Category : Congress

I just wish I was surprised about this ugly turn of events. Unfortunately, I’m not. Just a little disappointed.

Just as the Democrats work tirelessly to demonstrate to the voters that it makes zero difference which party controls Congress, the political establishment forces all candidates for the presidential nomination to sever any compromising ties to sanity and common sense.

It’s not a very good article, but I thought the above paragraph was well-written and to the point. Cockburn had be going until he ripped on people pursuing impeachment:

The left is as easily distracted, currently by the phantasm of impeachment. Why all this clamor to launch a proceeding surely destined to fail, aimed at a duo who will be out of the White House in sixteen months? Pursue them for war crimes after they’ve stepped down. Mount an international campaign of the sort that has Henry Kissinger worrying at airports that there might be a lawyer with a writ standing next to the man with the limo sign. Right now the impeachment campaign is a distraction from the war and the paramount importance of ending it.

Uh, not quite, dumbass. Bush is still the commander in chief. He needs to be removed before the bloodshed will end. If he’s still president he will not draw soldiers out of Iraq, even if there’s no money to support them. He doesn’t give a fuck!

Oh, and he’ll probably cook up some reason to go into Iran if things start winding down in Iraq. Get a clue, dude. Go after the source of the problem. Why do you think we’re in Iraq in the first place? This is Bush’s war.

As for the Democrats and their capitulation on the spying thing (not that they were even under that much pressure): Wow. Talk about a knife in the back of Lady Liberty. I keep arguing that there’s an Oligarchy, a Ruling Class, and that it doesn’t matter which party you choose because the elite control both, and the Democrats keep proving my point. Thanks, but I’d rather you show some spine, guys.

It’s looking more and more like Pat Tillman was murdered — executed if you will. The incredible revelations were revealed in a new AP story that doesn’t draw any conclusions, but whose fresh details paint a picture of an Army-wide cover-up and an execution-style assassination. From Yahoo:

Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

10 yards away? How do you fuck up so badly that you manage to put 3 bullets — in a tight grouping — in the head of a fellow Ranger? It doesn’t seem very likely, especially when there was zero evidence of enemy fire. That means that they were not in the fog of war and the confusion that follows from it.

It’s also worth noting that the Tillman story has changed several times. First, he was killed by enemy fire. Then he was killed by friendly-fire. Now it seems the “friendly” might have been aiming right at him.

Who would want Tillman dead, and why? Prison Planet has some theories:

The evidence points directly to it and the motivation is clear – Tillman abandoned a lucrative career in pro-football immediately after 9/11 because he felt a rampaging patriotic urge to defend his country, and became a poster child for the war on terror as a result. But when he discovered that the invasion of Iraq was based on a mountain of lies and deceit and had nothing to do with defending America, he became infuriated and was ready to return home to become an anti-war hero.As far back as March 2003, immediately after the invasion, Tillman famously told his comrade Spc. Russell Baer, “You know, this war is so fucking illegal,” and urged his entire platoon to vote against Bush in the 2004 election. Far from the gung-ho gruff stereotype attributed to him, Tillman was actually a fiercely intellectual man with the courage of his convictions firmly in place.

Tillman had even begun to arrange meetings with anti-war icons like Noam Chomsky upon his return to America before his death cut short any aspirations of becoming a focal point for anti-war sentiment.

This is the last thing the Bush/Cheney administration needed. Could they have possibly given the order to assassinate Tillman and then cover it up?

Former presidential candidate Wesley Clark said he thought the orders to whack Tillman must’ve come from the very top. Tillman could’ve become an anti-war voice much more resonant among men and conservatives than Cindy Sheehan. He represented a threat precisely because of his service, his life story and his fierce, questioning intelligence. The latest (and most pathetic) propaganda seems designed to paint Pat as an atheist to undermine America’s trust in him:

But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.

