So, there will be no investigation of the NSA wiretapping

[TayTay]

because Sens. Hagel, Snowe and DeWine think it's perfectly okay for the President of the United States to break the law and spy on his own people without a warrant. (Or commit treason, depending on how you read the Constitution.)

These Rethugs bastards should burn in hell. (Though I am not surprised. Rethugs are gutless wonders who bow at the altar of That Friggin Idiot and still fear a moron with a puny 34% approval rating. What is it going to take to get Rethugs to uphold their oath to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.)

Okay what will the Dems do now? Sen. Reid shut down the Senate back in Nov in order to get the Senate Intel Committee to commit to holding Part 2 of the Iraq hearings. He was told, no problem Harry, six weeks, max. No hearings. Now the Rethugs have spit on the Constitution. What will Harry do?

(I am so mad I broke out the Girl Scout cookies. Migraines be damned, I needed a chocolate/sugar fix.)

Oh, btw, M*therf*ckers!!!!!!!! (Bite me you traitors!)

[wisteria]

1. How did this come about? Have they done anything to hold him

accountable for these unlawful wiretaps?

[TayTay]

3. No. They approached the throne and politely asked the King

"Please sire, we should like to ask you about those wiretapping incidents, if you don't mind overly."

The King replied, "Guards, where are my palace guards? Take these trouble-makers off to the Royal Dundgeon at Gitmo."

The Rethugs swallowed hard, thought for a minute about the rascally notion of democracy and then bent the knee to the King. The King smiled. He had them now and forever. After all, he was/is/and will be the King, at least for three more years.


Honestly, I am not surprised, but I am still capable of being pissed. I just want to see if the Dems 'keep their powder dry' or try and do something about this flgrant disregard for the Constitution of the United States. (And I do think this will come back and bite them in the ass this fall. People do not like their PResident to deliberately and with knowledge aforethought, break the law. It's a bad, bad thing.)

M*therf*ckers!!!!!!!

[ProSense]

2. While people are

screaming at the Democrats, why doesn't the 55 to 44 Republican Congressional majority not sink in? A filibuster can't be attempted (look how much hell Kerry got for attempt the one that mattered) on every bill, and every up-and-down vote is determined by Republican cooperation. Every vote in committee is determined by Republican cooperation. The Republicans control the Congress.

Assholes should have thought about the crooked lying evil bastard they returned to the WH and the crooked lying bastard Republican that they let sell them a steaming pile. It's Ironic, the Democratic bashers claim the Democrats are out of sync giving the most incompetent WH dweller in history free reign, but they turn around and write aritcles propping up the idiot. They know full well that Bush is an incompetent moron, that the Democrats have little legislative power, and the Republican traitors are the ones giving him free reign.


This is a great example:

Profile in Courage: Olympia Snowe

Last week Olympia Snowe said she would vote to investigate George Bush's NSA wiretap crimes as part of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In December she said:

“Revelations that the U.S. government has conducted domestic electronic surveillance without express legal authority indeed warrants Congressional examination. I believe the Congress – as a coequal branch of government – must immediately and expeditiously review the use of this practice,” said Snowe.

Today she caved like a cheap suitcase.

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

[TayTay]

4. Olympia Snowe is a sell-out

and has broken her Oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So did Hagel and DeWine and the rest of the Rethugs. (It was a straight party vote in committee.) This is treason. They are traitors. I don't give a damn if they are the majority or not. This is wrong and they damn well know it. It was not politically expedient to make Bush accountable for his crimes. So these folks caved in to the pressure of the moment. History will not judge them kindly.

The Dems have to do something. This is a Constitutional crisis, after all.

We did fight a Revolution 231 years ago in part because an oppressive government thought they could do search & seizures without benefit of warrant. The Founders of this nation must be rolling over in their graves at this betrayal of that legacy of accountability in government.

The Delcaration of Independence had words for rulers like Bush: "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

Again, M*therf*ckers!!!!!!!!!!

[karynnj]

5. It especially hurts as Snowe and Hagel are two of what I

thought were redeemable Republicans.

[TayTay]

6. As people have pointed out

There are no moderate Republicans. They all vote pro-Bush, no matter what. This is the second sell-out for Olympia Snowe. She has run on a pro-choice platform and then voted for Alito (and against the filibuster.)

And I feel much better now. Must be those Girl Scout cookies.

Still, M*therf*ckers!!!!!!! Ahm, much better now.

[karynnj]

7. Girl Scout cookies are great

I really can't understand why, with Bush's numbers where they are, that someone like Snowe still can't stand up to the party. (Hagel I know is very conservative - but he had spoke out on this.)

[TayTay]

8. They still fear Rove and the Bush machine.

They must believe that the Rethugs have a plan to spin this into irrelevancy. I honestly don't think this is going to blow over. I think it can be a big issue in the fall.

It was a matter of commitment and a matter of sticking up for your own branch of government and it's oversight function and responsibility. And they failed the test. Much to the sorrow of all of us.

