretation and that's of course why the memo was kept secret because if it had ever seen the light of day it would have been laughed out of court. Well now it's seen the light of day and assertions based on that theory have seen the light of day and we're not laughing because we realize the government is really out of control.
Fast: Doubtless the techonology of surveillance is incrompably more powerful today than it was in the 1960s. Is there any indication yet exactly how wide, how wide a net the NSA was casting or how many people had been surveilled?
Pyle: No. The initial reports by the New York Times were that up to 500 people at a time had been targeted but perhaps thousands had been intercepted. And if they were, let's say, monitoring all e-mails and searching all e-mails in the United States for certain code words or phrases then it would be probably hundreds of thousands or millions of people who would have been monitored, not simply 500 people targeted at any given time. But we really don't know. But what we know is that the judges on the FISA court are extremely upset. One of them has already resigned because of this. The others want to know particularly whether this warrant-less spying was being used to then produce probable cause for specific warranted spying. In other words, infecting the very process with illegaly obtained information.
Fast: Since the administration was apparently conducting surveillance that was more in the nature of data mining then watching individuals is there any legal grounds under which they could conduct that kind of operation?
Pyle: No, that is what was known in the common law as a general search. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution forbids general searches. The second clause of the Fourth Amendment says that the warrants must be obtained that specify the place to be searched and and the things to be seized. The FISA warrants specify the persons who are the targets of the intercepts. There has to be specifity. There can't be a great dragnet collecting everything and then sorting it by computer and putting everybody under suspicion.
Did Bully Boy break the law? Better question, after trotting out Vicky Toe-Jam in print and on TV to put forward false claims about the Congessional act passed in the 80s to prevent the outing of CIA agents, why has the mainstream media been so reluctant to pursue people who helped with the drafting of the FISA act?
The above is news you may have missed and was compiled by Wally, Rebecca, Mike, Kat, Jim, Jess, Ty, Cedric, Elaine, Betty, and C.I.



kpfa
the kpfa evening news
christopher pyle
andrew fast
afghanistan
iraq
phillipines
morocco
poverty
augusto pinochet
russia
israel
birth control
the daily jot
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
like maria said paz
mikey likes it
thomas friedman is a great man
kats korner
cedrics big mix
the third estate sunday review
the common ills
the world today just nuts

FISA bill "recognizes no inherent power of the President to conduct electronic surveillance"

JAMES BAMFORD: Well, before I get into that, just one other comment on what we just have been talking about. When the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was created in 1978, one of the things that the Attorney General at the time, Griffin Bell, said -- he testified before the intelligence committee, and he said that the current bill recognizes no inherent power of the President to conduct electronic surveillance. He said, 'This bill specifically states that the procedures in the bill are the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance may be conducted.' In other words, what the President is saying is that he has these inherent powers to conduct electronic surveillance, but the whole reason for creating this act, according to the Attorney General at the time, was to prevent the President from using any inherent powers and to use exclusively this act.

That's from Democracy Now! ("An Impeachable Offense? Bush Admits Authorizing NSA to Eavesdrop on Americans Without Court Approval") and C.I.'s emphasized it repeatedly this week because it's important. It's a point that you don't hear too often in the mainstream media coverage which is strange considering the endless jaw boning over "original intent." Strange too considering that the press is supposedly so interested in figuring out whether or not Bully Boy circumvented the law.

But brains and the mainstream media . . .

I'm late again posting this morning. A "wit" asked if I was late yesterday because I need to figure out the day's talking points? No. I was late because my grandfather and I were crowded around the computer reading C.I.'s posts and then discussing them with my mother. We're all really interested in the government spying on citizens.

Here's a question the "wit" also asked, "Since your grandfather's already in Florida, where will he go to retire? New York?"

Well he is retired. And he went to South Florida.

But due to Christmas (and Wilma) he's been back in the area he grew up in. As a result, he knows a lot of people in the area. We went around yesterday distributing cookies Mom had baked for friends in the neighborhood and my grandfather made sure everyone knew about the spying.