The chaplain said that O’Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman’s side, “crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God’s not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling …”

If there was no enemy fire, why were they on the ground? How do we know this account wasn’t completely fabricated? I think Congress needs to talk to the doctors and investigators who attempted to pursue the homicide angle, but were stymied.

How come all of these anti-war people tend to die mysteriously?

Protests for impeachment or ending the war or whatever are pretty crazy, fun things. I quite enjoy them, as one might enjoy going to the fair, but many people resent the weird characters and huge floats depicting Rumsfeld feeling up Lady Liberty or whatever. I think they use the carnival atmosphere to break through peoples’ consciousness. Nothing even gets through to people unless it’s bright and colorful and flashing and preferrably on TV.

But maybe the old circus tricks aren’t working anymore and we need new ideas. I like the idea of a “formal tone” concept, to take the opposite approach, but we could still have fun with it. We should all get dressed up in our finest suits and go around with big signs saying:

“We respectfully disagree with the conduct and character of the Iraq War and wish to discuss remedies for said tragic happenstance!”

“I wish to express that President Bush’s position on the War in Iraq is incongruent with my own!”

“Please bring the Iraq War to and end as quickly and deliberately as possible within the framework mutually decided upon by Congress and the President.”

“We respectfully demand a full scientific appraisal of the Earth’s climate and any changes we must make as a society to combat any unwanted developments as the result of global climate change!”

“As a citizen of the United States of America I hearby express my utmost concern for the constitutional well-being of this country, which I believe can only be remanded to the people after holding the present office-holder of the presidency to account (through the process of impeachment) for serious charges concerning his willful disregard of his oath of office.”

“His Honor the Vice President has given ample evidence of fealty to a dark lord known as Baal the Destroyer. His sworn oath to the constitution of these states lays utterly despoiled by malice and deception and so he must be impeached forthwith!”

We’ve gotta find some bigger signs…

Proving once again that they value partisanship over America, freedom and informed debate, the sellout hacks at DailyKos have “warned” anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan that if she posts more about her independent candidacy she will be banned.

I can’t post here anymore because my potential run for Congress is not on the Democratic ticket.

If Speaker Pelosi does her constitutionally mandated duty and I don’t run, then I can come back and post.

DailyKos is shameful. The site is bathed in hypocrisy and founded on partisanship.

The two-party system has destroyed America and put us in the current mess, and DailyKos and other Yellow Dog Democrats are part of the problem. They care about Democrats first and America second (just as the Republicans look after themselves first and America… well, okay they don’t care about America at all).

That said, there is still some hope that Pelosi is just being strategic, but where has trusting the Democrats to hold Republicans accountable got us so far? I can see Cindy’s point; what’s the purpose of having the Democrats in charge of Congress if they won’t impeach? 50% of the nation is pro-impeachment (46% for Bush, 58% for Cheney) and the Democrats aren’t even talking about it. Once the real investigations start and we find some dirt the numbers will go higher. But will the Democrats have the balls to do it?

Only if it doesn’t harm their precious party, or the two-party system.

Ironically, many DailyKos regulars are the best enemies Bush could hope for: weak, timid, divided and fucking stupid. They proceed with undue caution and fret that attacking Bush could make them look like big meanies. They make excuses rather than try and build a consensus on impeachment, and they are far more concerned about their electoral chances in 2008 than in actually holding the illegal Bush/Cheney administration accountable. In short, they are Bush’s enablers.

Sheehan gets points in my book for being against the Federal Reserve, which many Kossacks think is a Republican position (it’s not), so, unthinkingly, they reject it like the fucking mindless borg shitheads that they are.

Opposition to the Fed is generally an independent position (Ron Paul is the exception here, but he’s so hated by his own party that I think it only strengthens my point), and is generally the province of informed, independent-minded folks who don’t follow marching orders of the Washington establishment oligarchy.

The sad truth is the there’s nothing progressive about DailyKos; it’s about as regressive and unimaginative as you can get. These people are too wrapped up in the sports team mentality (“Gooooo Dems!”) to realize that their party is as much a part of the fascist oligarchy as the Republicans.

