( – promoted by odum)

Crossposted at Daily Kos

For the second day in a row, the corporate media is running with the new revelations
around the Bush administration’s data mining adventures.

Arlen Specter, so aptly named for his tendency to vanish when the lights go on, is puffing
harder than ever over this issue, and our own Pat Leahy, ranking Democrat, is nearly
apoplectic with rage.

Bush just limboed below the magic 30% approval number.
BEFORE this story hit.

The strong feeling I got from my surfing yesterday, is that this transgression crossed a line with the American people, and I am inclined to agree.
So doesn’t this transform Senator Russ Feingold’s censure resolution from ‘fringe politics’ to a no-brainer?

And why is nobody talking about it?
More after the jump 

Like many progressives, I dutifully wrote and called both VT Senators urging support for
the Feingold censure resolution. One (the democrat!) ignored my letter, Senator Jeffords
office responded with a personal letter saying he was concerned and would wait for the
“investigation” into the matter to be completed.

No doubt he knows this, as we all do, but the investigation was just decapitated yesterday. 
So now what?

Senator Jeffords, you just lost the escape hatch.
There is no reason left for any Democratic or Independent Senator NOT to cosponsor Feingold’s
resolution.
Likewise, Republican Senators can be forced to state their support for unchecked executive power by opposing this resolution.
I wrote both senators again this morning, highlighting this specific point, and I urge you to do the same.
http://leahy.senate.gov
http://jeffords.senate.gov

Maybe this is the subject for another diary, but here’s some thoughts about the ramifications of this odious program;

What happens if somebody outside the father/protector/decider/bigbrother government gets ahold of this information? Do you think the NSA is keeping these records in a hack-
proof vault somehere? (I would remind you that the other hallmark of BushCo is its
systemic incompetence).
Read this story and sleep comfortably (not!!)  This guy was looking for UFOs. The next guy might be looking for your identity, or when you’re not at home, or when you’re home alone.
Or, how about this one?  Saying “hi, babe” over the phone is a coded terror message. See you in Guantanamo. That is, if they take our hoods off.

Finally, some cozy thoughts. I will preface this last by saying that I do not believe for one second that this program is “limited” to analyzing calling patterns. BushCo has unfailingly lied about every aspect of this program, and is illegally blocking investigation of its own illegality.
Fool me three times, I’m a fool.

The venomous wingnuts who still run to Bush’s defense like to claim that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. 
Think about what you have to hide, for a moment. 
Have you ever dialed a phone sex number? Bought a little pot over the phone? Confided to a drinking buddy about how you don’t remember driving home last night? Discussed a loved one’s illegal activity over the phone? Cheated on your spouse and confessed to your best friend on the phone? Called in sick to work, then didn’t go to the doctor? Called in a prescription you’d rather everybody didn’t know about?  How about those calls to your doctor discussing your medical situation? Then have you ever discussed that awful family secret (you know the one) with your trusted confidant? Come to think of it, can you vouch that no one you have spoken to via telephone since 2001 has anything to hide? 
Because that makes you a target. 
Everything you have said over the telephone for the last five years is known to the government. When some bored adolescent hacks into the database and publishes it on the web, you gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do. Or maybe sooner.

You know what to do. Censure is a moderate first step. Let’s at least get that far with this.

http://jeffords.senate.gov

http://leahy.senate.gov

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John McCain the “maverick” has been sucking up to Jerry Falwell who he once called an “agent of intolerance” and has been rightfully beaten up for it the media and the blogs.

Now its Vermont’s own Howard Dean’s turn on Pat Robertson’s pet “news” show:

Dean told Christian Broadcasting Network News that the 2004 Democratic platform declares “marriage is between a man and a woman” — just one of the points he made in reaching out to religious conservatives who are largely hostile to the party.

But the platform does not define marriage that way, and his remarks prompted the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to return a $5,000 donation from the Democratic National Committee.

Dean later acknowledged his misstatement, but the group sent back the money anyway. “We need for Governor Dean to demonstrate real leadership on our issues,” executive director Matt Foreman said in an interview, “not to equivocate depending on the audience.”

There’s a difference between reaching out to new or alienated traditional Democratic constituencies, and pandering to the bad guys. This crosses that line.

Do I think Dean was “bearing false witness” so to speak? No, just speaking impulsively, but he should keep in mind that he is not “the Party,” and if he’s going to go reaching out to people who have values inconsistent with the values of everyone he works with, he should at the very least take a little more care not to misrepresent me and other Democrats in the process. I feel more than a little slimed by this report.

