Diana 's Bookmarks

(correction) Another huge sweeping victory as far as the total number of voters for the Democratic Party in what has become another important election narrative:

In last week’s SC GOP primary, McCain and Huckabee (the top 2 finishers), got 147,283 and 132,440 votes respectively. That’s a total of 279,723. Obama just pulled down 291,000 by himself.

So the totals are roughly: GOP - 442,918 Dems 530,322

(It looks like we’re back up!)

Markos Moulitsas of The Daily Kos and Newsweek joined Keith Olbermann on Friday’s Countdown to talk about the FISA fiasco and the feckless Senate Majority? Leader Harry Reid, who is prepared to once again cower to the worst president in American history and give him everything he wants in the new FISA bill, including amnesty for the telecommunications companies.

Markos, like the rest of us, was at a loss as to why the Democratic majority seems to be so afraid to stand up to the minority party and their president. He also says that the Democrats shouldn’t fold like a cheap card table every time the Republicans threaten a filibuster — when what they really should be doing is MAKING them actually filibuster so that America can see exactly who is blocking progress in Washington.

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a motion asking a federal judge to hold the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in contempt, charging that the agency flouted a court order when it destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of prisoners in its custody….

“The interrogation techniques employed by our government raise fundamental questions of human rights and decency,” said Arthur Eisenberg, New York Civil Liberties Union Legal Director. “The CIA cannot avoid those questions by simply destroying the evidence.” Read more…

And it’s not even April 1st:

Negative news coverage may have cost former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales his job, but it won him a dubious honor Wednesday from a magazine published by the American Bar Association: Lawyer of the Year.

Additionally, the ABA Journal named Gonzales’ successor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, as its top lawyer for 2008 — mostly in anticipation of how often he’ll be in the media spotlight for trying to repair the beleaguered Justice Department.

I wish I could say this is a joke, but I would be lying.

One day after voting to elevate a divisive conservative judge to the federal appeals court in New Orleans, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was the president’s guest aboard Air Force One. She had been invited to survey the damage from the recent spate of Southern California wildfires.

Two weeks later, Feinstein was one of two Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee to vote to send Michael Mukasey’s nomination to be the new attorney general to the full Senate. Her support helped turn the tide in favor of a nomination that faced an uncertain future after Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding was torture.

Now, a coalition of progressive Democrats upset with Feinstein’s controversial votes will ask the California Democratic Party to censure her at its executive board meeting this weekend, the Huffington Post has learned.

The Courage Campaign is looking for your help to ensure that this censure resolution has legs…  We need to remind DiFi that she is answerable to her constituency, not her buddies in the Bush Administration or the defense industry.  

C’mon, we don’t need another Lieber-Dem Bush Dog in the Senate.

Ever wonder why Hillary has so much trouble with Honest Questions?

Could it be because ... she has SO few Honest Answers?

... could be?

This has taken her off the table for good for me.  Why on holy hell would she do this?  Is she that paranoid, afraid of answering questions?  Is she that scripted?  Is she that fake, phoney?

Enough.  Just enough.

I have ZERO respect with yipping attacking ankle biting know nothing , half educated, resent filled fools and flakes like you..

I have never ever been rude to anyone who argues on the issues EVER....its likely there are many here who know more about some of these thigs than me, of course...its just you ignorant and foolish haters ....who pretend you KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL about the politics of getting elected at all - which you clearly do not... on these things . you people are dumber than a brick.

and those like you who then parrot the attacks coming from our enemies in the media and tthe gop who yell about a dem being dishoest and corrupt - just like the dipshits for bradley who called Gore a liar - you are risking and justt may cause a loss in november, just like 2000...

and Im disrespectful?  Damn right I am.

I hate anybody who helps the Republicans win the white House...ie, people like you.

If you Clinton lovers did not mistitle diaries accusing Obama instead of his aides regarding the silly whining about the lack of enough attention on Clinton's sex life, maybe you would have had more people condemning the aides' tactics.

Don't you Clintonites have any shame? Do you ever condemn a single Clinton thing or do you just kiss her ass 24/7 like Bushies do with Bush?

What a bunch of shameless people.

Just once, I would like to see some fucking objectivity by your types.

Please go and see this new movie about the way the government uses the media to sell war after war after war. It’s a brilliant flick that dissects the great propaganda machine which is a curse to our democracy.

War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations…read on

You would think the old axiom “once bitten, twice shy” would somehow apply to these idiots in the right wing echo chamber that are beating the drums for war with Iran. After all, they believed Ahmed Chalabi over their own common sense. And by all accounts, the two fronts they are already cheerleading are going so poorly, by what bizarre metric could they possibly consider a third front against Iran a good idea?

But no, all those right wing hacks are trying to find ANY reason to demonize Iran to goad us into another war. And as Sadly, No! documented earlier this week, that includes making fraudulent claims from movie stills. As Gavin points out, even everyone’s favorite cheerleader Michelle Malkin only wants the facts that fit their pre-conceived notions. But don’t try to point out the truth or facts to them…then they’ll just break out the sock puppets to insult you:

Here’s a cautionary tale about Middle-Eastern dissidents who seek to advance their causes - even after the lesson of Iraq - by making common cause with American right-wing extremists and their phony ‘human rights’ campaigns. (Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi is the daughter of Iranian political prisoner Siamak Pourzand, and lately an organizer (with Michael Ledeen) of the extraordinarily fishy Secular Islam Summit)

The scary terrorists will attack us if we don't elect Hillary! Or something.

An act of desperation for a campaign dead in the water.

One does get the sense that Hillary's operation is just throwing mud against the wall to see what will stick. Obama needs the independent vote in NH, and the Clinton campaign is obviously trying to scare them away from Obama.

If she succeeds, they'll end up voting for McCain helping to give Republicans their strongest general election candidate. Seems kind of self-defeating, doesn't it? But she needs to stem the bleeding. So suddenly, we have a situation in which the best interests of the Democratic Party is at odds with her short-term interests.

Your "Liberal Media" (AP): US: Iran Still Able to Develop Nukes

Democrats should recognize that the time has come to use the full power accorded Congress in time of war: the power of the purse. As Senator Russ Feingold says, "Some will claim that cutting off funding for the war would endanger our brave troops on the ground. Not true. The safety of our servicemen and -women in Iraq is paramount, and we can and should end funding for the war without putting our troops in further danger."

Instead of negotiating with Bush to give him another year of his war before facing consequences, Democrats should refuse to write another blank check.