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.