The guy is doing a great job as Chair, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call him on things like this. If anything, since he is DNC Chair, we have a special responsibility to.

( – promoted by Ed Garcia)

The name Catamount Tavern came about when Grantees from New Hampshire posted a stuffed catamount on the tavern’s signpost to repel the New Yorkers who claimed their land. The Catamount served as headquarters for the Green Mountain Boys while making their plans against the New Yorkers and the British. Ethan Allen planned the capture of Fort Ticonderoga here and John Stark planned British General Burgoynes defeat here which turned out to be successful in the famous Battle of Bennington. The Catamount was also the meeting place of Vermont’s only form of government then, the Vermont Council of Safety.

I find myself angry today. This gives me pause, because on reflection, I find I spend the vast majority of my time in that state. So if I’m pissed off enough to blog it, I’m obviously close to the tipping point.
Which is why we’re tipping what we’re tapping tonight.
The Catamount is in business – come on by, we’re just a jump away.

“Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principles that they are laboring to dethrone: but if they argue without reason (which, in order to be consistent with themselves they must do), they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.”
-Ethan Allen

I am pleased and privileged to be posting this brown acid rant via Verizon DSL. My ISP and telephone company is giving my telephone call records to the government. And I am not happy.
Verizon, along with AT&T(!)and BellSouth, began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers’ phone calls to the National Security Agency program shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to today’s USA TODAY.

At the White House, President Bush said the administration acted within the law and “fiercely protected” Americans’ privacy while doing everything possible to prevent terrorist attacks. “Al-Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans,” he said. “We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans.” He didn’t address specifics of the program and walked away without responding to reporters’ questions.

I have a question:

Have you had enough of this shit yet?
Ask everyone you know. When you get a blank look, ask them who got voted off American Idol last week.
The shit they get away with – and it’s because NOBODY’S LOOKIN’, my friend.

His Honor Kagro X has a diary up on dKos in which he draws a damned depressing picture. He points out, essentially, that the ultimate oversight of the executive branch rests with – the executive branch. It only looks involved until you read it, and then you see it’s actually kind of simple.
Either that, or you didn’t see it at all because you were watching American Idol.
Here’s some more anger:

Senator Kerry, today in your speach you said:

 

Presidents and politicians may worry about losing face, or votes, or legacy; it is time to think about young Americans and innocent civilians who are losing their lives.

And, Congressman Conyers, today in your diary you said:

 

Congress has failed to provide this critical oversight which has led us to the courts.

The Bush administration, with it’s Republican enablers in the House and Senate, have made your duty, oversight, IMPOSSIBLE.
Lives are at stake, as is the very foundation of our democracy, the Constitution.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
We have been lied to enough.
We have had our constitutional rights denied enough.
We have had our free speach impaired enough.
We have seen scandals and bribery enough.

SHUT THIS PUPPY DOWN NOW! Walk out, hold a press conference on the steps of our Nations Capitol, and tell the American people that “help is on the way”.

This 50 year old mother of 5 has seen and heard enough. Have you?
-Lisa Lockwood (dKos)

This is directed to John Kerry:

  I get the impression (59+ / 0-)
that you’re here for the same reason the rest of us are —
To vent, and to speak to like minds.
The thing is the rest of us came here because we were feeling helpless.
You are a United States Senator.
So we’re kind of curious what you’re planning on doing about this. 
When are people in your position going to DEMAND THE RESIGNATION OF THESE GOONS?
Because THAT’S what we should be talking about. 
The Bush administration should RESIGN.
Bush has shamed the office of the presidency.
He has shamed the United States of America
He has thumbed his nose at our Constitution.
He has proven himself to be a menace to public safety.
We should accept NOTHING LESS than the entire administration’s RESIGNATION.
by theyrereal on Thu May 11, 2006 at 01:20:47 PM EDT

I wrote this a while back in response to an angry email my boss got in response to a Christmas song I played on the air:

Just now Eddie Garcia played a stupid song about “I saw George Bush Tapping Santa’s phone”….No, I do not worry that someone is illegally tapping my phone … my life isn’t nearly interesting enough to justify anyone’s time.

IN OTHER WORDS: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” This is cowardice of the most contemptible sort. It is unpatriotic, unAmerican and subversive. A person such as this who refuses to stand up for the values we are taught this country represents has no place here. This person should leave, and I will contribute money toward his passage. This is an individual who is willing to surrender his freedom in exchange for a promise of security. This is a person willingly victimized by a protection racket. This is a person who chooses to cower in fear and place blind trust in the Government to defend him from the “bad ole ter’rists”, blind, deaf and dumb while the Government shows itself to be the very enemy it claims to defend against.

