Thieves in the Temple.

the one true pimp.

Verizon claims that its suppression of text messages sent by the pro-reproductive rights group NARAL was a mistake. Right. Just like AT&T's muffing of anti-Bush lyrics sung by Pearl Jam at an August webcast was a mistake. Out of the other side of their collective mouth, these big telecoms claim that of course they can be trusted not to suppress controversial content once we give them their tiered-service schemes, which would make suppressing controversial content so much easier. If they can't be trusted now, how can they be trusted when we give them even more power? FreePress helps you tell your Congressfolk just that. You may want to remind your more right-leaning members of Congress that if we replaced "NARAL" in the above sentence with "Christian Coalition," they'd be getting no fewer messages than they're getting now.

Meanwhile, your credit card company may have a "binding mandatory arbitration" clause in the fine print of your bill. What does this mean? Basically, if someone, hypothetically now, steals your identity and commits fraud using your credit card, and the credit card company decides to come after you, the credit card company can force you to go to arbitration with a company they've already contracted with, which will (surprise!) rule in the credit card company's favor upwards of 94% of the time. Didn't know corporations could take away your right to trial by jury, did you? Apparently, they can. Thankfully, your homies Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) have introduced the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007; Public Citizen helps you support this legislation. Public Citizen also provides a report helping you avoid this pitfall beforehand.

readings for the day of September 26, 2007.

I'd assumed that Rudy Giuliani would capture the Republican Presidential nomination because he understood that folks mainly voted for Mr. Bush out of fear. But Matt Taibbi suggests that Fred Thompson has done Mr. Giuliani one better. Long story short, Mr. Thompson could capture the Republican Presidential nomination not because he'll convince voters that he alone can protect them, but because he alone can help them escape the world that threatens them. I already think Fred Thompson is lazy like a fox, so I'm willing to credit him with some foresight, too -- maybe the same voters who voted with their rage glands in 2004 are a little tired, and ripe to be told it's OK to just forget about all the havoc they've helped wreak and let Ole Fred handle it. At least rage has a certain honesty.

I've complained (but not often enough) that the "liberal" media's framing of the immigration "debate" casts it only as a battle between nativists and corporatists, and FAIR seems to agree with me. FAIR's analysis also takes us all the way back to 1993 and highlights the role of NAFTA in ruining the Mexican small farmer (you remember how Republicans love small farmers?) and thus increasing illegal immigration. "If we don't fix the failed NAFTA model of free trade," one Latino leader said in June, "we'll be fighting over immigration again and again." You'd almost think that was the idea -- especially since a total of zero media outlets in the United States reported that statement.

In other news, the House did not achieve a veto-proof majority in passing S-CHIP legislation. Curiously, one of the "no" votes came from Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who said he could not in good conscience vote for a bill that excludes legal immigrant children from its benefits. One could argue that Mr. Kucinich's stance lets the perfect murder the good -- or one could argue that excluding legal immigrant children is a way of pandering to the far-right, and therefore worth opposing, even at the cost of killing the bill. This is why folks don't peer into the sausage factory too often. If I were Nancy Pelosi, I would have passed this bill long ago, instead of making little deals to get recalcitrant Republicans and Blue Dogs on board, and let Mr. Bush take the PR hit from dealing with it. See? The answer to every question is don't worry about what Mr. Bush wants. He sure doesn't worry about what we want.

summer/summer, summer, summer.

Senate pimps Joe Lieberman (P-CT) and Jon Kyl (P-AZ) have introduced an amendment to the defense authorization that could permit Mr. Bush to declare war on Iran without consulting Congress. Because having the Temporary AUMF just isn't absolute-power enough! I presume the Pimp Squad will emphasize that the amendment is Sense-of-the-Senate, non-binding, etc., but they know full well that Mr. Bush doesn't care about the difference and it'll be bombs away before anyone untangles the legalese. And yet, and yet, and yet, Senator Jim Webb (MH-VA) slammed the amendment on the Senate floor today, calling it "Dick Cheney's fondest pipe-dream," an image so grotesque it should propel the amendment into hell all by itself. But will Jim Webb fight alone? No: I predict Jim Webb will not fight alone. Tools for contacting your Senator are, as always, in the upper left-hand corner.