DailyKos is decidedly mainstream, and worships at the altar of pragmatism, not freedom, liberty, or truth. Their only goal is victory (and they admit as much), although they still like to pretend to be anti-establishment nothing could be further from the truth. When Kos casts himself as a revolutionary, he doesn’t mean to change the system. He merely wants to sieze control it and use it for his own selfish aims… Just like everybody else in politics.

The Democrats, for their part, have accomplished exactly nothing in Congress. Not that Bush would sign their reform bills anyway, but isn’t that all the more reason to impeach the stonewalling, lying, election-stealing fascist bastards? Apparently not.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s only one party — The Business Party, and Democrats and Republicans are merely factions of that monolithic party. We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a constitutional republic that is quickly shedding the “constitutional” part for fascism instead. And what are the Democrats doing to stop it? About as much as they’re doing to stop the war: Nothing but a few bellicose speeches for the choir.

Still, the Kossacks will continue to support the Dems, no matter what. Blind loyalty is their modus operandi and they show no signs of changing it. So, how are they any different from the Republicans who support Bush no matter how many laws he breaks?

Partisans on both sides are the same. They all think it’s okay to break a few rules in order to achieve their party’s higher goals. What’s best for America doesn’t enter into it.

Ladies and gentlemen of the internet, today I would like to introduce a bill for consideration by The Congress of the United States of America. Please join me in supporting this critical piece of legislation.

In the rough and tumble world of politics a man needs a chance to unwind at the end of the day so he can face tomorrow refreshed and ready to go. This is especially important when that man is engaged in the stressful task of starting wars and silencing enemies. Isn’t it time to give back to the man who has taken so very much? I hope you’ll join me in lobbying Congress to pass The Dick Cheney Hooker Disposal Act of 2007.

Full text of this important bill:

110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6660

To amend the Department of Hookers and Cheap Cigars Department Act of 1914, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 18, 2007


A BILL

To amend the Department of Hookers and Cheap Cigars Department Act of 1914, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the The Dick Cheney Hooker Disposal Act of 2007″.

SEC. 2. It shall be resolved forthwith that—

(a) Any prostitutes the Vice President of the United States of America, His Honor Richard B. Cheney wishes to dispose of shall have duly deposited into the account relating to her post-use period via her microchip implant a credit of not less than 8,000 U.S. dollars and not more than 1 million ($1,000,000) U.S. dollars, plus free shipping in Wyoming.

(b) Definitions- For purposes of this section—

(1) The term “prostitute” shall be defined as “a woman who for whatever reason has sex with Dick Cheney and is not his wife” and shall be used throughout this bill.

(2) The term “hooker” shall have identical meaning herein.

(3) The term “pimp” shall refer to the business associate of a hooker

(c) All prostitutes shall be supplied by Madam Palfrey or a duly appointed representative (or “Pimp”).

SEC. 3. Hooker disposal in accordance with Hooker Disbursement and Collection Agency (HDCA) rules and regulations

(a) All prostitutes must be disposed of in a method befitting the secreting of all evidence of prostitute fucking and killing from the general public. Since they never read these bills, they’ll never fucking know. Therefore, all prostitute remains must be remanded to the control of the Chief Deputy of the Hooker Disbursement and Collection Agency (HDCA) or his duly appointed representative.

(b) It is resolved that hooker remains must be deposited into—

(1) The cement foundation of new buildings or

(2) Blended with molten steal

(c) So as to ensure no evidence will be found of the Department of Hookers and Cheap Cigars Department Act of 1914, and all subsequent legislation, including this Act.

(d) Furthermore, it is resolved that Dick Cheney’s hooker disposal is hereby given utmost priority over other hooker disposal requirements, including

(1) The President’s (POTUS) Playboy Bunnys Get Fucked Department and related activities, known as Section 69-G, and

(2) all other hooker disposal priorities.