Now see, I’m reading your mind. You thought I was going to blockquote Ben Franklin here, didn’t you? Yes, you did, you little subversive, you.
All this rah-rah and fluff begs the question: What does it take?

In the spring of 1775,Allen and Benedict Arnold led a raid against Fort Ticonderoga. Fort Ticonderoga is a large 18th century fort built at a strategically important narrows in lake champlain where a short traverse gives access to the north…The relative roles of Allen and Arnold are not entirely clear. Neither is it clear to what extent the campaign was formulated by the strongly anti-British faction in Connecticut; to what extent it was the idea of the Green Mountain Boys headquartered at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington; and how much of the enthusiasm was fueled by alcohol rather than by patriotism.

Okay, I never said I wasn’t drunk. Be that as it may….if today’s sound bites, in the context of an MSM controlled by the Main Enemy, didn’t convince you….if the fact that this noise is even getting through the filter at all doesn’t convince you, I’ll look for you on the floor after we blow out the lamps in the tavern.
Last call for alcohol. You ain’t got to go home, but you got to get the hell outa here.

I M P E A C H

It’s everywhere — every blog and news report, but at the same time it’s impossible to not to mention, even on a local Vermont blog. Without repeating the details, here’s some important key points to the latest news — that Bush & co. have put together a database of virtually every phone call made in America.

From Salon’s War Room:

So what do we learn today? The Bush administration — without an act of Congress, without a ruling from the judiciary, without even the usual F-you of a signing statement — has written its own set of rules for gathering telephone records. Forget words like “subpoena” and “warrant” and “probable cause.” Forget fine legislative calibration. Forget all that stuff about amendments and floor debate and compromise in conference committees. None of that matters now. Under the Bush administration’s rules, the NSA gets access to every single phone record it can persuade anybody to give it.

What is the government doing with the phone records? Well, we don’t know, and we don’t really have any way of finding out for sure.

Finally, the sidebar Q&A from USA Today:

Q: Does the NSA’s domestic program mean that my calling records have been secretly collected?

A: In all likelihood, yes. The NSA collected the records of billions of domestic calls. Those include calls from home phones and wireless phones …

Q: Can I find out if my call records were collected?

A: No. The NSA’s work is secret, and the agency won’t publicly discuss its operations.

Q: Why did they do this?

A: The agency won’t say officially …

Q: But I’m not calling terrorists. Why do they need my calls?

A: By cross-checking a vast database of phone calling records, NSA experts can try to pick out patterns that help identify people involved in terrorism …

Q: Who has access to my records?

A: Unclear. The NSA routinely provides its analysis and other cryptological work to the Pentagon and other government agencies.

For a video of Senator Leahy’s reaction, click here.

( – promoted by odum)

My blog friend, Philip Baruth, wrote a post yesterday about the new WCAX poll on Welch vs. Rainville. Good news for Peter Welch and bad for Martha Rainville, he maintains. And I don’t disagree.

I suppose, given Rainville’s many missteps since her campaign launch, it’s no surprise that her numbers of so weak. I suspect the numbers would have been more favorable to Rainville if the poll had happened last month.

But, I think the poll is perhaps a very revealing look into some possible serious voter apathy about either candidate.

Though, given the low sample number with its high 5% margin of error, and the combining of “Do Not Recognize” and “No Opinion,” it’s hard to know what the real mood of the electorate is.

Sure, some of it is perhaps low name recognition for Welch and Rainville. But, since only 51% registered “No Opinion” for Greg Parke in WCAX’s poll on Monday, I suspect that’s not the whole story.

Here’s the favorable/unfavorable breakdown:

FAV/UNFAV/NO OPINION

Peter Welch 26% 9% 65%

Martha Rainville 19% 13% 68%
Mark Shepard 16% 7% 77%

And here’s the breakdown for election choice:

Welch 26%
Rainville 17%
Undecided 57%

So, only 26% of Vermonters think they’ll vote for Welch over Rainville?

That means that there are 57% of Democrats, independents, Greens, Progressives, Republicans, etc. who just might vote for Martha Rainville, or might just stay home in November.

I bet there’s a few people out there who wonder what Zephyr Teachout’s polling would have looked like at this stage in the race.

When I heard Rainville was considering entering the race, almost exactly a year ago, my gut told me she would win. But that was based on what I assumed would be a well-run campaign and on much anecdotal evidence that she was very well liked by Vermonters of many political stripes.