The bill that would restore habeus corpus to detainees didn't get through the Senate the other day (thanks, Lindsey Graham! The right-wing nutjobs in South Carolina still hate you!). But the ACLU calls it "progress" because it only failed by four votes, and figures an upcoming House vote on habeus corpus might add momentum. I doubt it, but, hey, it ain't all about me, is it? So the ACLU helps you call your House Rep.

"the truth has a liberal bias."

Looks like the big SCHIP (a.k.a. S-CHIP) vote is tomorrow; 1.866.544.7573 is the number provided by the Coalition on Human Needs. Want some ammunition when you call some of the House's more recalcitrant members? Then note the various piles of hot-and-steaming deployed by Messrs. Bush and Leavitt in their address on Thursday, as dutifully tabulated by the not-liberal factcheck.org. (Anyone who claims factcheck.org displays "liberal bias" merely because they criticize Mr. Bush might want to consider the possibility that Mr. Bush is just wrong a lot of the time.)

American Eagle Outfitters insists upon its contractors supporting their workers' right to join a union -- except, apparently, with regard to National Logistics Services, which owns American Eagle's Canadian distributor. Employees at NLS report being forced to attend mandatory two-hour anti-union meetings and getting anti-union DVDs in the mail, among other things. You'd think NLS would have better things to do with its time, you know, like, logistics- and service-related stuff. You'd also think American Eagle would want to live up to its promises. Here's where to send all the necessary reminders.

Even OMB Watch wants to help you stop Mr. Bush's claims of unlimited wiretapping authority. I'm not sure I have anything more to say about this. People who wonder why their fellow-citizens don't "just trust the President" have it exactly wrong: the citizen's job, always, is to mistrust the President. And every four years, the citizens' job is to outvote the people who "just trust the President."

I can see for miles.

Know all those empty frequencies between the over-the-air TV channels? No? Well, they exist, and the FCC is pondering how to dispose of them. Some would like to use these empty frequencies, or "white spaces," as conduits for internet connection, but the big TV broadcast channels would rather buy up those spaces and sit on them. They've also been telling the world that using the white spaces for internet access would interfere with broadcast channels already in existence. Wouldn't that mean you would have the same VHF and UHF channels in every market? Which you don't? Why not tell the FCC to open those airwaves so that they help consumers, and not corporations? I know, I know -- the big broadcasters' real problem is that Google will probably leap in and buy most-if-not-all of the white spaces. But, contact tools being fairly malleable, there's no reason we can't address that with the FCC as well.

Maybe the prescription drug safety bill (passed by the House and to be passed by the Senate soon, if not already) doesn't do everything we would like it to do, but it does require drug companies to put the results of all of their safety studies on the net, and it makes it tougher for them to get away with avoiding follow-up studies. Mr. Bush might veto it, though, because big pharma has a lot of sway with him -- you may recall that big pharma very nearly made it illegal for you to try alternative medicines without a doctor's license this past summer. Tell Mr. Bush to sign the bill, even though he doesn't care what you and I think. (Don't know what it says about me exactly, but I actually changed "President" to "Mr." in the contact tool provided.)

Well, we're 0 for 2 on the habeus corpus bill and the Webb-Hagel troop rest bill -- Republicans managed to filibuster both. At the rate they're going, Republicans might not be able to filibuster at all in 2009, not that Democrats would deserve such a boon. And yet the Republicans do have an ace up their sleeve, that ace being the "liberal" media, which seems to have put a moratorium on describing Republican filibusters as filibusters. And if Democrats do have 61 Senate seats in 2009, you can be sure the "liberal" media will spend November and December of 2008 ranting and raving about how the Democrats damn sure better not upset "the middle" (by which they mean "the right") in 2009.

sunshine.

Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) -- a.k.a. "my homies" -- have introduced an amendment to the Defense reauthorization bill that would mandate adequate time between deployments for our troops in Iraq. And, as expected, the "liberal" media enables America's warmongers by suggesting that the Democrats (and Mr. Hagel, I presume) are "playing politics with the war." What hubris! Like Mr. Bush's war isn't all about playing politics! And, for-real for-real, if Mr. Bush can't win a war by giving the troops the rest they need so they can be at their best -- which he can't, obviously, if he must resort to using National Guard troops and private security concerns -- then the war can't be won. Excuse me, the occupation can't be won. Let the Republicans show how much they support the troops by leaving them in Iraq until they're completely strung out from the stress of being in a war zone and having to execute the orders of an incompetent Commander-in-Chief. But I'm willing to help save Republicans from this embarrassment by telling my Senators to support the Webb-Hagel amendment. Because I'm that kind of guy.

Also, today's the big vote on restoring habeus corpus to detainees -- or, alternately, Lindsey Graham's filibuster on restoring habeus corpus to detainees. It breaks my heart to see Lindsey Graham play this double game; time was he was the only damn U.S. Senator with the guts to call Abu Ghraib what it was, and I don't forget things like that. Unfortunately, neither do the extremists who apparently comprise the decisive voting wedge in his state, and who are itching to get someone more like Jim DeMint in his seat. Anyway, the ACLU helps you call your Senators.

Oh, and that paragraph I couldn't write yesterday, about the tasering of that kid at a Kerry speech in Florida? Blocked by my own prejudice against obnoxious college kids. Upon further review, no it obviously doesn't take six cops to taser one obnoxious college kid, no matter how long it took to subdue him. I also wonder (especially in the youtube era!) how that camera got placed right next to the microphone. No amount of obnoxiousness warrants state brutality. And, er, that "mysterious book" the kid was carrying? I helped promote it here.

is it Tuesday? No, it's News Day!

Rep. Holt's paper-trail bill, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, has somehow been bogged down in Nancy Pelosi's House, and probably not because the bill's acronym is VCIA. I thought the bill had enough co-sponsors to get a vote, but there are many things about the sausage factory I don't understand. One thing I do understand: this is no time to be silent. If passed, this bill will make it harder for computers to eat votes. Common Cause has the contact tool.

Congress still hasn't voted on S-CHIP expansion -- they're obviously more impressed with a Presidential (sic) veto than the rest of America -- and, if you think they need some more steel in their spine, 1.866.544.7573 is the number to call (courtesy the Coalition on Human Needs). If Congress doesn't act, S-CHIP will expire at the end of September. That must be the delay -- the Democratic leadership must think they're saving face, not only for themselves, but also for Mr. Bush and for Congressional Republicans. Because, you know, really, when they look at each other in the halls of power, no matter their ideological orientation, they all say, he's one of us. Well, if that's more important to them than extending funding on the program they've already mandated and helping poor kids not get sick and die, then none of them ain't none of us.

The Union of Concerned Scientists finds the House-passed Food and Farm Bill wanting -- not enough funding for conservation and organic farming, essentially. But the Senate will take up the Food and Farm Bill soon, and you can suggest that they do better. Possibly, but not definitely, by yelling "food fight!" in your missive.

Public Citizen also provides a contact tool regarding the restoration of habeus corpus rights for detainees, which might include U.S. citizens at the whim of the President (sic). That amendment, by the way, would attach itself to the Defense reauthorization bill, making it hard for Mr. Bush to veto. Unless Senator Graham of South Carolina (feeling pressure on a number of fronts, perhaps?) follows through on his threat to filibuster, which would be a shame.

Big news day, apparently, some of which (like the Monday tasering incident during a John Kerry speech at the University of Florida) tests my ability to condense complex ideas into a single paragraph. And you know I don't like to stick around when a paragraph ends.

done by the forces of nature.

