Thieves in the Temple.

things have changed.

CREDO helps you petition Senator Obama to oppose the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a.k.a. the FISA capitulation. I don't know why they think Senator Obama will lead on this issue, since he's already said he'll vote for the FISA Amendments Act even if he can't get big telecom immunity taken out. For that matter, I don't know why we place so much faith and hope in Senator Obama, or in any one person. But maybe attempting to communicate with him will do some good.

The Coalition for Human Needs helps you tell your Congressfolk to expand Child Tax Credit eligibility. The threshold for the CTC is around $12,050 now, which would exclude plenty of people making minimum wage, and -- get this -- the threshold raises with inflation every year. As if wages kept pace with inflation! And it figures that the Alternative Minimum Tax is not indexed to inflation, so it can catch more higher-income earners every year. It's almost as if that was the idea. We have a better idea, though, and Congress is more inclined to listen now -- the House has already passed a bill lowering the threshold, and the Senate is contemplating somewhat different legislation.

California residents, take note: the state budget crisis has apparently convinced many state legislators to slash the state's public transportation budget. Are they mad? Have they driven by their local gas stations lately? Are they aware that "small government" dogma has corroded public transportation infrastructure everywhere since the early 1980s? Do they only care about telling themselves they made hard choices? You don't get more points if you make wrong choices. CALPIRG helps you convince your legislators to do better.

Finally, the federal government thinks it's a great idea to put Social Security numbers on Medicare cards. Why don't they just paint a sign on every Medicare recipient's back saying STEAL MY IDENTITY? And that wouldn't even be the stupidest thing the federal government's done under Mr. Bush. S. 2908 would fix that, and Consumers Union helps you voice your support.

head shots! head shots! rarrgh arrgh snicker snort.

Radio host Michael Reagan called for the execution of "traitors" on June 10, citing by name 9.11 conspiracy theorist Mark Dice, only to apologize to Mr. Dice on his program six days later, saying that when people get "fired up" they say "things that are actually stupid." Thing is, calling for the death of people who disagree with you is not being "fired up," it's being full of rage. Do we tolerate folks who spout off in rage at the dinner table, at the barbecue, at the workplace? We do on radio and TV, apparently. You probably won't be surprised to learn that this isn't the first time for Mr. Reagan, nor will you be surprised that Mr. Reagan's employer, Radio America, also employs G. Gordon "Head Shots!" Liddy. And, need I mention that Article III, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution sets a higher bar for treason than "disagreeing with Michael Reagan"? Using the link above, you can contact Radio America's President and ask if Radio America has, you know, policies and procedures about calls for violence and death on the air. When calling, feel free to use the words immoral and decadent to refer to Mr. Reagan's behavior. Mr. Reagan clearly doesn't have the old man's sense of humor (or writers) and maybe he's pretty upset about it.

Meanwhile, over 160 House Reps (including over 70 Democrats) have sponsored a bill essentially authorizing war against Iran -- because nothing solves chaos like more chaos. H. Con. 362 would command Mr. Bush to initiate an international land/sea/air blockade around Iran, which is illegal without U.N. approval, and which would likely provoke a retaliation from Iran. I'm guessing Mr. Bush doesn't need much commanding in this matter, either. Council for a Livable World has the pertinent contact tool.

the Milwaukee Seven.

The Senate may take up the FISA capitulation this week (or may take it up after the July 4 holiday); our last hope is a filibuster, which ain't much of a hope, but while there's life, et cetera. Senators Dodd and Feingold are up for it, but Senator Obama, apparently, is not -- or doesn't know that a filibuster works better if you don't announce beforehand that you'll support the bill you're filibustering if your filibuster doesn't work. They really don't teach these kids anything in Sausage Making 101 anymore, do they? True Majority helps you urge Sens. Dodd, Feingold, and Obama to filibuster the FISA Amendments bill, and the ACLU helps you address your Senators directly. I'd follow up with phone calls in each and every instance.