That was interesting, hearing their take on it. They were wondering why there was so much back and forth about whether Bully Boy did something wrong? While the press works itself up into a moral quandry, people my grandfather's age seemed to see it pretty clearly: Bully Boy violated the law.

You listen and just hear their voices filled with anger and with shock.

I hope everyone else is trying to make sure people talk about this.

I also hope you'll check out Kat's latest album review. This is one she did at the request of the oldest member in The Common Ills community, Eli. Eli's a friend of mine (and I'm lucky to be able to say that) and I got his permission to write about why he asked Kat to review Carly Simon's No Secrets.

One of his daughters was having some problems when the album came out and his daughter asked if it would be okay for the granddaughter to stay with him and his wife for a bit. A bit turned out to be a year and a half. She arrived with a suitcase of clothes and Carly Simon's record right before No Secrets. That was the only thing she listened to over and over and he and/or his wife (he's not sure which but says it was probably his wife) mentioned that to someone with kids his granddaughter's age. They were told about No Secrets and thought maybe they could get it and bond with their granddaughter?

So they bought it at a store called Gibson's. (I don't know that store but Eli said put it in because a lot of people would ha ha. It's out of business now, he thinks.) They were both looking at the cover because although Carly Simon's got clothes on, her nipples are prominent through her shirt. They weren't sure what they were getting into but their granddaughter was "monosylalbes" all the time so they were willing to take a chance.

They got the biggest hug and she asked them to listen to it with her. She was really excited.
From there, Eli, who can play a song on guitar after hearing it a few times, taught his granddaughter how to play a few of the songs on guitar. And it just ended up being a really big shared thing for all three of them.

The granddaughter has a daughter now and she's in her late 20s. Eli had sent his granddaughter the review that Kat did of Carly Simon's Moonlight Serenade and she ended up passing it on to her daughter. Her daughter, Eli's great-granddaughter, grew up listening to No Secrets because her mother played it all the time. So Eli had a standing offer from Kat that she'd review something older for him and 2005 was winding down so she reminded him of that. Because of his granddaughter and his great-granddaughter, he picked No Secrets.

I think Kat did a great job with that review. So check it out.

C.I. will warn you bout the Times and Mike will make you chuckle -- check 'em out

Running a little late due to C.I.'s entries this morning. Read the one on the New York Times lack of interest in protests and spying last year. (Not interested until this year.) Then don't miss the next one which deals with Scott Shane's article on the government spying.

Especially don't miss yesterday's report from Democracy Now!:

Newly released documents show counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring domestic organizations active in causes as diverse as peace, the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief.
This is the third major recent revelation about domestic spying in the last few days. Last week NBC News revealed the Pentagon has been monitoring peaceful anti-war protesters and the New York Times exposed how President Bush ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without court-approved warrants. The latest batch of files totals more than 2,300 pages and centers on references in internal files to a handful of groups including Greenpeace, Catholic Worker, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and PETA, the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The documents indicate the FBI monitored protests organized by the groups and used confidential informants inside the organizations to gain intelligence. One document indicates that FBI agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers' "semi-communistic ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are heavily edited, making it difficult or impossible to determine the full context of the references and why the F.B.I. may have been discussing events like a PETA protest.

For laughs and criticism of the government's spying check out Mike's "Bully Boy keeps on spying and lying:"

