Chris Dodd & Russ Feingold Fighting FISA Bill

Image from source, AOL News

Say what you will about the Congress in general and the Senate in specific, there are a few good ones in there still fighting for us. Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold are vowing to fight passage of the FISA bill, and good for them.

The question of why Democrats would cave on the new FISA bill is rich fodder for speculation. My favorite is the cover your ass theory, where discovery of exactly what has been done would implicate not only Republicans, but also a good chunk of Democrats.

In the days after September 11, 2001, any effort to fight George W. Bush's agenda was met with variations of the "unpatriotic" or "America hater" attacks. So, Democrats--by and large--went along. Some grudgingly, some willingly. And now that the mood of the country is considerably different, some of those actions could come back to haunt Democrats. Tough. The warrantless wiretapping and retroactive immunity for telecom companies defiled the Constitution and many other laws. The single greatest duty of Congress--not to mention the President--is to defend and uphold the Constitution. Suck it up guys. And good on you, Senators Feingold and Dodd. I hope you prevail.

[Excerpt]

Feingold, Dodd to Fight FISA

After Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold issued a strongly worded statement opposing the FISA bill that passed the House of Representatives yesterday, rumors of a filibuster quickly began to circulate. But nowhere in the actual statement did it say that Dodd and Feingold would filibuster the legislation. . .

Read more at: AOL News

Dodd & Biden Drop out of Presidential Race

I think this may be overdue, even after this, the first official contest in the Presidential race. This campaign has been going on for an awfully long time, and is littered with coulda-woulda-shoulda-been contenders. I think Dodd and Biden are both excellent politicians, and either would make a good president. But the writing has been on the wall for quite some time now. Next up, Richardson? And what of the over-stuffed Republican ticket?

This particular news item is too new to source. . .I caught it on MSNBC. But interestingly, I found this item using almost the same language I used above. Spooky.

[Excerpt]

Richardson, Biden and Dodd: Woulda, coulda, shoulda

What do Bill Richardson, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd have in common?If only one of them were running for the Democratic presidential nomination, it might be a different-looking race. . .

Read more at: Los Angeles Times

FCC Votes to Allow Further Consolidation

After yesterday's wonderful news of Chris Dodd's successful scuttling (for now) of the FISA/Telecom Immunity measure, this news is more than a bit of a downer. I thought maybe, just maybe we were on a roll or something.

Allowing media giants to even further consolidate serves no public purpose. All it does is allow already rich companies to get richer and for fewer people to control media messages. Sorry, but no matter how you slice it, this sucks.

[Excerpt]

FCC agrees to new media ownership reform

The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation's 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was joined by his two Republican colleagues in favor of the proposal, while the commission's two Democrats voted against it. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

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O'Reilly Lives in an Alternate Universe

Photo from SweetJesusIHateBillO'Reilly.com

You could forgive a person who expressed an opinion that he didn't know was false. But, what to do with Bill O'Reilly? It is plainly obvious that conservatives have their overly partisan sites (I mean, c'mon, FreeRepublic.com). Democrats have their own, but I have yet to find one that equals FR. Anyway, O'Reilly denies and ignores the hate, separatism and angry vitriol that appears on his own side of the political discourse.

Read on:

[Excerpt]

"We're going to show you a hateful picture posted on a far-left website," began O'Reilly, "so you might want to change channels." O'Reilly then displayed a photoshopped picture of Senator Joe Leiberman kneeling in front of President Bush and reaching for his fly as if to perform oral sex.
O'Reilly asked Senator Dodd, who is attending the Yearly Kos convention, "Why don't you distance yourself from it?"

"What I'm stunned at," responded Dodd, "is the fact you've spent as much time here going after an online community gathering, when there are 500,000 people who visit that site on a daily basis, to identity 5, 6, 7, 8 objectionable, offensive cartoons or comments. ... You ought to be far more candid with your viewing audience here and tell them that your real objection here is the ideology. ... You don't like their politics. Why don't you focus on that?"

"Are you okay with that cartoon, sir?" insisted O'Reilly. "That's what they do on the site. They do that hate stuff all the time. ... There's thousands of vile postings on that website. Thousands!"
"There are thousands on your posting as well," said Dodd, laughing.

Read more at: RawStory.com

Chris Dodd vs. Bill O'Reilly

This guy's got spunk. I almost feel guilty for walking out of the health conference at UNLV while he was speaking! He may not have levelled O'Reilly, but he more than held his own. Watch.



And, in case you're wondering why I'm picking on the great loofah/falafel-man, O'Reilly, check out this quote (via AmericaBlog and Towleroad):

"And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."