NSA: Intel Committee vote 2/16...Here we go again.

[rumpel]

NSA: Intel Committee vote 2/16 on Motion to Inquiry in doubt.
This vote is supposed to take place tomorrow inside the Committee!!
Cheney pressured those repubs who had "concerns on the program" into submission
Snowe and Hagel changed their stance

Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt
They attributed the shift to last week's closed briefings given by top administration officials to the full House and Senate intelligence committees, and to private appeals to wavering GOP senators by officials, including Vice President Cheney. "It's been a full-court press," said a top Senate Republican aide who asked to speak only on background - as did several others for this story - because of the classified nature of the intelligence committees' work.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021401812.html

As I feared, Gonzales' testimony and the line of questioning by Repubs appeared to lead to the direction of changing existing laws including FISA via amendments.
Far from investigating whether laws were broken by the administration, Congress is now moving towards aiding and abetting a cover-up, under the guise of national security.

Patriot Act extension conference is a whitewash.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2111138

Gonzales is withholding e-mails in the Plame case
Gonzales Withholding Plame Emails
By Jason Leopold
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506J.shtml

Cheney was not under oath talking to Fitz on the case

Gonzales was not under oath testifying on the NSA program in Congress

Gonzales as WH counsel waited more than 24 hours to inform WH staff, after being notified by the officials of an investigation to maintain all documents pertaining to the Plame case

bush & cheney were not under oath in the 9/11 commission interview

Able Danger Whistleblower, Abu Graib whistleblowers, NSA whistleblowers, FBI whistleblowers all were purged and labeled loonies
Whistleblower says NSA violations bigger
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060214-053955-9494r

Congress passes torture bill, bush issues a Signing Statement, saying he will ignore the statute when he deems fit

Murtha's bill on Iraq is mooted by a misrepresented bill from the repubs and is voted down

Conyers is routinely sent to the basement in Congress to hold a Dem only investigative hearing

WH, HS and DOD withholding communications from Katrina investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2111474

Any "commoner", who had a hunting accident would be under investigation! No one even dares to question Cheney. The question should be: "Was there negligence", not "was the WH late in informing the public".

and the list goes on and being piled up on every day.
Besides, this is now turing into a diversion from the Patriot Act, Katrina Hearings, NSA hearings, and every worthwhile program is being cut from the budget. Meanwhile every day counties in every State are now deciding on voting systems to be HAVA compliant. Who among the hardworking citizens of this country aside from DU and the few other politically involved groups is paying attention?
How much more are the Dems going to tolerate?
Is this the democracy this country is forcing onto Iraq, Afghanistan Haiti and other formerly sovereign nations?

Jonathan Turley is right, SHUT IT DOWN! If the Dems are precluded, and as we see more and more, excluded from participating in governmental business
just SHUT IT DOWN!

Dear Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen, OUR voices are not being heard.

[rodeodance]

1. I feared this would happen. What can we do at this point?

[babylonsister]

2. Dammit! Why is it so hard for these people to do the right thing? nt

[rumpel]

3. Just got e-mail from Ted Kennedy - Minor impact in my opinion

109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 350

Expressing the sense of the Senate that Senate Joint Resolution 23 (107th Congress), as adopted by the Senate on September 14, 2001, and subsequently enacted as the Authorization for Use of Military Force does not authorize warrantless domestic surveillance of United States citizens.

Add your name to Senate Resolution 350

http://www.tedkennedy.com/page/s/resolution350

[rodeodance]

6. it may not pass, but that is not the issue.

[Just Me]

4. The courage to DEFEND has been smothered by the desire to,...

,...dominate.

We are a lost nation.

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. Well said.n/t

[rodeodance]

5. k and recommend

[yellowdogmi]

7. I agree that this is appalling.

There are two things that we can do to be heard. The first is to sign Russ Fiengolds petition to stop the spying. The second is to support Sheeler's call upon Rhode Islands congress to forward articles of impeachment. If you are really motivated you could bug your own state reps to start a similiar campaign. Hope this helps. Here are some links.

http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/page/invite/nsa

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2457344

[necso]

9. This isn't just a question of

the Constitutional issues facing us with this vote (at this time), there is also the issue of the larger pattern that leads us to this pass -- and of the place this vote has in that pattern.