That prediction also assumed a lackluster Democratic operation. But Peter Welch and the whole VDP are running a much more focused and sharp operation that I would have thought. They deserve a lot of credit for that.

But, I think this poll shows that there are still lots of factors at play, and this race, despite the rookie mistakes of Rainville’s campaign, will very likely be the nail-biting squeaker that Philip predicts.

On a more optimistic note…

From Monday’s poll, Tarrant’s numbers are dismal and he clearly doesn’t have the Republican nomination locked up by any means.

And Douglas’ relatively low numbers (53%), the 29% undecideds, and Parker’s 18% (and  a very high 74% No Opinion response), means that Parker (also running a strong campaign, at least compared to Clavelle) has lots and lots of time and plenty of undecided voters to work with.

This is going to be a fun election year.

Cross-posted at What’s the Point?

Letter to the Editor, “Burlington Free Press” May 11. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060511/OPINION/605110330/1006

IT SURE CLARIFIES HIS POSITION FOR ME; NO FLIP-FLOPS HERE:

Think long-term on energy policy
In a May 4 editorial I am quoted as saying I am “open” to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

I believe we need a long-term energy policy in this country that reduces our reliance on foreign oil. This means taking a multi-pronged approach that includes conservation and developing alternative forms of energy such as wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cells and biomass.

I want to go to the United States Senate to work in a collaborative way to solve our country’s problems. The only way we can make progress is to get everyone around the table and hear all sides of an issue.

When I say I am “open” to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), I mean I am willing to listen to those who support it if it means we can begin working together to solve our energy needs.

However, I want to be clear that our first response should not be drilling in ANWR. Those who promote drilling are only thinking in the short-term.

In balancing environmental protection and the promotion of our short-term energy needs as public policy, our environment should always come first.
RICH TARRANT Colchester
The writer is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

Poll! If you haven’t noticed, Republican US Congress Candidate Martha Rainville is having a bad week. She’s been beat up by the Times Argus, by the right-wing Caledonian Record, the blogs and the WCAX poll doesn’t look great. On the one hand, it shows that she doesn’t have nearly the name recognition that all the Democratic campaign folks insist she has (of course, neither does Welch). On the other hand, all her bungling is having an effect. Democrat Welch is nine points up.

Chittenden Senator Jim Leddy is retiring. Senator Leddy is a good guy and a solid legislator. It’s hard to imagine the Senate without him. Thanks for everything, Jim…

Dem-lings: Did you know the Vermont Young Democrats had a blog? I didn’t know. I didn’t even know there were any Vermont Young Democrats (neither did Cathy Resmer at 802 Online — they aren’t listed in her uberblogroll). There’s apparently at least one: Louis Klapp, a VDP staffer. Check it out.

So do we have the whole Chris Graff story or not? Vermont Sunday Magazine Editor Dirk Van Susteren says the supposed justification of journalistic impropriety concerning a book on Howard Dean is bunk. Hmm. There may be more to this after all.

Two must-read GMD diaries: vtpeace (Barbara) starts a discussion on talking points for Democratic values, and Brattlerouser makes a last second appeal for help on the Farmer Protection Act. Check ’em out. Leave ’em your thoughts.

Did I say Rainville was having a bad week? She may be in competition with Tarrant who gets a one-two punch from Seven Days, first in an exchange with Freyne that suggests the guy is coming unhinged at his doghouse numbers, and then an article about some sleazy push-polling lite going on. This stuff deserves a real fleshed out post, but I’m swamped. Maybe Jack or mataliandy or Ed will go for it.

…and the session should be wrapping right about now. I’m sure everyone who posts here will have a lot to say on it (I know I will). Stay tuned.

HOW TO WIN ELECTIONS IN 2006 AND 2008

People need to know what the Democrats stand for:
Let’s get down to the bedrock principles that people identify with most, and stress that the American people are now the priority, not the corporations: (the economy will always be first):

THE ECONOMY IS OUT OF CONTROL: HERE’S WHAT WE’LL DO:

Stop the gouging on gas and oil prices and take back huge giveaways to the oil companies, promise to save Social Security and Medicare (first by changing the prescription drug cost by government price negotiating), rejecting the tax cuts to the rich, and a concerted effort to slow global warming.

Ask the people to sacrifice here to save our planet.

DEFENDING OUR COUNTRY:

No more pre-emptive, illegal wars!  Funding the VA so veterans will get the benefits they were promised!

We will rebuild our intelligence agencies with qualified people.  We will defend America from real threats, from within and without, but we will respect our laws and respect other countries’ values while doing so.  We believe respect is earned, not forced from the muzzle of a gun or the threat of nuclear bombing.