SEC. 4. It is further resolved that funding for this act shall—

(a) Be acquired by secretly re-routing funds appropriated to the Faking Unsolicited Concern for Kids, Orphans, Females and Freedom (FUCKOFF) Act of 1969 and

(b) From the Central Intelligence Agency’s (C.I.A.) Secret Slush Fund for Hookers and Blow.


You may be wondering if I’m serious. You’re damn right I’m serious.

We live in an age of unprecedented government corruption and corporate malfeasance and few people seem to care. The point of this admittedly cynical satire to make people think. In my wildest wet dream this bill would be introduced and even debated on the floor of House of Representatives. I don’t expect them to pass it; shit, I’d be the first to say they should vote against it.

Getting the bill passed is not the point. I’d just like to see a member of the House introduce it to make a point about how incredibly corrupt and evil our government has become. There are so many secret or just oft-ignored parts of the government all running around doing god-knows-what with the trillions of dollars the taxpayers have given them, it’s hard to imagine the government is even aware of what its doing.

Like an octopus with a million tentacles a few must inevitably be up to no good. A few errant tentacles I can accept but when a man like Dick Cheney take
s control of the Octopus’ cranium and controls it so effectively I begin to wonder if maybe corruption is the plan. Cheney’s deft control of the war machine revealed that corruption is not the exception; it’s the norm. And if he’s ordered a prostitute or two? Well, maybe reality is more corrupt and decrepit than my darkest nightmares.

Please, join me in supporting a bill that you don’t really support. It’s a crazy choice for crazy times.

In an interview in GQ Magazine, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel reveals that the Bush administration tried to get Congress to approve military action anywhere in the Middle East — not just in Iraq — in the fall of 2002 during the run-up the War in Iraq.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

GQ: It’s incredible that you had to ask for that.
Hagel: It is incredible. That’s what I said to Andy Card. Said it to Powell, said it to Rice. Might have even said it to the president. And finally, begrudgingly, they sent over a resolution for Congress to approve. Well, it was astounding. It said they could go anywhere in the region.

GQ: It wasn’t specific to Iraq?
Hagel: Oh no. It said the whole region! They could go into Greece or anywhere. I mean, is Central Asia in the region? I suppose! Sure as hell it was clear they meant the whole Middle East. It was anything they wanted. It was literally anything. No boundaries. No restrictions.

GQ: They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere they wanted in the Middle East?
Hagel: Yes. Yes. Wide open. We had to rewrite it. Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I stripped the language that the White House had set up, and put our language in it.

This is really chilling stuff. Right here, in front of our faces, we have evidence (from a Republican no less) that the Bush regime was planning a war of global aggression back in 2002. What more is there to say? The neocons have been planning a series of invasions for years (probably long before 2002) which would allow them to reshape and control the whole Middle East, from Iran and Syria to Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is only the first step; that’s why the neocons are so determined to stamp out opposition to the war.

Do you still think the talk of going into Iran is just talk? I’m betting battle plans have been drawn up and they are entering the final phase of preparations. The key is to trick us into war. Keep your eyes open for a false flag attack.

It certainly seemed as if he was trying to brag about how “democratic” we are to actually bother holding elections during war time in his radio address:

“We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war.”

We won’t make that mistake again!

Bush is trying to use his loss to make himself look magnanimous. Secretly, I think, he’s wishing he had invented an excuse to suspend elections.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

Jesus Criminey Christ on a fucking pogo-stick. The Democrats just swept to power in both houses of Congress and here they are attacking 3rd party voters in Minnesota for not voting for Mike Hatch and Patty Wetterling:

What makes Peter Hutchinson any less hypocritical than the politicians he thinks he is so different from? If he really cared about the issues that will make this a better state for Minnesotans, he would have thrown his support to Mike Hatch.

As for all those who voted for him, you too are sadly self-centered in your approach to the world. I am sorry for the personal, psychological neediness that always seems to manifest with spoiler candidates. Spoiler candidates impact the course of history — sometimes as dramatically as the 2000 presidential election. Is this the goal in the end — to leave your mark no matter how many people you drag down with you?