FBI Spied on Greenpeace, PETA, Catholic Worker
In Washington, newly released documents show counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring domestic activist groups including Greenpeace, Catholic Worker, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and PETA, the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The documents indicate the F.B.I. monitored protests organized by the groups and used confidential informants inside the organizations to gain intelligence. In one case, government records show the FBI launched a terrorism investigation of PETA in Norfolk, Virginia. Greenpeace is obviously a dangerous organization.
We must all stop buying dolphin safe tuna because the funds from the purchase go to terrorists who wish to impose their will upon us! As for Catholic Workers, if they really did the Lord's work, wouldn't they have their own tax free university? Wouldn't they be rolling in the dough the way Pat Robertson is?
Documents Show FBI Agents Tracked PETA For Years
According to the Washington Post, the documents offer no proof of PETA's involvement in illegal activity. But more than 100 pages of heavily censored FBI files show the agency used secret informants and tracked the group's events for years. The FBI also monitored political activities on college campuses. One FBI file included a contact list for students and peace activists who attended a 2002 conference at Stanford University aimed at ending sanctions then in place in Iraq.
Better spy on PETA because Pamela Anderson's gone after KFC! "They are crammed by the tens of thousands into pens. . . . They routinely suffer broken bones from being bred to be top heavy. . . . KFC refuses to do even the bare minimum . . . " It's like a communique from the Weather Underground! (Thanks to Jess for help with that.) We must stop Striparella! We must put the mastermind of V.I.P. beyond bars! If we don't, the terrorists have won!
After many hours carefully studying the Pamela Anderson Lee & Tommy Lee tape, J-Ass has detected many things that raised his interest. He passed the tape onto Alberto Gonzales for further study. Gonzales is said to be aroused and passionate by the contents of the tape.Who will save us from Pamela Anderson? Only the Bully Boy!
Reports Expose Growing Domestic SurveillanceThis is the third major recent revelation about domestic spying. Last week NBC News revealed the Pentagon has been monitoring peaceful anti-war protesters and the New York Times exposed how President Bush ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without court-approved warrants. Ann Beeson, of the American Civil Liberties Union said "It's clear that this administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to N.S.A. to the F.B.I., to engage in spying on Americans."
Do you get how flimsy the excuses the administration is offering are? They think they can spy on lawful citizens acting on their rights to protest and peaceably assemble. Do you get how insane the country has become under the Bully Boy? We all need to be paying attention to this.
Where do you go for Elaine's take? That's right, Like Maria Said Paz, so check it out.

Mike's using the news (via Democracy Now!) to show how absurd the government is with their illegal spying.

Check out C.I., Rebecca, Mike and Elaine for more on this topic.

Democracy Now! today gives more details on FBI spying

33,000 New York City transit workers go on strike, shutting down the country's largest public transportation system. We'll take a look at the latest.
Newly released documents show counterterrorism agents at the FBI have been monitoring domestic activist groups including Greenpeace, Catholic Worker, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and PETA, the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Thanks to C.I. for forwarding Rod's e-mail. Those are the topics for today's Democracy Now! so check it out. I'll be watching with my grandfather who is "very alarmed" by Bully Boy's spying and we're really looking forward to the second topic. But you can also listen on the radio or read online or watch or listen online.

If you're trying to make sense of what is going on, you should also check out C.I.'s "Governmental spying/snooping."

And Rebecca, Mike and Elaine are hitting on the topic hard this week too.

This is something that should be on your mind. My grandfather said he couldn't believe more people weren't talking about this. He read Rebecca and thinks she may be right that it's starting to pick up traction but he says the way he remembers it when Nixon's spying was coming out, people were "appalled." He feels like there have been three big developments on this so far but the mainstream media is still playing it like "Oh this happened today" and not making any connections.

We were talking about it over cereal this morning and Mom asked if we'd read C.I.'s thing from last night? We hadn't because it went up so late. We pulled it up and read it. I wasn't alive then and I can tell you that we weren't taught anything about the Church Committee (or any other) in my school. I haven't heard about it in college yet either.

I think if we really got how outraged people were in the 70s, we'd be more likely to say, "This is wrong!" right now. But we've seen so much from the Bully Boy that little surprises us. So I'll keep focusing on this in the Jot for the rest of the week and probably next week too. I hope you're focusing on it. Check out Democracy Now! today.

Electronic Peeping Tom Bully Boy

Sen. Leahy: No More Secret Orders, Secret Courts, Secret Torture
Many legal experts have accused the President of breaking the law by ordering the wiretappings without a court warrant as required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT): "This warrant-less eavesdropping program is not authorized by the patriot act, it's not authorized by any act of congress, and it's not overseen by any court. And according to reports it has been conducted under a secret presidential order, based on secret legal opinions by the same justice department, lawyers who argued secretly, that the president could order the use of torture. Mr. President, it is time to have some checks and balances in this country, we are a democracy. We are a democracy. Let's have checks and balances, not secret orders and secret courts and secret torture, and on and on."