This pattern has many parts, all odious and onerous -- and each giving rise to further excesses of their own and other kinds, in a downward spiral of increasing force, turbulence and danger. But a few of these parts are:
* The decline of the balance and separation of powers;
* The growth of the imperial presidency (as a face of the global-corporatist takeover and control of our state);
* The diminishment of the rule of law as it applies to the presidency -- and the elite more generally (ie, the growth also of an aristocracy);
* The "governing" party's reliance on a wall of lies and deceptions (manipulations more generally) to hide increasingly discordant and dissonant realities -- and the obvious implications of these hidden realities, if ever exposed.
* Vicious, baseless attacks upon any dissent or divergence from the official story-line, propaganda and mindset;
* Foreign and domestic policy being conducted not as an exercise in governing or diplomacy, but rather as thinly-veiled attempts at simple domination through proffered bribes, intimidation, threats, fear, meddling and force.
* Intimidation of the legislative branch and the judiciary;
* Lack of accountability in the executive branch -- contributing to the precipitous decline of competence therein.
* The politicization and use as a political tool (and as a means to access and to loot both wealth and power) of practically everything having to do with government, business, media, religion and other societal fixtures of great power.
* Crass manipulation (through all points of the media "marketing" spectrum -- a media that is little more than a tool of the government and its overlords) of those many citizens who are apparently unable to control what gets placed into their minds -- and who cannot seem to differentiate in their minds between reality and fantasy, (proper) perspective and propaganda/bigotry/ignorance (etc) -- and who, once something has become lodged in their brains, are unable to overcome or mitigate the effects of this mental constipation... even if it promises a fatal affliction;
* The exploitation of a foundational basis of disinformation and predisposition firmly planted in the minds of the many (over decades) as a means to drive policy in the increasingly (as a body) timorous Congress, through manipulating the induced and natural susceptibilities of legions of the deluded, detached citizenry;
* The deliberate destruction of such societal fundaments as common decency, mutual respect, and the recognition of societal obligations -- along with the destruction of such fundamental tools (for recognition, understanding and action) as common (actual) knowledge, common wisdom, common sense, discipline, patience and self-control -- leaving people without any firmament that they can hold close, without any guide-stones to follow, and without the developed elements of character, that could serve as a basis for resisting manipulation or emotions, or for controlling oneself generally -- or that could be used for charting a course on their own, as opposed to simply following the driven herd.
* "Schooling" the herd in, and hardening the herd to, many short-sighted vices (in the name of religion, politics, macho, "right-thinking", gratification, or whatever): self indulgence; indifference to others; egotism; narcissism; living for the moment; taking pleasure in the suffering or relative disadvantages of others; emotionality; narrow-mindedness; closed-mindedness; intolerance; a lack of any serious examination of the world around them, or of self; fixation on the superficial, trivial, immediate and inconsequential; etc -- so that any real attempt by these deluded citizens to deal with their problems will confront them with the kind of shattering "deconstruction" and reconstruction (of a new "take-on-things") that they can generally be relied upon to avoid like the plague. (A turtle can generally be relied upon to pull back into its shell when it feels threatened -- and people can generally be relied upon to pull back into their little mental cages... For both of these "refuges" seem comforting, although only the former provides any real protection against the hazards of life; the latter is more like burying one's head in the sand. )

...

Now consider the words of Edmund Burke: "The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts."

And can there be any doubt that Congressional capitulation on these unConstitutional acts would be just such an expedient nibbling-away: a bitter, cynical farce; a cover for giving away not only necessary Congressional legislative power, but Congressional oversight power as well; and a condoning of high crimes.

And can there be any doubt what the outcome of this (any) capitulation would be? For it would be just one more in a string of political victories for this misadministration (they essentially have no victories other than political/economic ones), and they will assuredly move-on to further excesses, confident that whenever, whatever, Congress, instead of doing its duty, can be bullied/bribed into further compliance and capitulation -- and further abrogation of Congressional power.

(And much the same can be said of the so-called Patriot Act.)

...

"An elective despotism is not the government we fought for." (Thomas Jefferson.)

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." (Samuel Adams -- apparently he also still makes a good beer.)

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (Theodore Roosevelt -- remember those talking-to's?)

"Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad." (James Madison.)

Those who cannot recognize the pit are unlikely to avoid wandering, or being lured, or being driven, into it.