A federally-funded school voucher program in Washington, D.C. will end in September of 2008 -- unless, of course, Congress decides to extend it. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State helps you tell your Representative that you oppose extension, if in fact you do oppose extension. The "school voucher" is a nice-sounding idea murdered by a gang of brutal facts -- namely, that vouchers don't guarantee admission to private schools and vouchers only assist with funding. Plus, there aren't nearly as many private non-religious schools as there are religious schools, meaning that school voucher programs discriminate against non-religious schools. Plus, kids in private schools don't necessarily do better than kids in public schools -- at least not in D.C. in 2007 and 2008. Don't believe the hype that public schools "discriminate" against religious schools just because they exist. And don't believe the hype that poor and/or black kids suffer when you challenge discriminatory voucher programs. If folks really want to help poor and/or black kids, they need to support progressive tax codes, government investment in infrastructure, law enforcement -- all the things free market ideologues think are, like, so uncool.

Finally, closer to home, if home for you is the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: state Republicans are showing they care about poor people and health care and health care costs by proposing what? A plan relying heavily on sending uninsured citizens to free clinics. Interesting solution, since many free clinics ain't open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or weekends, and citizens will still go to the ER on days they can't go to a free clinic, which will, guess what, drive up costs. Not exactly doing honor to the memory of the Ridge Administration, are they? SB 1137 would help people earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level (which level is itself too low) get low-cost health insurance, while HB 2005 would curb such insurance industry practices as denying coverage to folks with pre-existing conditions (a tool the industry uses far too broadly). PennPIRG helps Pennsylvania residents write their state senators on these matters.

Finally, I note with great sadness the death of comedian George Carlin on Sunday at age 71. This is one of those deaths that, if you're my age, makes you feel damn old, and a little lonelier, too. I grew up listening to George Carlin albums and watching George Carlin specials on TV, so George Carlin had a profound influence on me -- and, since he was a Catholic before I knew very many non-Catholics and he paid attention to words before I took my first advanced literary theory class, I barely understood his influence on me until I was well into adulthood. In his honor, watch this variation of the "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" routine. Don't watch it at work, though, or if your kids are around -- unless, of course, you're prepared to explain to your kids exactly what all this means.

wiretap this, pimps!

They blew it.

Not one dollar, nor one vote, for Democrats until they comprehend that, in order to divine the popular will, you have to talk to some actual people, and not just each other and your rich buddies in the "liberal" media.

end of the line.

I have even more contact tools opposing the FISA "compromise" -- one from the ACLU and another from the Electronic Freedom Foundation (via OMB Watch). Use 'em both; the House will probably vote today, and unless they get absolutely swamped with contacts from citizens they won't do the right thing. The FISA "compromise" permits warrantless wiretapping on American citizens and rigs the judicial system so big telecoms will get immunity for their lawbreaking. When will Congress understand that they're supposed to be protecting the people, not the corporations and certainly not George W. Bush? Hopefully, the answer to that question will be "today."

American Rights at Work still provides a petition with which you may express your support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would permit workers to organize more easily. Free Choice Act opponents say the bill would outlaw secret ballots for union elections, but that's not true -- S. 1041 merely amends the National Labor Relations Act to add unionization by card check, not replace elections. (If it were outlawing secret ballot elections, it would strike section 9(c)(1-5), rather than adding to section 9(c).) Perhaps not coincidentally, Gordon Lafer describes how labor union elections are not very much like democratic elections in the first place.

Pennsylvania residents, take note: the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, or PHC4, has produced useful information on hospital infections for years -- including a groundbreaking hospital-specific infection report in 2006 -- but its authority expires June 30, and the General Assembly would have to pass a bill reauthorizing it. Consumers Union provides the contact tool. Providing hospital-specific information should spur hospitals to do better, and since we all might need to go to the hospital some day, that'll benefit us.

to cut a long story short.

Common Cause also helps you oppose the Kit Bond "compromise" on warrantless wiretapping. Glenn Greenwald has more background. Apparently, Mr. Hoyer has pushed the "compromise" most vigorously, but he'll vote against it so it doesn't look like it was his idea all along. And then, I suppose, when the Democrats have more House and Senate seats, and the Presidency, they can use the Republicans' own tools against them. If that's what it takes for Democrats to keep power, then it's not worth it. It's bad enough they got power by hiding out during the worst Presidency in recent memory, instead of by vigorously challenging Mr. Bush's agenda.