That's from Democracy Now! yesterday.

Mike noted it yesterday:

"I broke the law." That's what he's saying. That and "Piss on all of you, I do what I want." He's been appeased and coddled by the press (and the New York Times sat on this story for a year) and you get idiots saying things like, "The dialogue from the left is just getting so rude tsk, tsk."No, you've been living in the Bully Boy bubble while the rest of us have been speaking truth. You're the joke for sitting there whining about what people are saying or lying about it (like Nicky K did when he was proved he was so quick to slam the left that he didn't even need to read Molly Ivins because calling her a "Bush hater"). You're the joke for thinking a Bully Boy can be coddled.

Mike calls Bush "the Bully Boy electronic peeping tom."

So did Rebecca:

bully boy's spying on us. he thinks that's okay. he's spent today and yesterday and saturday full of himself and how he's protecting the nation ... by destroying what we stand for.
maybe you caught the war lust the bully boy had when he was raving after 9/11 (several days after) and you thought, 'well this is what we have to do.'why did you think that?
to save the country?
so how do you justify what's going on now?
how is the country being saved when everything we stand for is being twisted and perverted?the nsa has been spying on american citizens. bully boy could have tried for a fisa warrent which rarely refuse to grant a warrent. that wasn't the route he wanted to take.

So did Elaine:

King Bully Boy and his court of fools. They aren't working for America. They're working for King Bully Boy. They're loyalties aren't with the public, aren't with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or any belief, written or not, that speaks to the higher nature of what our nation is supposed to aspire to.
[. . .]
What's going on in the oval office needs to be called out by people in their own voices, in their own way of speaking. Not to call it out is far more dangerous and destructive than to use what someone feels are the "wrong words." We need to be discussing this, all of us, because if we don't, if we stay silent, we're saying it's okay and we're turning our backs on what we are supposed to believe in.When you do that, you destroy your own character as well as the nation's character.

At The Third Estate Sunday Review, we did an editorial that opened with this:

"We are all the outlaws in the eyes of America."
That's the opening line to Jefferson Airplane's "We Can Be Together." That's also what the Bully Boy appears to see when he looks out on the nation.

And C.I.'s been all over this topic.

This is serious and so for today's Jot, this is what I want people to focus on. I'll be posting this week but it may not be every day due to the holidays.

NOW says take action and Mike, C.I. & me say do it now before the vote

Swiping from Mike & C.I. and urged on by mom, here's "Oppose Reauthorization: USA PATRIOT Act Violates Our Civil Liberties:"

Vote set for this Friday! Act NOW.
Action Needed:
Please send a message to your Senators urging them to oppose reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Improvement and Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 3199), which fails to include important reforms and poses a serious threat to individual privacy and to our precious civil liberties. The reauthorization of this controversial law would enact scores of new surveillance powers for the government, establish a number of new crimes, including new death penalties, and still permit secret eavesdropping and secret search orders. Safeguards that were adopted by the Senate earlier this year have been deleted and, alarmingly, most provisions in this final version would be made permanent, bypassing the critically important periodic Congressional reviews.Senate Democrats are united in opposing this draconian re-write of the PATRIOT Act, and so are a number of Republicans, which makes victory possible. Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.) and a number of both Democratic and Republican members are threatening a filibuster. The Senate is set to vote Friday (Dec.16). The more conservative House voted today 251 to 174 to adopt the reauthorization measure. So this makes it all the more critical to contact your Senators immediately. Please use our formatted message or write one of your own and urge your Senators to oppose this dangerous bill.
Take action NOW.

Do something about this now.

Do it today. Use the link.

Check out Kat

The only thing I want to note today is to check out Kat. She's got something up, it's funny and true. You'll nod, you'll laugh. Check out Kat! It'll start your day off right.