Lying, Cheating, Hypocritical Bastards

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You've got to love how the media frames an issue:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's last State of the Union address is expected to be heavy on Iraq and the economy, but he also will say he is entering a congressional fray over earmarking taxpayer dollars, administration officials said.

President Bush delivers his State of the Union address in January 2007.

Bush will announce "unprecedented changes" in the way lawmakers earmark money for special projects that benefit their districts or campaign contributors, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an e-mail.

The president plans to sign an executive order Tuesday "directing agencies to ignore any future earmarks included in report language, but not in the legislation," Fratto said.

The order will not be retroactive, he added. Democrats were quick to point out that almost half of the 11,735 earmarks approved in 2008 were GOP-sponsored and White House-endorsed.

"The president will say that if these spending items are worthy, Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote," Fratto said. "He will state his commitment to veto any spending bill that does not succeed in cutting earmarks in half from 2008 levels."

The move comes after House Republicans challenged Democrats in a letter Friday to join a bipartisan effort to overhaul earmarks. Republicans are expected to use earmarking as an issue against Democrats in the 2008 elections.

Is this executive order even Constitutional? Doesn't it sound like it interferes with the role of Congress, which is to represent the people by being a large, slow, methodical and deliberative body that appropriates and spends the money only after both houses compromise and agree on legislation? There was a reason why the founders put the power of the purse in the hands of the many rather than the Unitary Executive. They knew there would be a George Bush someday.

Here's how that lede should have been written:

Despite widespread use of earmarks by the Republican-controlled Congress for the majority of his time in office, President Bush will attempt to remain relevant for the remainder of his lame-duck term by attempting to sign legislation to curb the use of earmarks.

It's smart politicking--as the GOP continues to descend into hell, the Republicans want to staunch the flow of earmarks into Democratic districts because that money will help re-elect Democrats. Hey--what was Tom DeLay good for? Using earmarks to batter the Democrats because the money flowed into areas where Republican members of the House could keep their seats. What better way to keep the Dems from increasing their control of Congress than by cutting off the earmarks that will help get some of the Democratic members re-elected in close districts?

Here's where we pray for Democrats in the leadership in Congress to shove this issue back down their throats.

FISA Showdown Today in the Senate

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We're watching. We're hoping. We're a blogging team with one workstation down and the other swamped with other things going on. We have our ears to the ground. We're paying attention.

We read Glenn Greenwald:

FISA does not expire on Friday. Only the Protect America Act, which amended FISA by increasing the President's powers, expires.

FISA -- which was passed in 1977 and amended multiple times since, including after 9/11 -- continues in full force and effect even if the PAA expires.

So every time you see the media talking about how the Democrats want to shut down the eavesdropping we do on terrorists, quote them Glenn's brilliant little summation. Then tell whoever is spouting such nonsense to STFU.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

The Shame of the Show-Me State (Which one, right?) Kit Bond tries to link giving blanket amnesty for telecoms to the issue of whether those companies will help when a child is kidnapped. What a shameless, despicable liar.

Bond tries to claim that the 4th Amendment rights of Americans will be protected--yet, he fails to note that CIA Director Hayden doesn't even understand the 4th Amendment and that DNI McConnel has said that Americans shouldn't expect privacy on the Internet anymore. Hilarious.

Russ Feingold speaks--the Senate should not be having a cloture vote today. The Senate should vote to improve the bill and add amendments.

"The conduct of the minority has been very disturbing on this."

You got that right.

Feingold CALLS OUT THE VICE PRESIDENT. Yes!

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER

Cornyn is crying about "cooperation" like the sob sister that he is. This is what Texas sends to the United States Senate? Good Lord.

The Republicans can lie like no other party. They will say anything to please a few campaign contributors.

Cornyn claims everything was done "within the law."

OK, then why can't we see the documents we need to see? People with clearances are blocked from seeing them. Perhaps we could just stop the fearmongering and admit what this is really about--the Bush administration has been caught spying on their political enemies. Retroactive immunity isn't worth exposing that fact.

Does Cornyn or any other Republican want to bring up Sibel Edmonds? Didn't think so.

UPDATE III - PALE RIDER

Saxby Chambliss--my God, what a tragic waste of a human being--lists a number of things that terrorists could do. All of which are under surveillance now, as they have always been and all of which will be even if this law expires.

Fearmongering is all these crazy bastards are good for. Lying and fearmongering. He doesn't even have an understanding of the legislation. He's just reading the carefully worded misdirection his staff wrote for him twenty minutes ago.

UPDATE IV and FINAL - PALE RIDER

WOW. Looks like their feeble arguments persuaded no one. It appears to be party line. Harkin didn't vote, Nelson didn't vote, and who gives a shit about Lieberman?

YEAs ---48
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

"Probably" His Final State of the Union Address???

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What the..?

For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation's strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. Today, the president is getting little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.

That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight. For the first time in four years, he will come before Congress able to report some progress in tamping down violence in Iraq. Yet the public appears to have moved on from the war -- and possibly from Bush himself.

What do you mean "probably" his final SOTU address?

Does the Washington Post know something we don't? Or are they in need of an editor who is worth a damn and actually reads the swill they are printing these days? Will the election be suspended so that we can have another four more years of Bush-Cheney?