Meanwhile, Ralph Nader talks up votepact.org in his blog. (He's a Presidential candidate, so I won't link to his blog.) Basically, if you're a lefty who doesn't want to vote for Sen. Obama, but you're worried about throwing the election to Sen. McCain, you go find a righty from your state who doesn't want to vote for Sen. McCain but who doesn't want to throw the election to Sen. Obama, and you both pledge to vote for a third-party candidate (or two). The site presumes that you'll both vote for Mr. Nader, but it seems to me it doesn't have to work that way -- I'd turn righties Bob Barr's way if I had to. But I wonder why votepact.org isn't a social network, so you might more easily find folks on the other side of the fence who feel the same way you do about the two major party candidates.

UPDATE. Votepact does, in fact, have a facebook group. It now has two members, neither of whom, I presume, lean rightward. We've got, what, four and a half months until Election Day?

blame Canada!

The ACLU also helps you oppose Sen. Bond's FISA "compromise" -- you know, the one that gives Mr. Bush everything he wants. That's what Republicans mean by "compromise." Usually, you know, both sides give something in a compromise, but Republicans are too bold for that. And Democrats (with the usual exceptions) are too cowardly to call them on it. Either that, or they really think that letting courts review whether Mr. Bush told the big telecoms what they were doing was legal, rather than letting courts review whether what the big telecoms did was legal, really constitutes "judicial review." Anyone who votes for this "compromise" should be replaced.

The Bruce nuclear complex in Canada plans to bury radioactive waste deep underground on the Great Lakes shoreline, and Public Citizen helps you oppose them. It's bad enough they want to bury radioactive waste, but burying it near water raises the probability that the waste will get dispersed, and since that waste could just as easily find its way to this side of the Great Lakes, we have a right to protest. There's also precedent -- Canada successfully protested a proposed radioactive waste dump in Vermont in 1986. The Canadian government has proven a little too pliant to nuclear industry wishes lately, so move fast.

Finally, True Majority still provides a petition calling for full marriage equality for gays, who've been able to marry in California for about a day now. And, all together now -- government recognition of gay marriages does not equal church recognition of gay marriages. Religions can still do what they like, regardless of how oppressed they feel by the mere presence of a pair of gays married in their midst, or nowhere near their midst. Gay marriages also do not automatically lead to the legalization of bestiality, or incestuous or bigamous marriages -- consent cannot exist in a bestial or incestuous relationship, and I'd argue consent doesn't exist in a bigamous one, either (since any two, or more, equals can consistently gang up on the third "equal" if they like).

penny rants for the day of June 15, 2008: special "Fox News still sucks!" edition.

Want to see everything bad about cable news in seven minutes? Then watch Bill O'Reilly's "Impact Segment" about the National Conference on Media Reform. First he summarizes his vast left-wing America-hating conspiracy, and of course refers you to his latest book for "specifics," though not, apparently, proof. Then he plays clips featuring four people -- including, of course, an Ugly White Woman and an Angry Black Preacher -- who insult him and/or Fox News, since insulting him and/or Fox News is exactly like insulting America! Finally he discusses the conference with a milquetoast liberal and a right-wing hack, both of whom essentially continue Bill's lengthy rants inartfully disguised as questions. You would never know that the movement against media consolidation is, unlike so many other things undeserving of the name, a bipartisan one, as much a concern of Trent Lott and Charles Pickering as it is of Byron Dorgan, as much a concern of the Christian Coalition and the NRA as it is of Free Press. You'd never know we care as much about regional diversity as we do about ethnic diversity. You'd never know that the Senate rolled back loosened FCC media consolidation rules in a near-unanimous vote. Actually, if you just watched Fox, you'd never know a lot of things.