The Senate finally plans to take up S. 185, which would restore the habeus corpus rights stripped from detainees by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. You may be piping up, "well, that's just for unlawful enemy combatants like those guys in Guantanamo, not me." Except that the President (sic) might designate you, or any other American citizen, an "unlawful enemy combatant," and therefore deprive you of your Constitutional right to confront and challenge your accusers. What a shame Mr. Gonzales isn't here to suggest to us that since the Constitution doesn't explicitly grant a right to habeus corpus, it really doesn't exist -- though the Constitution does explicitly state that the right to habeus corpus cannot be abrogated except under certain circumstances, and a right that doesn't exist can't be abrogated. Can you tell I'm still sore about all that? And why shouldn't I still be sore about it? It's my country, dammit. ActforChange provides the contact tool.

Consumers Union provides another contact tool with which you may tell Congress, because it is your Congress, to force the FDA to do more to protect us from tainted imports. Consumers Union has a number of good ideas beyond more inspections and tougher penalties: required pre-shipment inspections and testing, a certification and traceability program for imports, identification of country of origin on all products, and clear recall authority for government agencies. I am dumbfounded that some folks still claim the Constitution's general welfare clause covers none of this. I guess they'd prefer a government that fails to restrain corporations from harming American citizens.

A study appearing in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week suggests that deaths and serious injuries from prescription drugs more than doubled between 1998 and 2005. Would it be appropriate to observe such data and yell, "see? It's not all Bush's fault!"? Of course not -- any more than it would be appropriate to charge this AP article with "liberal bias," since the article offers only one possible analysis for the phenomenon, from an FDA worker, and surprise, said FDA worker doesn't think "the failure of corporations to notify the public of side effects" is a factor worth mentioning. USPIRG provides a letter-to-the-editor tool with which you might rectify the FDA's, and the AP's, error.

Senate Republicans plan to filibuster a bill that would give the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House. I don't know what the problem is, except that a D.C. seat would be a safe Democratic seat. But the bill in question also creates a new seat in Utah that would be, at least in theory, a safe Republican seat. Perhaps the Republicans think this new Utah seat might somehow become contested, as have other formerly safe Republican seats in the Midwest -- but that would be their fault, wouldn't it? Common Cause has one contact tool, and Public Citizen has another.

finally, we channel Richie Ashburn!

I regret helping the Democrats play their little incremental games vis a vis the Iraq war, so I'm not passing along any more email alerts supporting those games. The Democrats can end the war, as FAIR reminds us today, simply by filibustering the supplemental spending resolutions that come along, rather than by attaching all sorts of maybe-bring-x-number-of-troops-out-by-March-or-maybe-not-pretty-please amendments to the resolutions. They only need 41 votes to filibuster, versus the 67 they need to pass a bill that attaches conditions Mr. Bush will do his damndest to ignore anyway. You can use the tools in the upper left-hand corner of this page to call your Senators and give them what-for.

Hard to believe, Harry, but two courts in the past week have struck down Bush Mobb abuses of power -- a New York federal judge struck down an NSL provision of the PATRIOT Act, and a D.C. federal judge rejected the federal government's claims of "secrecy" in refusing to comply with an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in re Mr. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. Now the ACLU provides a contact tool with which you can write a letter to the editor about the urgent need for Congress to legislate on these matters. ("Looks like Tha Bush Mobb is throwing a nifty seventeen-hitter today, Harry.")

Meanwhile, six U.S. Senators (five Democrats and Susan Collins, in case you were wondering) have introduced the Nuclear Policy and Posture Review Act of 2007, which would prohibit funding for new nuclear weapons until a comprehensive nuclear policy and posture review can be completed by the next administration. If it passes, then Tha Bush Mobb, hot as it is to build new nukes when the old nukes still work fine and when even having nukes is kind of a security threat, won't be able to "upgrade" or "overhaul" or "modernize" (or "insert other euphemism for 'funnel taxpayer funds to crony defense contractors for no good reason'") our nuclear arsenal. UCS has the contact tool.