[wisteria]

10. My guess is it is the election issue all Repubs are going to be

running on-Security. You look weak if you do not do everything you can to catch those terrorists and that includes allowing our obnoxious ruler to wiretap whenever and wherever and to whomever he chooses. You didn't think a couple little things like illegal wiretapping, treading on our Constitutional rights and possibly committing treason is as important as winning an election now do you? :sarcasm:

Seriously, I don't think many people "get" the importance of this issue. Polls bare my thoughts out. People don't get how this will affect them. Most haven't felt the effects of the original Patriot Act and I have heard many times, I don't care if he needs to do this, I have nothing to hide.
I know Tay Tay thinks people will catch on by the elections, I hope so,but right now it seems they just aren't excited about this issue. They seem to "get" the ports deals though, maybe because it is easier to comprehend than the legalities regarding Constitutional rights.

[TayTay]

11. It's not about just security

It's also about this question: Should the President of the United States have to obey the law?

That is another side of the question. Most people say yes and want this to stay a country that obeys the 'rule of law.'

A lot of it is in how you phrase the question. Phrased like above, someting over 70% of the peole said yes and the number who think the Pres should be impeached if he broke the law was about 50%.

[ProSense]

14. How is this possible?

Bush's approval rating is as low as 34%. I just posted a new poll indicating that high-income earners disapprove of how he's handling his job:

A Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll finds the president fails to get majority support from individuals in households earning more than $100,000 for his handling of the U.S. economy. A plurality, 40 percent, even said the economy is worse off because of his policies.

``Even though they're more affluent, they still disapprove of the way he's handling his job,'' said Susan Pinkus, the Los Angeles Times polling director. ``A lot of things go into that, including negative feelings about how Bush is handling the deficit, Iraq and terrorism, as well as the economy.''

In this poll, it's as low 28% on some issues. All the articles about the polls mention a negative about Bush's handling of the war on terror. The entire country is up in arms about the port deal. So how is it that when it's a stand alone stat, the polls are still in the 50s (never budging) for Bush on handling terror?

[wisteria]

17. Oh, I agree with both of you on this. I don't like it one bit.

I was just trying to point out one reason they feel justified in siding with the President.However, the last thing we need is to see Bush gain more power. It is clear he broke the law and should be held accountable. They are taking us back to time of Nixon, he had this type of power and after Watergate, Congress acted to check the power of the Executive branch. This administration-especially Chaney has been itching to restore this power seeing that as it is it is hampering their agenda. One thing I have become acutely aware of in the last couple of years is that Republicans feel they are justified in ignoring any laws they don't like or that get in their way. It just sucks, for lack of a better word.

[Blaukraut]

13. sellouts indeed

I read an excellent article a while back that cautioned to beware the moderate republican. (If I ever find a link, I will post it far and wide)
In a nutshell, it stated that the so-called moderate republicans are more dangerous than the obviously conservative kind because they appeal to those voters who would ordinarily not consider voting for a conservative by espousing one or two pet moderate issues. They will also vote in favor of the more moderate issue AS LONG AS THEIR VOTE IS ONLY A VOTE OF PRINCIPLE!!!
As soon as there may be the possibility that their vote would be the deciding vote in favor of the opposition, they will vote along party lines.
This is evident all the time in the senate especially by Graham, Snowe, Chaffee, Collins, Specter.
The reason that makes them dangerous is that they manage to pull the wool over the voters' eyes with this maneuver and maintain the senate seats we Dems so desperately need.
We need to work hard to get these moderate repugs out of office. There is no need for RI or ME to have republican senators. None whatsoever.

[whometense]

16. Abso-f***ing-lutely. n/t

[ginnyinWI]

9. Small, craven little cowards!!

Republicans in Congress are cowardly: pass it on.

here's a link: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/14041674.htm


They talk the talk but do not walk the walk. Cowardly hypocrites.

[sandnsea]

12. It's damned depressing

It's all been said so many times. I mean if they're going to just turn the country over to the Bushes, just let us know so we can book a ticket out of here.

[whometense]

15. Shit.

This really is disheartening. I just read somewhere this morning that an investigation was "practically certain to be approved." Yeah. Right.

We all need to stop waiting for a republican with a conscience. As my friend Shaun at Upper Left says, they all have to go, every last one of them. There is no such thing any more as a republican with a conscience.

[beachmom]

18. We only have ONE branch of government

People keep talking about how the Republicans control all three branches of government. That is naive. The legislative and the judicial branches seem to be bending over backwards to accomodate the executive branch. We really need to save democracy for our country by kicking out the GOP out of Congress and by electing a Dem in '08 so that we can balance the courts a little better. The thing is I am not power hungry -- I do believe there should be different voices heard and different powers exerted, but right now things are SO out of balance that I fear for the future of my country.

(Good God, maybe you'll have to remind me of all of this if I am faced with voting for Webb for Senate -- perhaps I should think a vote for Webb is a vote for Reid as majority leader . . . )

[paulk]

19. the only hope I have is that the Republicans pay a price for this

come November...

Other than that... my wife is working on getting dual citizenship (Italy)...

For real.