E.D. Hill wondered on June 6 if the Barack/Michelle Obama fist bump was a "terrorist fist jab," and my first thought was: hey, I've fist-bumped, like, hundreds of people over the last six years! Well, I guess now we know all about me. Ms. Hill later "apologized," suggesting that she was merely reporting what other media outlets were saying, though she didn't name any outlets that had used the words "terrorist fist jab" in the context of the Obamas' fist bump. She also said, helpfully, "I certainly didn't mean to associate the word 'terrorist' in any way with Senator Obama and his wife." Well, certainly you don't suggest such a thing by putting all those words in the same sentence! Ms. Hill's show got canned on the 10th, and Fox hasn't announced her next job as of this writing. Taking one for the team, I believe that's called.

In other news, a Fox crawl refers to Senator Obama's wife as his "baby mama." As I figured they would, Fox told us it was just a clever piece of cross-promotion -- you know, because of the Tina Fey movie Baby Mama that came out at the end of April, which you saw, right? -- and not a suggestion that Mrs. Obama had any of her children out of wedlock. Of course, if Fox is willing to use Baby Mama in that context, then, hypothetically, you can see them poking fun at John McCain using a big Hollywood film about a stiff and clumsy but still lovable blonde heiress, right? Sure you can.

Meanwhile, over at Fox and Friends, the hosts get together with Ben Stein to spread innuendo and lies about Mr. Obama's stand on capital gains taxes. Mr. Stein (whose place in the cosmic plan is Win Ben Stein's Money, no matter what he thinks) is too clever to come out and say Mr. Obama has actually proposed hitting the middle class, but you can be awful clever around Gretchen Carlson -- "also part of the Barack Obama plan, I think, is to increase the tax when you try to sell your home, as well," she says. "I think" indeed -- being on TV means never having to actually know anything. I'd say watching Fox and Friends is sort of like watching your friends and family and co-workers talk, except that your friends and family and co-workers are so much better informed about everything than they are. Yes, yours too.

bedlam bridge.

I'm still hearing that Senator Bond, Kit Bond, wants to gut the Fourth Amendment as part of yet another FISA "compromise." Sen. Bond's bill calls for unlimited executive warrantless wiretapping for six more years (always thinking about those midterm elections, those Republicans) and grants retroactive immunity to big telecoms. What exactly about this is a "compromise"? If Mr. Bush negotiates this way with Iran, we really will be at war. CREDO has the petition. I'd follow up with a phone call to your House Rep (forget your Senators!) if I were you; tools are in the upper left-hand corner.

American Rights at Work begins a new campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act; they aim to get one million signatures on a petition to get the EFCA into law. As you may remember, Mr. Bush threatened a veto on the premise that it circumscribed workers' rights to a secret ballot (it doesn't), and then the Republicans in the Senate filibustered the bill anyway. Enough signatures close enough to Election Day and they'll have no freakin' choice. Enough House Reps and Senators to override a veto and Mr. Bush will have no freakin' choice, either. I hope yours is among the signatures presented to Congress, as mine will be.

Even the Federal Reserve Board, which fist-bumpers like me call "the Fed," has proposed new rules that would curb the most egregious credit card company abuses. Of course, the industry, which fist-bumpers like me call "the industry," oppose them, even though they're such common-sense reforms (would you like actual time between the bill and the due date?) that I can't imagine why the industry would fight them. Oh, except that it'd cut into their pile of mammon. Consumers Union helps you support the Fed in this worthwhile endeavor.

Finally, Common Cause assists you in ensuring that the candidate who wins the popular vote also actually becomes President. It's not just for fans of Al Gore, but also for fans of Grover Cleveland and Andrew Jackson, and I know you're out there. The National Popular Vote plan (NPV) would bind states to assign its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote; it would only take effect once enacted by states collectively possessing a majority of the electoral votes (270, as things now stand). Four states -- Maryland, Hawaii, Illinois, and America's greatest state, New Jersey -- have passed the plan (these four states collectively have 50 electoral votes), and it's passed at least one house in eight other states. More states would have to pass it, of course, but there is such a thing as momentum.

further on up the road.