(By the way, I'm well aware that Hall of Fame center fielder Richie Ashburn was a staunch Republican. But he was no less a joy to hear call Phillies games when I was growing up. And, frankly, I wonder what he'd think about Tha Bush Mobb if he were with us today.)

readings for the day of September 12, 2007.

Glenn Greenwald discusses the controversy surrounding the MoveOn "General Betray-Us" ad, and finds, not surprisingly, that right-wingers condeming MoveOn for subtly evoking the T-word tend to be, ah, rather less subtle abusers of the T-word themselves. I can't stomach anyone, including David Petraeus, being tarred with the T-word unless they actually violate Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. But does anyone on the right have any shame? Besides Pat Buchanan, I mean.

The Progressive States Network provides a lengthy treatise on utility "decoupling." It's so wonky even I had to read it twice, but here's the jist: state governments regulate utility rates by forecasting how much energy a utility will sell, but utilities generally won't promote energy efficiency, since said efficiency would drive their sales and their profits down. Decoupling allows some flexibility in rate increases if sales are down a bit, and since (ideally) consumers are using less energy to do the same amount of work, they generally won't notice the rate increases. One hopes, though, that state governments will tie rate increases to actual efforts in energy efficiency, versus letting utilities take the rate increase in exchange for nothing.

Finally, the incorrigible Alexander Cockburn asks, "Will the U.S. Really Bomb Iran?" And sounds more convinced that they might by the end of the article than he does at the beginning.

your 9.11 affirmation that's better than any I could have written.

Via a guest blogger at Atrios. Includes handy links.

Students of rhetoric: study the parallel constructions!

stop breaking down.

The People's Email Network helps you express your desire, if indeed you share this desire, that the troops come home from Iraq right now, still, via the following toll-free phone numbers: 800.828.0498, 800.614.2803 and 866.340.9281. Why should they come home, still? Because we know better than to trust a Bush Mobb that says wait a few more months a few months after saying wait a few more months, only a few months after saying wait a few more months. Because we know better than to trust a Bush Mobb that either altered or authored the report that bears David Petraeus's name. Because we know better than to trust a Bush Mobb that would squash the GAO's rather pessimistic report about the "surge"'s success. And because any idiot knows that throwing a few more troops at the Iraq problem will create a little short-term success. Right-wingers are too impressed with short-term success. Which is not very conservative of them.

Meanwhile, the nuclear power industry seeks $50 billion in loan guarantees from Congressional energy legislation. You know, because our dependence on foreign oil and desire to cut emissions demand that we give even more welfare handouts to industries that don't need it. Who pays for a "loan guarantee" if the nuclear industries default on their loans? That's right -- you do, and I do, and our children do. Isn't a "loan guarantee" the sort of thing that might make a nuclear-plant builder sit back and say it doesn't really matter what I do because I'm covered no matter what? Isn't attaching harsh conditions to taxpayer money a better way of getting results? Hand out the necessary beatdown here.

Speaking of Congressional energy legislation, the UCS provides a contact tool demanding that the Energy Bill that comes out of conference include both the strong mileage standard the Senate passed and the 15 percent renewable standard the House passed. Why these two good ideas didn't pass both houses is beyond me -- unless this Democratic-controlled Congress aims to pass a bill that looks all bright and shiny but does nothing. I wouldn't put it past them, and I told 'em so. But big corporations ain't off the hook, either -- automakers have spent the last month trying to convince us that they'll have to cut jobs if they have to implement new fuel standards boo-hoo. Don't you love it when corporations hold their workers hostage to stop us from regulating their actions? "Stop -- or the worker gets it! Don't make me do it!"

more "paranoid" speculation because I love my damn country.

You may have heard that a B-52 carrying at least five nuclear warheads flew from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana this past Thursday. But you may not have heard that Barksdale is, according to Larry Johnson, "a jumping off point for Middle East operations." So it's entirely possible that those nukes weren't flying over the middle of the country by accident! I can't remember the name of the country I've been worrying about Tha Bush Mobb nuking, but I'm pretty sure A Flock of Seagulls wrote a song about it.