ELLEN WILCOCK, MINNEAPOLIS

First of all, Fuck you, Wilcock. What gives you the right to tell me how to vote? Why don’t you talk to the Republicans who elected Pawlenty rather than bitching about people who dared to vote for a candidate that wasn’t Hatch or Pawlenty? What so offends you about my right to choose who I vote for? Perhaps you would feel better in a setting more akin to Iran wherein the candidates are selected by the state ahead of time so nobody even has a chance to vote against the approved candidates. Would you prefer that, you fucking fascist?

Do you wanna know why I didn’t vote for Hatch, Mrs. Wilcock? BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU. That’s right, YOU are the reason that Hatch lost. You, and people like you who are so fucking sure that people who vote for independent/3rd party candidates would vote for Democrats if there wasn’t another option on the ballot. Well, guess what: You’re wrong. Don’t ever fucking try to tell me how to vote again you ungrateful, self-righteous bitch.

The Democrats are just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans. Democrats are like the abused wives who continually back down and let — even encourage — abusive husbands (the Republicans) continally beat the shit out of them. In this horrible, yet oddly appropriate analogy the third parties are like their children. The abused wife likes to take out her frustrations by screaming at the children because she’s too weak to take on the abusive father. Get a fucking clue, Wilcock, and move out! Aim your venom at the people who deserve it — the Republicans! Stay the fuck off my back.

And although you may be too stupid and weak to understand, some of my readers are not so I will explain to you how it works. Point 1: There is only one major political party in America: The Business Party. The Business Party (a.k.a. The Corporate Party) has two factions. These factions are called Republicans and Democrats. They serve the same master — the corporate interests that utterly control our country and, by extension, the world. The two-party system is a sham. The corporations simply do not allow anti-corporate candidates into their party, either faction. Try to name me an anti-corporate senator or congressman. There aren’t any. Questioning corporatism is a legitimate (even populist) position, but you won’t find any of those people in the halls of Congress. You will find candidates who are opposed to corporate power, but they are almost all Green Party candidates.

Watch this video clip of Noam Chomsky’s explanation of our political system, starting with The Business Party:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8pxyAWTBk]

Point 2: Democrats and Republicans have a symbiotic relationship, which is to say that they feed off of each other and support one another. One cannot exist without the other (in their present form — the names of the factions are irrelevant). You notice how the excesses of the Republican Congress/Administration pushed the American people right into the waiting arms of the Democrats? Well, it works both ways, as you’ll remember from 1994. When the Democrats go too far the Republicans step in. They seized power because of the corruption and stupidity of the Democrats in 1994 (sound familiar?). Do you see how they trade power back and forth, like a ping-pong ball? So no matter how inept and corrupt a party (faction) gets the Corporate Party still wins! They win every election. They choose every major candidate and they are never disappointed on election day.

As Chomsky pointed out, this is the way the Republic was designed. We are not a democracy any more than North Korea is. Remember, when this nation was founded the only people who could vote were white males, most of whom were rich landowners. Today, the only people who can afford to run for office are the rich, and the only people who can afford substantial campaign contributions are also rich. Thus, the rich are the only ones who matter. The rest of us merely choose between two rich guys with rich backers, both of whom support the business party and the business class.

So, Mrs. Wilcock, are you still determined to disparage my vote against the Business Party? Well, maybe that’s because you’re a part of the ruling class. Or maybe you’re too stupid to know the difference. Either way you contribute to its continued rule. My vote against the ruling elite had no effect — it’s designed to be that way. But at least I voted my conscience and I did it as an educated person rather than a bandwagon-jumping automaton who doesn’t realize that she’s voting against her own interests — assuming you’re not part of the ruling class. If you are, well then what are you complaining about?