Rep. Kucinich filed 35 articles of impeachment against Mr. Bush this week; you can read all 35 of them right here. Rep. Kucinich has introduced his articles as a "privileged resolution," meaning the House must deal with it within two days. They may deal with it by sending it to the Judiciary Committee, where they sent Rep. Kucinich's articles of impeachment against Mr. Cheney last year, but enough phone calls to your Reps (using the tools in the upper left-hand corner) may change their minds. Mr. Bush has seven months to go in his term, which is plenty of time to invade Iran or screw up an incoming terrorist attack so badly he decides he ought to be America's Pimp4Life. And anyway, the time to do the right thing is always now.

Meanwhile, with the economy hemorrhaging jobs, with the unemployment rate (still not counting the long-term unemployed) making its biggest leap in over two decades, the House will vote this week on H.R. 5749, the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, which would extend unemployment insurance. That toll-free number is 888.460.0813; you'll ask to speak to your Rep's office, and you'll want to call, because getting Mr. Bush to extend unemployment benefits is like pulling teeth. Recall how hard Congress had to push to get him to extend unemployment benefits after 9.11, when the airlines laid off so many workers -- this, at the same time Mr. Bush pushed just as hard for bailouts for the airlines and their CEOs. A lot of folks remain unemployed these days not because they're lousy employees, but because companies only care about their own bottom lines. But we care about suffering, and that's why we get our government to do the right thing.

Finally, a word of advice regarding the presumptive Democratic nominee for President. Senator Obama has a lot to be proud of, and he's got a damn good shot at being your next President. Thing is, the worst is yet to come, and it's coming after the election. If you think he's already been through the wringer, you'd better be prepared for a Republican Party (even one with 38 or so Senators) that will start trying to impeach him on January 21, 2009. You'd better be prepared for a "liberal" media that will thoroughly examine each and every pile of hot-and-steaming lies the right-wing blogs serve up. And you'd better be prepared for a Barack Obama who wilts so badly under the strain that he accommodates the corporatists worse than Mr. Clinton did -- or, heaven forbid, meets with an accident because he won't play ball. I don't say these things to depress you, I really don't. I say them so you'll be prepared. Being prepared is half the battle.

penny rants for the day of June 10, 2008.

Ralph Nader once again trumpets a poll, this time from CNN-Opinion Research, giving him 6 points. So I feel compelled to add a few reminders: a) the CNN poll doesn't include Libertarian Bob Barr, who might cut into Mr. Nader's support; b) Mr. Obama's lead is, oddly enough, negligibly smaller without Mr. Nader in the race; c) the poll may sample too many Republicans, since the gulf between folks who identify as Democrats and folks who identify as Republicans is wider now; d) Mr. Obama's lead widens a bit if he takes Mrs. Clinton as his running mate and Mr. McCain, heaven forbid, takes Mr. Romney as his. CNN has not, to my knowledge, polled a doomsday scenario of Obama/Daschle and McCain/Romney, possibly because it's just too horrible to contemplate.

Curiously, the new tobacco legislation working through Congress bans all artificial flavors in cigarettes except one: menthol. But since menthol is by far the most popular flavor in cigarettes, that's sort of like banning all operating systems in computers except Windows. (And, as a bonus for racists, apparently black folks mostly smoke menthol cigs, and black teens smoke them more than white ones!) Notably, seven former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretaries -- including four non-Democrats -- wrote the Senate about the menthol loophole, and the New York Times published their letter. I note with interest, however, that current HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt did not sign it. I guess he wants the Senate to work its will.

UPDATE. I have just discovered that all of the "thieves in the temple" posts from the inknoise.com period (February 2005 through October 2005) have done gone disappeared from all the dadgum internets. Shame, that. They were pretty good. I have all those posts archived, of course, so I'll figure out how to get them up at typepad. Ah, the inknoise days. I was so young then!

ANOTHER UPDATE. I mistakenly called the CNN-Opinion Research poll in the first paragraph an AP poll. Error corrected.

flexible minds are happier.

