NYT editorial: With Democrats Like These ..

[ProSense]

Editorial

With Democrats Like These ...

Published: October 20, 2007

Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year. It was particularly hard to tell this week. Democratic leaders were cowed, once again, by propaganda from the White House and failed, once again, to modernize the law on electronic spying in a way that permits robust intelligence gathering on terrorists without undermining the Constitution.

<...>

House Democrats drafted a measure that, while imperfect, was an improvement to the one passed this summer. But before the House could vote, Republicans tied up the measure in bureaucratic knots and Democratic leaders pulled it. Senate Democrats did even worse, accepting a Potemkin compromise that endorsed far too much of the bad summer law.

We were left wondering who is really in charge <...>

Democrats justified their votes for this bad bill by noting that the law expires in February and by promising to fix it this fall. The House bill did, in fact, restore most judicial safeguards. But the deal cooked up by Mr. Rockefeller and the White House doesn’t. It would not expire for six years, which is too long. And it would dismiss pending lawsuits against companies that turned data over to the government without a warrant.

This provision is not primarily about protecting patriotic businessmen, as Mr. Bush claims. It’s about ensuring that Mr. Bush and his aides never have to go to court to explain how many laws they’ve broken. It is a collusion between lawmakers and the White House that means that no one is ever held accountable. Democratic lawmakers said they reviewed the telecommunications companies’ cooperation (by reading documents selected by the White House) and concluded that lawsuits were unwarranted. Unlike them, we still have faith in the judicial system, which is where that sort of conclusion is supposed to be reached, not in a Senate back room polluted by the politics of fear.

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[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Rhythm and Blue]

2. K&R'd. This is getting ridiculous.

[mark414]

3. how do they let an extremely unpopular president and party with no political capitol

or firm ground to stand on still get their way? and still remain relevant?

[KittyWampus]

4. Cryingshame's Editorial Comment: "With Media Outlets Like These"

you fight for the Consitution with the pathetic excuse of a Mediawatch dog you have, not the one you really need.

[young_at_heart]

5. I wish they had all watched the latest "Frontline"---maybe they'd change

It was called "Cheney's Law" and after watching it one can only feel a sense of dread.

[acmavm]

6. Where are the Pelosi/Reid supporters? What time do they show up to

tell us this editorial is slanted and wrong and too strongly worded and demand an apology???

:sarcasm:

[NNN0LHI]

16. I support both Pelosi and Reid

And that is not sarcasm.

Don

[intheflow]

7. kick

[zbdent]

8. Republicans put forth a bill, and when Dems point out fatal flaws,

the "liberal media" goes along with the Rs' statements of "it's not a perfect bill ...".

Democrats put forth a bill, and when Rs find one typo and call it a bad bill, the "liberal media" ignores all the theatrics that the Rs pull and agrees with the Rs ...

[LWolf]

9. Apparently it's not just some DUers that recognize this. n/t

[mmonk]

11. Yep

Many others as well.

[Terri S]

10. " the Democrats took over, and still the one-party system continues"

Well said !

[Polemicist]

12. At least Senator Dodd blocked this farcical cover up...

And I believe that Joe Biden has joined him in this hold on this deeply flawed bill.

Congress shouldn't pass any further legislation of any sort "demanded" by the Bush Administration, until all subpoenaes for testimony and documents issued to the Executive Branch by Congress have been properly fulfilled. It's nonsensical for Congress to be expected to "legislate in the dark" without full factual information regarding these issues like domestic spying and national security.

Everyone should demand that their Senators and Congressmen stop rubber stamping Bush legislation without demanding the necessary information to make a knowledgeable informed decisions on these matters.

We didn't elect our representatives in Congress to "guess what's best", but rather to "know what's best". It should be a minimum requirement for our support for their re-election. I'm appalled that the nation I love has sunk so far into secretive fascism that our own government and Congress can't be entrusted with sufficient knowledge to govern.

Right now, we have a dictatorship by bluff and bluster. No more Bush bullshit. No More.

Thank you Senator Dodd. Maybe some of your backbone will rub off on your invertebrate brethren.

[Perry Logan]

13. Say...isn't this the newspaper that pimped for the Iraq War?

Here's the poop:

"President Bush's success rating in the Democratic-controlled House has fallen this year to a half-century low, and he prevailed on only 14 percent of the 76 roll call votes on which he took a clear position.

"So far this year, Democrats have backed the majority position of their caucus 91 percent of the time on average on such votes. That marks the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1728952&mesg_id=1728952
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002576765.html

Don't let the media rhetoric fool you. The Democrats have acquitted themselves quite well--especially given their bare majority in both houses, and a relentlessly obstructionist Republican minority.

[DeSwiss]

14. K&R!!! n/t

[NNN0LHI]

15. The NYT can blow me

They are the same fuckers who helped get us into this mess. Fuck them very much.

Don

[Toots]

17. Unlike them, we still have faith in the judicial system,

Who is this "we" he is referring to? I sure as hell have no faith in the judicial system. It has been totally politicized and I am not a Republican so I only have fear in/from our judicial system..

[gulfcoastliberal]

18. Anyone read about the sudden spike in telco $$$ Rockefeller got?

Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash
By Ryan Singel EmailOctober 18, 2007 | 6:21:44 PMCategories: Surveillance

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) is reportedly steering the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee to give retroactive immunity to telecoms that helped the government secretly spy on Americans.

cut

Top Verizon executives, including CEO Ivan Seidenberg and President Dennis Strigl, wrote personal checks to Rockefeller totaling $23,500 in March, 2007. Prior to that apparently coordinated flurry of 29 donations, only one of those executives had ever donated to Rockefeller (at least while working for Verizon).

In fact, prior to 2007, contributions to Rockefeller from company executives at AT&T and Verizon were mostly non-existent.

But that changed around the same time that the companies began lobbying Congress to grant them retroactive immunity from lawsuits seeking billions for their alleged participation in secret, warrantless surveillance programs that targeted Americans.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/dem-pushing-spy.html

[suziedemocrat]

19. I just think, for some reason I can't understand, Republicans are better at marketing.

They really have the ability to get large groups of people to suspend reason and totally buy into the "message" they are sold. I hear the exact same phrases from Republicans all over the country. It's uncanny. Maybe because most Democrats are smarter, I don't know, they are less easy to control. Or maybe because the Democratic Party is less cynical, they don't try to control people's thoughts like Republicans do? Or maybe Democrats are scared into inaction because of the Republican party's ability to twist their words and destroy their message. I don't know. Though it's a problem that dates back a while. Look at the Howard Dean "scream" story. The media's portrayal of that night was completely off the mark, yet I still hear Republicans laughing about it.