SCOTUS will hear the case of Ashcroft, et al., v. Iqbal

The high court announced this morning that it will hear the case brought against former AG John Ashcroft and current FBI director Robert Muller in the next term. The ruling will spell out when the cabinet officers can be sued for Constitutional violations carried out by their subordinates.

The Iqbal case grows out of a lawsuit that was filed against former AG Ashcroft, director Mueller and others in their command chain following the post-9-11 roundup of men of Arab descent or who had been identified as Muslims, in an apparent clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The suit does not challenge the actual roundup, but focuses instead on conditions in the federal prison facility in Brooklyn where many of the men were held.

We have been appalled by the roundup of individuals based on their ethnicity and/or faith since it happened and will be watching the next session for the ruling to be handed down.

~~BG

We Need Primary Challengers!!!

The spineless fucks in the Senate have done it again. Now they are letting AT&T and Verizon off the hook for trashing the Fourth Amendment and spying on us, by giving that feeble-minded lame duck moron who has occupied the oval via subterfuge and judicial coup what he wanted.

Again.

Democrats…listen the fuck up…we did not give you the majority so you could fellate the fuckwit.

We gave you the majority because we want that feckless bastard brought to heel. It is bad enough that you cowardly whelps won’t impeach the war criminal, and instead give me pathetic, mealy-mouthed platitudes like “history will impeach this administration” and a Democratic Senator who grabs her skirts and jumps up on the table shrieking “Eeek! A terrorist! Here! Take my constituents civil liberties! They will thank me for it!”

Fucking pathetic. They haven’t done a damned thing right and I am in no mood to brook their foolishness.

And while we are certainly not going to send the knuckle-draggin’ mouth-breathin’ SCAMD morons back to the majority, we will sure as hell replace your lame asses. You aren’t representing us. You are pandering to the loser thugs in the Republican party.

You are the god-damned majority party. Stop rolling over and offering your asses to the jackals and perverts.

Telecomm immunity was the last straw.

Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources.

Disclosure of the deal followed a decision by House Democratic leaders to pull a competing version of the measure from the floor because they lacked the votes to prevail over Republican opponents and GOP parliamentary maneuvers.

The collapse marked the first time since Democrats took control of the chamber that a major bill was withdrawn from consideration before a scheduled vote. It was a victory for President Bush, whose aides lobbied heavily against the Democrats' bill, and an embarrassment for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had pushed for the measure's passage.

The draft Senate bill has the support of the intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), and Bush's director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.

Such a demonstration, which the bill says could be made in secret, would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits alleging violations of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records, summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants. Bush had repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that lacked this provision. [emphasis added]

Every spineless Democrat in D.C. needs to face the wrath of an angry electorate – and a strong primary challenger – their pathetic records of appeasement and acquiescence need to be held up for public scrutiny, scorn and ridicule.

As for me, I am going to print up some stickers to slap on fundraising mailings to send back to the weenies, sans contribution, in their postage-paid envelopes.

If a Democrat voted to rebuke “MoveOn” for repeating what soldiers in the Perfumed Prince’s command called him, they will get their mailer back with a sticker that says

“I am a MoveOn member, and your willingness to throw over the First Amendment deems you unworthy of my support. Instead I have made a donation of $______ to MoveOn, and encouraged them to support a primary challenger to fill your seat with the fanny of a REAL DEMOCRAT.”

If they are on board with this apostasy, the sticker they get back will read:

“I am a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and your willingness to throw over the Fourth Amendment deems you unworthy of my support. Instead, I have donated $_____ to the ACLU and will be working locally to find a strong primary challenger to fill your seat with the fanny of a REAL DEMOCRAT.”

The spineless, simpering Democrats that represent me (Claire, Cleaver) need to get through their thick heads that I am no battered wife who will keep coming back for more…I am the bitch who will torch the bed...with your political career in it. Capiche?

Yeah, yeah - it's all well and good to fight for the First Amendment - but when will snarky blogging resume?

My day in the sun is over – the headiness of yesterday and adding a punctuation mark to history has passed, for the most part. But let me say this – if the opportunity ever presents itself for you to take a stand for the First Amendment – do it. Not just because it is a gratifying feeling to fight for what one knows to be absolutely, unequivocally right – that’s just gravy – do it because it’s the right thing to do. Do it because nine-times-out-of-ten, when the situation calls for standing up, nine people out of ten will look for a seat in the corner. Or for a way to backpedal, spin and have it both ways.

Today dawned and I still need to get to the salon for a haircut, the floors still have to be swept, the laundry still needs to be done, Zoe still needs her oatmeal for breakfast and a proper raising, the chimperor still needs to be foiled, and this clusterfuck of a war still needs to be stopped.

So back to work with me already, right?