True Majority provides a petition calling for an end to oil company tax breaks and the imposition of a windfall profits tax, with the revenues going toward clean and renewable energy research and development. Pretty simple, really: the oil companies are making a mint, and they're not giving enough back to the people in the form of lower prices or better energy, so we gotta make 'em do it. That's not big government; that's our government. And don't blink when pro-oil forces threaten to take your pensions and your jobs hostage. They never take their own CEO compensation hostage, after all.

Jewish Voice for Peace provides a petition calling for more flexible and moderate approaches from Sens. Obama and McCain to the Israel/Palestine problem. Both have lately addressed AIPAC and proclaimed unqualified support for more military aid and unqualified opposition to negotiating with Hamas. It ain't my fault the Palestinians elected Hamas to represent them in their Parliament, and talking to them ain't the same as giving them things they don't deserve. And Israel ain't a bunch of angels, either -- military support ought to be tied to better treatment of the Palestinians. Seems to me we hold a great many of the cards here, if we'd just play them.

Meanwhile, Rory O'Connor profiles right-wing talking head Laura Ingraham in an except from his book, Shock Jocks. "Controlling people by telling them how to think for themselves is a nice piece of demagogic trickery," O'Connor says, "though hardly original among the conservative bloc that crowds talk radio today." I would disagree with the second half of that statement, actually -- right-wing shows of "independence" are a relatively recent phenomenon, just as right-wing appeals to "compassion" is so nineties already. If Bill O'Reilly still insists that he's an independent who just happens to agree with far right-wingers on any matter of consequence, and he still has votaries, I must conclude that his votaries also believe in their own independence. I think this argument might warrant more than a paragraph someday.

Friday super-action grab bag!

The ACLU calls once again for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, which closure even John McCain has endorsed (though that could change soon, if it hasn't already). Word on the street is that Tha Bush Mobb is rushing through prosecutions at Guantanamo to help Republicans on Election Day. Miraculous, that those "terrorists" held there would all suddenly break in 2008! I doubt this sudden rush of "convicted" "terrorists" would fool the American people, but then Tha Bush Mobb could distract them with 2004-style fearmongering or, heaven forfend, another war. And the "liberal" media won't have our backs when that happens.

Sen. Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Michaud (D-ME) have introduced the TRADE Act, which would set requirements for all future U.S. trade pacts and provide a framework for reviewing and changing existing ones. The TRADE Act would emphasize labor rights, human rights, environmental standards, and national security standards ahead of corporate or foreign investor "rights," which is how it ought to be. Given the difficulty the last few Democratic and Republican Congresses had in passing "free" trade agreements, the TRADE Act should be popular -- but don't take anything for granted. Public Citizen assists you in contacting your Congressfolk.

UPDATE.  Not as super-action as I'd hoped -- I've deleted a paragraph that linked to an actual Senator's website.  We support legislation here, not politicians.  I won't let it happen again.

zero to sixty in two petitions.

USPIRG provides a petition with which you may express your desire, if it is indeed a desire you share, that Congress's next six-year transportation bill doubles funding for public transportation. Even though gas prices put more and more of us on buses and trains, we don't always tell Congress what we want when we think of it. I think Thomas Jefferson explained why we do things like that in the Declaration of Independence. So thank God for USPIRG in this instance.

An organization called Take Back the Filter provides a petition with which you may express your desire, et cetera, that Clorox (the owner of Brita) take back Brita filters when we're done using them, so they don't end up in landfills. The petition is an unusually fine example of the form, by the way. Brita filters could conceivably be redesigned to be more reusable at home (says the Sierra Club), or they could be collected and reused by the parent company, as Brita's parent company in Europe already does. There are always options for corporations willing to be creative.

scary monsters and super creeps.

Did you know today was National Call-In Day on Iran? Neither did I, until Council for a Livable World told me. The November 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate found no evidence of nuclear weapon-building in Iran, and Bush Mobbers have been unable to link insurgent weaponry found in Iraq to Iran, but Tha Bush Mobb still wants war, even though an attack would backfire on the U.S. economy, even though Iran would be a lot harder to occupy than Iraq, even though the Iranians would likely circle the wagons around their broadly unpopular President and their broadly unpopular mullahs. But what is reason to the bold? 1.800.788.9372 is the number with which you may ask for direct and comprehensive talks with Iran. Talking with your enemies, as Richard Nixon would tell you, is not a sign of weakness -- only giving away the game is a sign of weakness. Does that mean Tha Bush Mobb fears that talking automatically leads to giving away the game? Does that mean they're afraid of talking, or of their own ability to talk? But then, if I were holding the hand they've dealt themselves, I might be afraid of talking, too.

