Don't mess with Russ!

Just broke one of my own work rules and went downstairs and turned on the TV to watch Russ Feingold take his turn at questioning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Actually I think this was the second round for Russ and he pretty much tore Gonzales up the first time too. Russ has been very tough on Gonzales today but then again, so has Senator Durbin of Illinois, Senator Leahy of Vermont, Charles (Chuck ) Schumer of New York, and even Feinstein of California. Wow! The Democrats are showing some spine even though the Chairman of the Committee, Sen Spectre of Pennsylvania has used the power of the Chair and the majority to thwart almost anything the Dems wanted to do. ... that included REFUSING TO PUT GONZALES UNDER OATH before the committee.

The most amusing aspect to observe is that everytime a Democratic Senator scores a few points, the next Republican Senator has to come along and do damage control. I swear, I haven't seen people "beg the question" so badly since I watched my son's 5th grade science fair....cheeeezzzz....

What is becoming obvious though...from the Attorney General's bobbing and weaving... is that the administrations has, more than likely, listened in on innocent Americans, entered homes without warrants, and opened first class mail without warrants....

I never thought I'd see the day when we would even be discussing this kind of thing in the United States.

Say it ain't so.....

from:http://www.democrats.org/blog.html

This is an actual picture of the sign for the campaign headquarters of Congressman Bob Ney, (R-Ohio)...yes THE BOB NEY of Abramoff fame.....It seems he opened a campaign headquarters office in a strip mall next to....well...a picture is worth a 1000 words. Considering that indictments are pending, the choice is "unfortunate".

In other news:

Congressman Bernie Sanders collapsed at a funeral in Maine today...hope he's okay....

Gonzales "leaked" the essence of his testimony on the NSA spying....he's attacking the media and any opponents ....surprise, surprise....

Superbowl coming on in a while.....not sure I'm going to watch even though I've been an admirer of Bill Cowar (spelling?) for years...As near as I can tell, he's one of the good guys....

Rumors are that there will be a "blogger meet-up" at the 7th CD convention. Nice to put faces on the posts....anybody who blogs/posts/comments here is more than welcome.


on edit:

I've been following the Channel 4 story out of Great Britain about Bush and Blair's schemes to go into Iraq with or without UN approval and even Bush's half-baked plan to paint an airplane in UN colors and bait Saddam into shooting at it in order to provoke a conflict.

Some bloggers are excited about this story butI'm not because it originates in another one of those memos that can't be viewed by the public because of the "Official Secrets Act". In my mind, if the memo can't be publicly scrutinized, it's worthless. I don't doubt that it's there, but consider it "unhelpful in documenting Bush and Blair's crimes in lying us into war. Thoughts
e

7th CD Convention

Thanks to my on-line buddy JackpineRadical I've been informed that the 7th CD Convention is going to be on April 22. I understand we'll be presenting resolutions at our March Meeting....I'm very impressed with the quality of the resolutions coming from Wood County.

Make plans for April 22

more later

ed

Feingold's reaction to SOTU

I had seen the headlines about Russ's comments but didn't realize how tough Russ got on Dubya until I read it on Dailykos.com. Wow! He has really taken off the "kid gloves"!

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/2/10581/84829

This administration reacts to any questions about spying on American citizens by saying that those of us who stand up for our rights and freedoms are somehow living in a "pre-September 11th, 2001 world."

In fact, the President is living in a pre-1776 world.

Our Founders lived in dangerous times, and they risked everything for freedom. Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." The President's pre-1776 mentality is hurting America and fracturing the foundation on which our country has stood for 230 years. The President can't just bypass two branches of government, and obey only those laws he wants to obey. Deciding unilaterally which of our freedoms still apply in the fight against terrorism is unacceptable and needs to be stopped immediately.

Now we all know that Russ is eyeing a run for the Democratic Nomination for the Presidency.....to restate it may seem like I'm having a "duhhhh" moment...so his comments might easily be dismissed as campaign hype. But even if it is, it's a direct contradiction of the "conventional wisdom" to play it safe, play it in the middle, be moderate in running for National office.

No, I don't think this is campaign rhetoric. I think Bush and his extremist policies have finally driven Russ to get tough..

Good on him!

Exclusive Picture!

Bush's original suit for the State of the Union Address


Thanks to Jane Hamser at firedoglake.blogspot.com for the picture.....

Thursday Open Thread

Hi everybody. I've been tied up for two days so I haven't had much time to post.

Just a few quick notes:

Did anybody see the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night? I have to admit I couldn't stand to watch so I followed along on Air America Radio with Sam Seder...the running commentary and jokes actually made it worthwhile.

News today that Republicans elected a new majority leader...after screwing up the first ballot and taking a "mulligan" on the vote. How incredibly ironic. When the dust settled, they elected Congressman Boehner (pronounced BAH-ner...not like it's spelled hehehehehehehehe) in an upset over Delay's hand-picked successor.

I just got off the phone with my favorite stock broker. I asked, "Should I stick my head in the oven?" He replied, "No, but open the door".

I got an email from the Chairperson of the City's Cable TV committee with new wording in the agreement with FSTV (Free Speech TV) and the airing of Democracy Now!. It's much better in the sense that it spells out that they will only preempt the program if it fails to meet standards for PUBLIC PROGRAMMING. Believe me, it's loose enough where I'm not too worried anymore. This is much better than the language that allowed preemption for any reason at any time with no recourse or appeal.

Feel free to jump in....

Any events happening that we should know about?

e

Governor's Veto Upheld

Once again, the state's 133 year ban on concealed weapons has been upheld. If any of you, like me, are dancing in the streets over this, and would like to thank the two Democratic Representatives who changed their votes and supported the Governor's veto, here is their contact information from the latest WI Blue Book:

John Steinbrink 65th Assembly District Room 307 West, State Capitol, P.O. Box 8953, Madison, WI 53708 Phone: Office: 608.266.0455 District: 262694.5863
email: Rep.Steinbrink@legis.state.wi.us


Terry Van Akkeren 26th Assembly District Room 220 North, State Capitol, P.O. Box 8953, Madison, WI 53708
Phone: Office: 608.266.0656 District: 920.458.4398
email: Rep.VanAkkeren@legis.state.wi.us