MORAL VALUES:

One America, with equality for all, protecting a woman’s inherent right to control her own body, treating other countries with respect, and holding the President accountable to execute the laws he signs.

Barbara

( – promoted by odum)

Generalissimo Martha’s transparent posturing to be all things to all voters and never take an unpopular stand angered both conservative and liberal newspapers.

This week’s negative editorial in the Democrat- leaning Times Argus and the Rutland Herald has already been reported here. Below is the May 10 slam from the Republican daily, the Caledonian-Record, published in the Kingdom.

Rainville seems to have a long way to go to win Ms. Popularity. I wonder if her foot-in-mouth disease caused her media spokesman Noyes to bail out of her campaign?

The web link is http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/editorials/story/846fe36cc.

The Caledonian-Record Online Edition  ·  Wednesday May 10, 2006
www.caledonianrecord.com
Web Contact:
Ron Fontaine, Webmaster
190 Federal Street, PO Box 8
St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819
fontainer@caledonian-record.com
Phone: 802-748-8121

Is Martha Rainville A Republican?

– When Martha Rainville came to St. Johnsbury to finish her two-day declaration of candidacy for Vermont’s congressional seat, she had some things to say that didn’t sit well with this traditionally Republican newspaper. She said that she wasn’t going to Washington principally as a Republican, but as a representative of the people of Vermont. All well and good; that is political boilerplate. But then she said that she would not blindly follow Republican policy positions. Instead, she would be an independent thinker – there’s that word “independent” that Bernie Sanders painted all over himself. She said that she wanted “to fix what is wrong with the Republican Party.” She declared that she is pro-choice, and said that she wouldn’t want George Bush campaigning for her.

Yesterday, she did a flip-flop and reversed herself, stating that Donald Rumsfeld should retire. Two weeks ago, she said that only the president should decide that. And recently she condemned the practice of earmarking unrelated bills with pork projects. Then, the press discovered that when she was head of the National Guard, she successfully lobbied for and got millions of dollars in pork for the Guard.

So the question is, is Martha Rainville a Republican? Or is she really another Jim Jeffords, who declared himself a Republican at a time when you couldn’t win a race in Vermont as a Democrat. Jeffords was always a Democrat at heart, voting with them much of the time until he declared himself an Independent – there’s that word again – after which he voted with the Democrats (and the liberal wing of that liberal party) most of the time.

The fact is that nobody really knew what Martha Rainville was until she declared herself a Republican. Did she do that because she suspected that she could not beat Peter Welch in a Democratic primary? If we buy her as a Republican, are we buying a Democrat in Republican clothing, a la Jim Jeffords? If that is the case, we suggest that it would be better to have a declared Democrat than a closeted one.

The Caledonian-Record is a daily newspaper serving Northern Vermont and Northern New Hampshire. Visit our website updated daily at www.caledonianrecord.com

Note from the WebMaster: We request that you maintain proper credit to the Caledonian-Record Online News and to the author of the article. If you post this news article on your website we also request that you include a link to our website, which can be accomplished by using the following code:

The Caledonian-Record Online News

© The Caledonian-Record News 1997 – 2006 · St. Johnsbury, Vermont
http://www.caledonianrecord.com

If you’re like me, you’re pretty sick of Richie Tarrant’s soft-focus, feel-good commercials on TV, te ones he’s been dumping so much money into. Somehow,his jump shot doesn’t seem like an important qualification for Senate, but maybe that’s just me. On the other hand, they don’t affect me too much because I hit the “Mute” button as soon as they come on.

Anyway, he’s finally started running issue ads and wouldn’t you know it? He starts lying to us in the very first one. He’s talking about health care and he wants to emphasize the differences between him and Sanders, and here’s what he says:

“Sanders wants the federal government to run your health care. I want all Americans to have health care coverage, yet I want you to be able to choose your doctor and ensure that you get the hightest quality health care, no matter how old you are.”

Let’s cut him a little break and assume that he’s fudging just slightly when he talks about the federal government “running” your health care. I know it’s not true, but the language is vague enough that you can almost let it pass.

But what about the key phrase: “I want you to be able to choose your doctor.”

Has Bernie Sanders ever said that people shouldn’t be able to choose their doctor? No.

Is there any health care proposal in play that would take away people’s right to choose their doctor? No again.

Does Tarrant really think that people can’t understand the difference between the system of paying for health care and the professional relationships between doctors and patients? I think voters know better than that.

I also think people might feel better having their intelligence insulted than being lied to, alghouth it’s a hell of a choice he’s given us.