The Senate finally begins debate on the Lieberman/Warner Climate Change bill, and Union for Concerned Scientists provides a contact tool with which you may ask for a better Lieberman/Warner Climate Change bill. Currently, the Lieberman/Warner bill is better than Mr. Bush's recent proposals, but so is farting into a bottle and burying it in the backyard. Specifically, the UCS supports amendments adding a renewable energy standard, increasing funding for international forest protection, and adding a mechanism for adjusting the bill's targets and timetables if the earth warms faster than we expect. The UCS also opposes amendments permitting a halt in emission reductions for economic reasons, pre-empting states from implementing stronger standards, and (as you read here last week) shoveling even more money toward coal and nuclear power. They all sound pretty good to me, and maybe they do to you, too.

And, finally, we have Mr. Kristol's "gentle" criticisms yesterday of Mr. Obama's Wesleyan speech. Done reading? Good. Lefty blogs have already flogged Mr. Kristol's absurd suggestion that $14,000 (sic) would be pretty good money in today's inflation-adjusted money -- and I bet Mr. Kristol would "forget" to adjust for inflation in calling the next Democrat-sponsored micro-percentage-point tax-increase "the biggest tax increase in history," just like the rest of his kind do. But worse than that, it just breaks Mr. Kristol's heart that Mr. Obama lists all kinds of service to one's country and doesn't mention military service -- thus suggesting that maybe Mr. Obama just doesn't love the troops as much as he says he does. I get to play the ad hominem card here: no armchair warrior who has ever suggested that those who disagree with him might be guilty of treason gets to call anyone on their attitude, real or perceived, toward the military. These neocons have really painted themselves into a corner. So why do they get paid so well to keep painting?

a man could get arrested.

California will become the second state in the U.S. to marry gays as of June 17, and in anticipation of a ballot referendum aiming to amend the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage, True Majority provides a petition supporting same-sex marriage. My position is the same as it's always been: I support same-sex marriage, and people who don't ought to take a look in the mirror and ask how much love they have in their hearts. It's that simple. I don't brook any rubbish about "having religious reasons for not supporting it" any more than I brook any rubbish about St. Paul endorsing plantation slavery. I don't brook any rubbish about this being an election year, either. The time to do the right thing is always now.

The "liberal" media continues to freeze out Winter Soldier hearings -- even as Congress mulls another supplemental war-spending bill, even as the Winter Soldier organizers, the Iraq Veterans Against the War, testify informally before the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Even right-wing blogs cover the Winter Soldier hearings -- so they can tear them down, of course, but they cover them. The link above contains contact information for certain "liberal" media outlets who might want to know they've been outworked by right-wing bloggers.

Last week, the U.S. State Department withdrew Fulbright grants from seven Palestinian students who live in the Gaza Strip, because Israel won't give the students exit visas. It's bad enough that Israel bullies Palestinians, but it's even worse that the U.S. caves in -- if we want a Palestinian state, still the U.S.'s stated goal, we ought to help those who would help build that state. And that's regardless of whether we "support" or "like" Hamas or not -- Hamas has a democratically-elected majority there now. Jewish Voice for Peace helps you email Condoleeza Rice, who has pledge to investigate the matter. No, I'm not going to say "if you think she cares what you think" -- I think there's a chance she actually does care what you think about this particular matter.

Tha Bush Mobb wants money for space-based weapons; the Union of Concerned Scientists helps you say no go to your Senators. I've always opposed space-based weapons because they don't work and would just funnel taxpayer money to big defense corporations, but, yes, it's also true that if we put weapons up there, then other countries would, too, and they would use them to take out satellites. Satellites are fairly important, as even cell-phone users know.