America was never quite what it was advertised as. But over the years it’s gotten better as minorities and women (even women like Mrs. Wilcock) were given the right to vote. If we really want to change the system we have to look honestly at what we have; it’s not so great. People like me are utterly shut out of political decisions and people like Wilcock are so fucking deluded and confused that they might as well live in a completely different country. So why not make a change?

The solution to our problem is called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). There are many ways to structure the system, but most boil down to this: Rank your preferred candidates in order of preference. Don’t rank candidates that you dislike. Then the results are tabulated so that if no candidate gets 50% the lowest vote getter is eliminated and the voter’s second-choice candidates are added to the totals of all remaining candidates. See a Flash demonstration here.

Next time, Mrs. Wilcock, rather than writing into the newspaper and screeching at people who exercised their constitutional right to vote for whomever they wish, you should write in and encourage Minnesota to adopt Instant Runoff Voting. Of course, since I called you a fascist bitch you’re not likely to do that. But the rest of you should know that Instant Runoff Voting is better than having to listen to this lecture again, which is what you’re gonna get if you try and tell me who to vote for. So support IRV!!

Sibel Edmonds and Daniel Ellsberg say it’s worth looking into:

The major effect of that is that terrorist gangs are taking a cut of this, including Al Qaeda, which essentially taxes this traffic as it goes through the various lands where each ‘band’ pays a percentage as they hand it off. In other words, the US is in effect, endorsing – well, ‘endorsing’ is too strong a word – ‘permitting’, definitely permitting, or ‘not acting against,’ a heroin trade – which not only corrupts our cities and our city politics, AND our congress, as Sibel makes very specific – but is financing the terrorist organization that constitutes a genuine threat to us. And this seems to be a fact that is accepted by our top leaders, according to Sibel, for various geopolitical reasons, and for corrupt reasons as well. Sometimes things are simpler than they might appear – and they involve envelopes of cash. Sibel says that suitcases of cash have been delivered to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, at his home, near Chicago, from Turkish sources, knowing that a lot of that is drug money.

There’s more.

Our government in action! In case you were wondering where they find time to be this corrupt, it’s because they don’t really do any work as RollingStone makes clear in their latest article on the corrupt congress.

Throw the bums out!

Congress to sue the President

I am not making this up. Arlen Specter is planning on introducing a bill that will allow Congress to sue President Bush for his abuse of “signing statements” that increasingly look like an end run around Congress:

“We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will…authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.

Specter’s announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.

Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, reserving the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

“That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement,” said ABA president Michael Greco. The practice, he added “is harming the separation of powers.”

Bush has challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers compiled by Specter’s committee. The ABA estimated Bush has issued signing statements on more than 800 statutes, more than all other presidents combined.

Signing statements have been used by presidents, typically for such purposes as instructing agencies how to execute new laws.

But many of Bush’s signing statements serve notice that he believes parts of bills he is signing are unconstitutional or might violate national security.

A line-item veto has already been declared unconstitutional. Why does Bush think he can get away with this? Probably because the Republican-led Congress has let him get away with everything else so far.

This is great news, but Specter cannot be trusted. He’s already trying to let the President weasel out of punishment (and court) for his unchecked wiretapping and his end run around of the FISA court (notice a pattern here?). But hopefully Specter will show spine for once.

But I wouldn’t count on it. Change is gonna come, but it’s gonna have to come from us, the common people. We need to take to the streets.

It seems that Bush isn’t really telling Congress everything. One of his major supporters wrote him a letter to complain about his committee being left out of the loop on several new spying programs which presumably have not been made public yet:

In a sharply worded letter, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee has told President Bush that the administration is angering lawmakers, and possibly violating the law, by giving Congress too little information about domestic surveillance programs.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.) has been a staunch defender of the administration’s anti-terrorism tactics. But seven weeks ago, he wrote to Bush to report that he had heard of “alleged Intelligence Community activities” not outlined to committee members in classified briefings.