Read the comments on the Larry Johnson post, too, because they're quite intelligent. Have I mentioned what a joy it is to read intelligent comments at blogs, and what a joy it is to tell other people what a joy it is to read intelligent comments at blogs? And have I mentioned what a soul-destroying chore it is to read the violently stupid comments I've read at so many other blogs? I'd jump in and apply my Two Fists of Shame, but there are a lot of blogs infested with stupid comments and, unlike a lot of the trolls who leave said comments, I work for a living.

(Hat tip Atrios.)

stray bullet from the barrel of love!

The Union of Concerned Scientists provides a contact tool asking the 2008 Presidential candidates to prioritize reducing the world's nuclear weapon stockpile. To the UCS's provided text, I might add that the candidates should a) prioritize securing loose nuclear material and b) reduce nukes through bilateral and multilateral treaties. The current Administration (sic) frowns on things like treaties -- they're so, so Old Europe -- but they've worked well for us in the past. And no, 9.11 hasn't changed this, either. Terrorists can steal nukes, but they can't build them. We can and must reduce nukes among the folks who can build them.

Congress plans to look at reducing sentences for crack offenses this fall, but only for individuals sentenced after November 1 of this year. You might want to suggest to your Congressfolk that you'd like such sentencing guideline changes to affect sentences before that date as well. You might well be asking, "shouldn't we be tough on crack users, of all people?" Well, we ought to be tougher on crack dealers, and crack users who aren't in a position to dish dirt on dealers tend to serve longer sentences. And being extra-tough on users during sentencing is the way of the tough-on-crime politician, and by "tough-on-crime politician" in this instance I mean "coward." The courageous politician would support the social policies (like funding drug-addiction support organizations, funding low-income housing, and taxing the rich more already) that would best help pre-empt crack use. I mean, anyone can get tough on someone who's done wrong. But we can stop crimes before they start, by giving folks more of an opportunity to avoid crack in the first place.

Congress also plans to take up reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act this month. Lately, foreign diplomats have used visas to bring domestic workers into the U.S. and then abuse, exploit, and even enslave them; the State Department requires diplomats to abide by local/state/federal laws, but diplomatic immunity tends to interfere with enforcement efforts. Need I mention that such abuse tends to happen to women a lot more than it does to men? The ACLU has made some good common-sense suggestions for updating the law (like requiring more education for domestic workers and meetings with workers outside their place of employment, plus waiving diplomatic immunity as a condition of getting the visa), and they also provide the contact tool.

And, er, yes, I have been following the distended Kids in the Hall skit that is Senator Larry Craig's life. Interestingly, Mark Steyn provocatively suggests that "There Were Two Creeps in the Men's Room," but he doesn't prove that Dave Karsnia volunteered for his work, or that he likes it, which would I think be the beginning of proving him a "creep." And ex-conservative Arianna Huffington asks "In the Age of Terror, Isn't Busting Toe-Tappers An Insane Use of Our Law Enforcement Resources?" Set aside for a moment that the title really should have been "In the Age of Terror, Isn't Busting Guys Who Try to Look Inside the Stall Next to Them for Interminable Periods and Who Then Swipe Their Hands Under the Stall Divider in Addition to Toe-Tapping an Insane Use of Our Law Enforcement Resources?" The article suggests that there's just no way we can catch terrorists and prevent sex in public bathrooms at the same time. It also suggests (as a friend of mine reminded me the other day) that any worthwhile goal can be sacrificed in the name of any other worthwhile goal at any particular moment, which, hopefully, isn't how we live our lives. See? Being a liberal doesn't mean you have to tolerate just any old thing.

holiday greetings, and I refuse to be ambushed.

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

I'm not going to let speculation about Tha Bush Mobb's war-with-Iran propaganda campaign ruin my damn day. But, er, I am going to pass said speculation along. Read the comments, too.