I know that Vermont doesn’t have a U.S. Senate race in 2008.  But 33 other states do.  And anyone following the news over the last year-and-a-half has read about Senate Republicans filibustering anything and everything that moves, breaking the record for filibusters in a two-year Congressional session in less than one year!

It is critical that we expand our majority in the U.S. Senate to reduce this historic rate of Republican obstructionism, so that an Obama administration can proceed with an agenda that helps rather than hinders American progress.  I have been following this on my blog, Senate Guru, very closely and have been pushing for us to expand the map of competitive Senate races.

To that end, I have established the Expand the Map! ActBlue page, raising much needed funds for Democratic Senate candidates in uphill but competitive (or very-close-to-competitive) Senate races.  Every one of these Democratic Senate candidates who wins her or his race means one less Republican filibustering progressive legislation.  And every one of these Democratic Senate candidates has a message that will resonate with voters – all they need are the resources to get their messages out to the electorate and prevent the Republican incumbents from muddying their records.

With tonight being the deadline for the second fundraising quarter of 2008, it is critical that we get funds in to help these Democratic candidates show strength.  So, please, please, please contribute if you can to any of the terrific candidates for Senate on the Expand the Map! ActBlue page.  Even though these candidates don’t represent your state, if elected, they will defeat the Republican obstructionism that very much impacts you and your state.

ate last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

(Preparing the Battlefield, The New Yorker online)

Oh yeah … real serious questions … like how fast can we sign on the dotted line Dear Leader Bush?

Another round of thanks to our Democratic troika of Leahy, Sanders and Welch for their continued support of a “leadership” that has helped advance every war mongering, constitution busting move made by Cheney/Bush.