“If these allegations are true,” he wrote, “they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law and . . . a direct affront to me and the Members of this committee.”

Hoekstra’s four-page letter of May 18 was posted yesterday on the New York Times’ Web site. His staff confirmed the letter’s authenticity but said it was meant to remain private. Spokesman Jamal D. Ware said Hoekstra “has raised these concerns, and they are being addressed. He will continue to push for full disclosure so the committee can conduct vigorous oversight.”

The letter is significant because few congressional Republicans have complained publicly about Bush’s surveillance programs, which include warrantless wiretaps of some Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails as well as the massive collection of telephone records involving U.S. homes and businesses.

Well, nice of them to finally speak up. Or one of them, I guess. He seems pretty steamed about being left out of the loop:

In his letter, Hoekstra complained of unspecified alleged surveillance operations that had not become public at the time and that, perhaps, remain undisclosed. It was written five weeks before newspapers divulged that the administration has been secretly tapping into a vast global database of confidential financial transactions for nearly five years. It was unclear yesterday whether Hoekstra and other top-ranking lawmakers had been briefed on that program by the date of the letter.

So I guess the Bush administration was lying when it said that it keeps Congress well-informed of it various spying programs. One more lie to add to the growing pile.

I wonder what those undisclosed spying programs entail? Maybe it’s only the SWIFT financial records spying program, but it could be a whole new one, or a bunch of new ones. Either way, Bush lied. Let me say it again: Bush Lied.

But when he says, “trust me” some people still believe him. How stupid can you get? The man is a habitual liar and a politician. He cannot be trusted. Let’s not keeping making that mistake, okay?

I didn’t even have a chance to blog about this (and probably blow a gasket in the process), but it seems the flag-burning amendment didn’t get the requisite 67 votes in the Senate. It got 66.

A constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died in a cliffhanger vote in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, one week before Independence Day, one vote short of the support needed to send it to the states for ratification.

The 66-34 vote in favor of the amendment was a single vote short of the two-thirds required. The House surpassed that threshold last year, 286-130.

The proposed amendment, sponsored by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, read: “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”

It represented Congress’ response to U.S. Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

I love this logic: Our idiotic, pandering law is unconstitutional, so we’d better change the Constitution!

Oh God, pry me away from the keyboard before I bleed from the sputtering rage that wells up every time I think of the fact that 66 United States Senators are so utterly corrupt that they thought it would be a good idea to take away real, actual freedom to protect an abstract symbol of freedom.

The flag is imaginary. Our freedom is (supposed to be) real!

Don’t worry. If you don’t understand, Bill Frist will help you figure it out:

“Countless men and women have died defending that flag,” said Repulican Majority Leader Bill Frist, closing two days of debate. “It is but a small humble act for us to defend it.”

NO, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!! They didn’t die to protect the flag, they died to protect freedom itself! Who gives a shit about the flag; it’s a piece of cloth, an abstract symbol of our liberty. But fascist fools like Frist would love to steal that freedom away by routing it somewhere else. In this case, they are trying to give a piece of colored cloth more rights than they would give to a human being.

IT’S AN INANIMATE OBJECT! Our constitutionally-protected freedoms are what’s important. The flag is not. We could burn a million flags and not lose one ounce of real freedom. But Frist would rather that we lose our First Amendment free speech rights in a futile attempt to protect a piece of cloth from supposed harm. Fuckwit.

But I don’t for a second think that these politicians are that stupid. They know exactly what they’re doing. I throw the word “fascist” around a lot on this blog. But this is one of those times when you can see that I’m not exaggerrating at all.

I tried not to get upset about this, but when I see such blatant, hideous, satanic idol-worship, I just get so fucking pissed off I could rip Frist’s jugular clean out and use it to wax my boat (if I had a boat).

Our nation is in deep shit. 66 senators just cast a vote for fascism. It passed the House like butter.

We are in deep shit.

God, please save our stupid nation. We are a nation of fascists and idiots, but there are some of us worth saving….Right?